Tookie Williams' timeout

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.

You said: 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?
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Our discussion is not the beginning of this issue. The Constitution very clearly recognizes the potential imposition of the death penalty. Liberal voices (don't let me paint YOU with that brush, but on this issue you are aligned with them)have been chipping at the death penalty for a very long time. For a time, the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional, although this travesty was rectified in 1976. My belief is that whatever is the most severe punishment meted out under our law, the liberal/pro-criminal defense side will argue that it is cruel and unusual punishment. Surely you don't expect them to retire from the fight if the death penalty were eliminated again. There is no longer forced labor in prisons, corporal punishment has been eliminated and many say that prisoners are often given too easy a ride in prison-- cable TV, etc. I am not sure I would go that far, but the nature of the debate is such that we can expect a strong argument that to incarcerate someone for life, without parole, is tantamount to death. Life in prison doesn't mean life in prison, unless "without possibility of parole" is added. Juries are not told this, and in fact, cannot be told this in trials.

Ours is not a perfect system, but it is a darn good one, death penalty included. It is easily avoided.... just don't commit premeditated murder.

I don't buy her argument that the State run by people has to be infallible. We as a society take risks all the time. We know 50,000 people a year will die driving their cars. We implicitly assume the convenience of driving cars is worth at least 50,000 lives. Carrying out the death penalty to murders convicted by a jury of their peers is safeguard enough. Yes, some innocent person may die and that is tragic; however, I think it will be very rare and certainly more rare than the number of innocent people who die on the freeway every year.

It is time to recall exactly what Tookie did to get sentenced to death.

In 1979 "Tookie" murdered four innocent, defenseless people with a sawed-off shotgun at point blank range. During his first murder he ordered a 7-eleven store clerk into the back room and told him to "lie face down on the floor you mother----er." He then walked over to this young man and shot him in the back at contact range with the shotgun. The rush of blood into the victims lungs and throat made a horrible gurgling sound and the man struggled to breathe. "Tookie" then fired another killing round into the man's back -- again at contact range. Later that evening he bragged about the murder and laughed while recalling the agony, gurgling sounds and the desperate gasping of the victim.

Eleven days later "Tookie" broke into a small motel at 5:30 in the morning. When confronted by the owner he shot the man point blank in the face with the same shotgun. He broke into the owners' bedroom and shot and murdered his wife at point blank range with the shotgun. When their daughter came running to their rescue he shot and brutally killed their only daughter with the same powerful shotgun. Then he calmly raided the cash register and drove away with a hundred dollars -- the only receipts for the evening.

"Tookie" was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for these wanton, brutal acts of murder. During the sentencing phase of his trial he looked over to the jury and mouthed "I will get everyone of you mother----ers."

This heroic jury did not flinch. They at great personal risk to themselves and their families meted out a "guilty" verdict even though the leader of the most notorious gang in America with thousands of gang members to do his bidding threatened to ..."get everyone of you mother----ers."

Tookie Williams has never been remorseful, he has never apologized to the families of his victims, he refuses to accept responsibility for his actions. He still claims to be an innocent man, framed and convicted by an all white jury. This is a blatant lie that Tookie Williams repeated last week on the MSNBC Rita Crosby interview. (There was a black and a latino on the jury.) The jury members still live in fear of this wanton, unrepentant monster. It is time for this man to quit threatening society.

Tookie is not a victim. The real victims are like that freckled-face young man, with a ready smile for everyone, working at that 7-eleven store when Tookie Williams walked in 26 years ago. Tookie Williams smote the life out of that young man and his mother has been gasping for closure ever since. She has been horribly injured, her pain is too great to bear, the cuts to her heart are too deep, and her wounds will never heal.

Tookie Williams How to book,

Let's see if I got this right(sarcasm). If I start up a new thieving, murdering gang banger cult, kill some innocent people, get on death row, write some childrens books, get endorsed by vacuous celebs eventually I'll get nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize?!!

I guess being an honor roll student, getting a college degree and living my life as a well mannered, civilized, compassionate citizen of America doesn't cut it any longer. Oh Lord, deliver me from evil.

Tookies murder victims didn't get a second chance to write books, get endorsed by celebs or LIFE period. How come we never ever ever see or hear of any celebs speaking on behalf of the murder victims? Why?! Because they live vicariously through the sin of the criminals they endorse. Just like the disturbed female psychophants who become pen pals to male prisoners or worse, their wives.

VICTIMS RIGHTS NOW !

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