As I write this, on Sept. 22, I am ashamed to say I am an American. What has brought about this feeling of distress?

On Sept. 21, President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations in New York, pointing out to the world the progress for which we are striving to make this a world of peace, treating all human beings with equal care and respect, and bringing countries together to settle differences by negotiation, not war.

That same night, we “peaceful” Americans electrocuted Troy Davis, a black man accused of the crime of murder in 1989. For 22 years he had maintained his innocence, as did many who were convinced that he did not commit the crime. The powers that be would not consider overturning their decision.

In the 1900s the great French philosopher Albert Camus wrote: “But what, then, is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal’s deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared?”

Let us hope that, in our lifetime, the death penalty will become non-existent.

Phyllis Dow, South Paris