MY TWO CENTS ON TOOKIE: I'm against the death penalty. I believe in the sanctity of life, that a society must make laws and endorse practices that celebrate and embrace and protect life, even the life of a murderer. That said, if we're going to have a death penalty (which, again, I'm against), it certainly seems like Tookie Williams is the kind of guy that should receive it.
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6 comments:
Why do you think that? Honest question.
I don't know much about the case. He murdered four people in 1979. He spent the last twenty years or so speaking out and writing about the horrors of gang violence.
Seems to me if the State was going to impose the death penalty for one person, it'd be one of those no-remorse, "I'd do it all again in a heartbeat" murderers. I feel like we've got plenty of them filling up our court system, no?
My two cents on Tookie, I understand your opposition to the death penalty but I for one think it is a necessary evil. There are some people whose life isn't worth celebrating. They are just evil.Tookie got caughtfor these murders. As co-founder of one of the most violent vicious gangs in the history of this country how many more murders was he responsible for. Its amazing how people get religion once they are in prison with their lives on the line and will do anything say anything to save their a--es. Tookie got to live some twenty years longer (playing the system) then the people whose lives he so ruthlessly took. There have been appx.1000 executions since the death penalty was reinstated (by the overwhelming majority of American citizens). There have been tens of thousands of murder victims. Lets celebrate some of their lives and not someone who would execute four people for a couple of bucks. Lets protect people from people like him. Santity of life didn't mean much to him.
Zed
I hear you, Zed. I just can't reconcile my aversion to murder with supporting the death penalty.
I'm pro-victim. I have no time for the bullshit artists like Jesse Jackson who use Tookie and others to grandstand. Frankly, I have to desire to see Tookie at all. He's disqualified himself from society. I agree with the attorney the other night who said to Mike Farrell, and I'm paraphrasing, why are you consistently more invested in protecting the lives of murderers than the lives of their victims...
Ike, here's why I think it:
No contrition for the murders he committed.
Founded or at least led one of the most violent criminal enterprises in the history of our country.
Heard many anecdotes from neighbors (on CNN) that he was a cold-blooded killer, a violent man who had no regard for his fellow man.
Murdered not because of passion or mistake or any such thing, but during the commission of a crime.
I don't think it's worth arguing who's more or less worthy of the death penalty. Bottom line, I don't support the death penalty. But if we as a society will continue to execute, Tookie strikes me an appropriate candidate. That's all.
May he rest in peace, btw. More importantly, may his victims and their families find peace. (I'm not so sure this execution is the pathway to that peace, fwiw. This may sound silly to some, but I tend to believe that forgiveness, not vengeance, is the true and only path to peace.)
That whole forgiveness thing is where we Christians come from, but having said that, there is also the belief that one must pay "society" for one's mistakes, and in this case that has been determined to be the death penalty. I do agree with you that the death penalty is hard to reconcile with, but I identify with Zed, just imagine if this was someone who had murdered your son, father, mother, or brother for absolutely no reason. Bottom line for me, Tookie has met his maker, and that is where the final judging takes place. May God have mercy on his soul!
Scott - Okay, I'm with you, in both of your statements (anti-death penalty, Tookie seemed like an appropriate candidate if there were a death penalty)
Cool, Ike.
It's interesting...when I was younger I used to miss out on the fact that the convicted killer -- who would be in the spotlight in the 11th hour of a death sentence -- was actually a killer, a horrible, horrible person who had hurt not just his victim, but also the victim's family, his own family, his friends and neighbors, etc. and etc. I used to be so fixated on the fact that we, the state, were going to kill someone, that I would generate massive, massive sympathy for the condemned person. While I won't say that my sympathy for the condemned has disappeared, it's certainly faded somewhat, filled in by a greater sense of compassion and sympathy for the victim and his/her extended community.
That said, I guess, the older I get, the more I've moving toward a point of view that feels that abortion is wrong, the death penalty is wrong, and no amount of rhetoric or rationalization can make it otherwise in either case. While I still don't support making abortion illegal (for the simple fact that it denies a woman the right to control her own body), I do favor the abolition of the death penalty.
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