As for [why I used my ability the way I did], I knew that:
A) I would die for reals if I was voted that day after being daykilled, because my revive would not have time to recharge.
"I killed someone to save myself."
B) Someone having more votes on them then me would make me safe. Yes, this was incredibly self-serving, but I feel like my powers could help town. Less so now that I've actually claimed them, but I think they can still help; turning the night game against Scum into an excruciating game of "Did I or didn't I, and if I did where?". Night WIFOM vs Scum, if you will.
"Despite the fact that town found me suspicious anyways I would rather save myself and muddy the waters than let town learn information from the various cases on day one in a move that is actually rather detrimental to town and would paint the person who hammered as the bad guy and not myself"
C) I didn't want to be responsible for killing either of them if they wound up town.
This is a pure and simple lie. "I didn't kill officer, I simply pointed a gun at two people, dropped a knife between them, and told them to fight to the death. The death isn't MY fault."
E) I essentially presented the two of them with a variation on Prisoner's Dilemma. If one votes the other, they survive the day. If anyone else considered them scummy, though, they didn't. If they managed to each vote each other simultaneously (they didn't), they'd both survive due to it becoming a tie and no-lynch.
Except in a prisoner's dillema there are only two people who can get hurt. Here, you risked town simply getting stuck in a second day one while Communists and, apparently, a serial killer ran rampant. Don't act like you gave anyone a choice.
F) I didn't trust either of them.
G) Whoever cast the hammer vote would come under suspicion from the whole town.
This, RIGHT HERE, is why I believe you to be a communist! You are a fool and liar. You JUST admitted that you did it to throw suspicion off of yourself!
I see desperation, but not suspicion (is it possible to suspect yourself?) It was a choice between me (a confirmed townie to myself) and Shakerag dying. In such a time pressured moment, I didn't at all feel comfortable saying 'yes okay let's let any one person decide who should die here.'
Quick hammering Shakerag wasn't necessary for me to win, but it sure seems like it helped!
Maybe it did, but it means that you were the hang-man, the one with blood on your hands now.
Try living with that when it makes everyone suspicious of you.
Again, you think that because YOU put the noose around Shakerag's neck and almost literally FORCED someone else to pull the lever the rest of the way [you having already mostly pulled it] takes suspicion off of you and puts it on them. No, you orchestrated the kill. The blood is on your hands.