Posted on 12/03/2005 5:52:39 PM PST by bikepacker67
THE celebrity rush to save the life of convicted murderer and gang founder Tookie Williams may be the best argument yet for eliminating the death penalty. Dead, he's a martyr; alive and confined for life, he's just another nobody.
I have no wish to further elevate Williams in the public eye, but the circus surrounding his Dec. 13 execution date forces reflection.
First my bias and other disclaimers: I'm a relatively recent convert from the slow-gas-leak solution to death row crowding to a reluctant capital punishment opponent. I oppose the death penalty for one reason: The state makes mistakes, and one innocent murdered by the state is too many.
Do I think Tookie is innocent of killing four people? No, I don't. All appeals to higher courts, including the reliably liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, confirm that his trial was fair and his verdict just.
Does he deserve to live? My emotions say "no." My reason skips to a different question, one that National Journal White House correspondent Carl Cannon posed in the National Review (June 19, 2000) article that helped shift my thinking:
"The right question to ask is not whether capital punishment is an appropriate — or a moral — response to murders," Cannon wrote. "It is whether the government should be in the business of executing people convicted of murder knowing to a certainty that some of them are innocent."
That certainty has been established by DNA tests showing that many death row inmates did not commit the crimes for which they were convicted. Case closed.
The painful part of this position is that we who oppose capital punishment on these grounds have to breathe the same air as the celebrities, political panderers and other hankie-twisters who materialize every time a "Tookie" runs out of options and faces a far more humane death than that which he delivered to others.
To refresh your memory, Tookie — who founded the notoriously vicious Los Angeles gang the Crips — was convicted of killing four people during a murder-and-robbery spree in 1979 that netted him roughly $250.
His first victim was Albert Owens, a store clerk in Whittier, whom Tookie murdered to eliminate witnesses and "because he was white." The others were an elderly Chinese couple and their daughter, whom Williams referred to as "Buddha-heads." All were shot at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun. Williams' defenders insist he is reformed and point to children's books he has written in prison urging kids to stay away from gangs. They also point to his 1997 statement apologizing for his role in glamorizing gang life, though he never apologized for his crimes.
The usual suspects have mobilized on his behalf, including Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Danny Glover, Jesse Jackson, Snoop Dogg (a fellow former Crip),'60s radical Tom Hayden and Mario Cuomo.
Perhaps some of these celebrities share the same concerns I've expressed. But others, including an activist visiting California schools in recent days to enlist children in a "Save Tookie" campaign, make it difficult to steady one's hands and stick to one's convictions.
Stefanie Faucher, projects director for the grass-roots group Death Penalty Focus, stopped at an Oakland high school, where she told students there was little evidence to convict Williams, despite what all those courts and judges had to say. Faucher left with 29 letters petitioning the governor for clemency.
It seems clear that the courts have done their job and that Williams is guilty. But it is also abundantly clear that the dramas surrounding such executions grant celebrity status to the least deserving among us.
Our first principle should be never to kill an innocent person, and thus err on the side of life. We thus liberate ourselves from involuntary servitude as audience to those for whom death row has become a stage.
Finally, killers such as Tookie Williams, condemned to life without parole, vanish into the hell of obscurity where they belong.
Your mercy is misplaced. I have no more to say.
Somehow people in prison seem to come up for parole hearings every once in a while, and even get let out from time to time. Tookey has lived 25 years longer than the innocent people he murdered. Allowing him to continue writing books and doing interviews disrespects the lives of those he took away.
How far do we carry this logic? At some point we, as
private citizens, are at more risk from the freed guilty
than being executed for a crime we didn't commit.
Bingo!
Who claimed he was innocent?
Who said anything about freeing the guilty?
Tim McVey's quickie changed my mind.
You said: I think the people will speak again and this time it will be against the death penalty.
***
If the people speak through their legislators that the death penalty should be abolished, I will respect that decision, whether I personally agree or not. One fear that will remain is what will happen next, if death penalty is ended. I anticipate that the next attack will be on life without parole. It will be likened to death, a slow death, without opportunity for later mercy, except by clemency. The same errors that could possibly result in the death penalty wrongly imposted could result in a life sentence wrongly imposed, and why should the state kidnap people in the name of justice... etc. etc.
DNA evidence isn't always certain. I saw a show on the Discovery channel recently about people who essentially carry around two separate sets of DNA. Some cells have one type, some cells another. One went through a long legal battle because a child that she delivered could not be legally proven as her child because it wasn't a DNA match.
And I bet with him knowing he is a lifer and not needing to continue to with the good behavior sham, the contracts will be out.
Waste him. The way Tookie wasted four others. Actually Tookie should die four times to atone for his crimes so he's getting off easy
Waste him meaning trial and execution by the State of California
No doubt at all.
Read the article, this is in completely different context as to whether Tookie is guilty or not. In fact, the author makes it quite clear that they think Tookie is guilty.
The particular reason I'm against the death penalty is that once applied, it is not reversible. If someone is exonerated, the situation can be rectified to a degree if the person is still alive, if they are dead, nothing can be done.
Now, let's say my argument carries the day and people rise up and convince their elected officials to do away with the death penalty. How does this lead us to convicted murderers being set free?
(sorry for being redundant and saying the same thing multiple times over and over)
I believe in capitol punishment for murderers, he was on death row 20 years too long.
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