Tookie Williams

The execution of former Crips founder Tookie Williams took place at 12:35am PST in California. Was the man sinful? Yes, as are we all. Did he commit wrongful doings? Yes, as have we all. But, has there been enough evidence to support his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt of the killings? No. Is there evidence to support otherwise? Yes. Three African-Americans were booted off the jury for his trial. The state prosecuting attorney made racist statements throughout the trial, comparing Williams and people of his ethnicity to bengal tigers at the zoo. So, to say that Tookie Williams received a fair trial is to say Jerry Springer wasn't a staged program. It simply is not true.

Williams was not perfect, but the man made the most of his time in prison, being a peace advocate, writing children's books, and being nominated for the nobel prize 5 times. The man spent his 24 years in prison trying to redeem what he was convicted of doing. I'm sorry to say this to those in denial over there in California and elsewhere who followed this execution, but a man who has spent 24 years in prison is not the same man after those 24 years that he was when he first entered the penitentiary. The man was devoted to write, speak out against gangs, and try to redeem himself for the rest of his days. So, why was it necessary to execute a man who was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he was in fact guilty, did not receive a fair trial, and had spent 24 years trying to speak out to this nation's youth with peaceful and anti-gang messages?

Now, I don't know how accurate the poll was, but I just checked out an AOL poll on if Williams' life should be spared. At the time, over 550,000 had taken part, 69% said no and 31% said yes. That simply amazes me. I wonder if it would have been the same if Tookie Williams was Anglo-American. I wonder if it'd be closer to 50-50 then. It makes me sick how many people support state-sponsored murder. Some will say, well it deters crime. That's false. After Canada, France, and many other countries abolished the death penalty, crime went down by quite a bit. The states in the U.S. who are without the death penalty have lower crime rates than those with it. In the months following an execution, crime increases around that part of the country. You just watch the news and expect to see some increased criminal activity in that part of California. If anything, state-sponsored murder increases criminal activity. Others will say that they don't want to spend their tax dollars to take care of someone in prison for life. Well, if you're really concerned about those tax dollars, then you should want the death penalty abolished, because the process of a capital case and eventual execution costs you millions of dollars more than just sending that person to a life term without parole. Look at the Williams case. That was not an open and shut case and it didn't take one night to execute him. That took 24 years of appeals, parole hearings, and then the eventual execution. Imagine how many millions of dollars that took to carry out. Others point to the bible and says, look, "An eye for an eye." Well, that was in the old testament and if you don't forget, in the new testament, it is said to "Turn the other cheek." So, no matter which way you want to go with that, you can find a passage to support your opinion. I will never support state-sponsored murder. The U.S. is now the only major industrialized country to still have the death penalty. The ones that abolished it? Lower crime rates than they had before and lower crime rates than the U.S. When someone slaps you in the face, the easy reaction is to slap back. When someone screams and yells, the easy reaction is to scream and yell back. When someone insults you, it's very easy to insult them in return. But, does that make it right? If you slap, scream, and insult back, the predicament will escalate in tension until a full on brawl ensues or someone has the strength and courage to back down, cool off, and try to prevent the brawl from happening. If this man did indeed kill four people, which he was convicted of doing, does it make it right to execute him? If one stoops below us to slap us in the face, for whatever reason, jealousy, a misunderstanding, anger, would we want to stoop as low as them by slapping them back? As is the old saying, "The strong ones walk away." People can talk to me about the bible all they want, but if I'm not mistaken, sin is about forgiveness. It's about redemption. According to this book, every sin is equal. So, a swear word I said yesterday or a lie someone told their parent is just as sinful as Tookie Williams' conviction of murder. If we want to go by that logic, since we're all sinful, we'd all be executed. Most will tell me, well, those aren't the same. No, they're not, but if someone wants to get into a religious debate with me, I will show them the bible, the scripture and passage where that's presented and I'll let them argue with God on that. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?" No, in the famous words of Mohondas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, "An eye for an eye makes the world blind." How true that is.