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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
December 18, 2005
No better, or
worse, for death penalty |
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After 24 years
on Death Row and a last minute failure to get California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency, Stanley "Tookie" Williams
was put to death by lethal injection last Tuesday morning. As with
all death penalty cases, it made great news.
Capital punishment is a very volatile and emotional issue.
Those against it are just as passionate about it as those who oppose
it.
Williams was convicted of four counts of murder. The
co-founder of the Crips, one of our nation's most infamous street
gangs, was found guilty in 1981 for the 1979 murders of a
convenience store clerk and a family of three motel owners.
While serving time on death row, he wrote books for children
hoping to steer them from a life of gangs. A movie was made about
his life and his redemption. It was his effort to redeem himself
that made his death sentence so popular, even garnering him Nobel
Prize nominations. He had high profile movie stars, rappers, and
motivational speakers taking up his cause to avoid the death
penalty. At his midnight execution there were reports of 2,000
anti-death-penalty protesters outside the prison walls.
Because he was such a massive physical specimen, it took 36
minutes to complete the normally 15-20-minute, three-step
execution. A small contingent of Williams’ victims’ families was
witness to his death. However, there was no report of any large
number of supporters for the families of his victims. For once, I
would love to see a large group champion the cause for victims.
Williams went to his death proclaiming his innocence. After he
was pronounced dead, a few of his supporters shouted in unison, "The
State of California just killed an innocent man." As part of the
reason for denying clemency, Governor Schwarzenegger said it was
Williams' reluctance to own up to the killings or show remorse. He
also said, "Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and
brutal killings, there can be no redemption."
This case interests me only because on a smaller scale, there
is a "Tookie" Williams in my family. Like Williams, my relative is
a member of a street gang and is doing time for a senseless brutal
murder. Also like Williams, he refuses to admit his guilt. And
like Williams, he has a group of supporters who, despite the
overwhelming evidence against him, proclaim he is innocent.
Unlike Tookie Williams, my relative won't be put to death; he
won't be nominated for any prize by any member of our family; and he
won't serve a life sentence. He is scheduled to be released is less
than four years.
The big problem I have with the death penalty is the
inconsistency and lack of uniformity of the system. Some murderers
are sentenced to death and others get life without parole while some
serve short sentences. The “special circumstances” cases make no
sense, either. An innocent dead man is a dead man. It shouldn’t
make a difference if he was killed by a man committing a robbery or
by a man who was upset by personal problems. The same question can
be asked of other type crimes. Some child molesters get long prison
terms while others get probation.
Speaking before Tookie Williams was so carefully and humanely
put to death, someone asked, "Is America or California going to be a
better place after midnight?"
The answer is definitely not. But it's not going to be any
worse of a place either. |
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