POP goes the weasel!!

So Tookie is dead.

Instead of a cap in his ass, he got the lethal in-jekshun.

Do we all feel better now?

I, for one, don’t feel a bit better now that the evil Tookie is no longer taking up space in San Quentin.

I heard Jerry Springer say today that we should have televised executions. What a great idea! And for any of you that object to this idea, I hope you are not pro-death penalty. If you are for the death penalty but you believe that the televising an execution is too horrific, don’t you need to consider if the act of execution itself is too horrific?

Stan Williams was convicted of a capital crime, for which the penalty was determined to be execution. Those are the current laws under which we (at least we in California) live. Changing this sentence, without any material change or addition to the evidence, seems arbitrary. Whether or not Tookie found Jesus, Jah, redemption, or lint in his navel is really a moot point. There is nothing in our law books that state redemption is a reason for clemency. Besides that, how could we prove his redemption? How would we measure the level of his redemption and who would decide to what level of redemption was appropriate to commute a death sentence? Ahh-nold ?? I think not!

The big question really is, does the death penalty deter criminals from committing capital crimes. A lot of information that I have seen says no (although the answer is not clear). Assuming the answer is no then why would we continue executions? The only reason that makes sense would be that we are simply executing out of spite. If we were living under a religious fundamentalist governmental system then our spiritual leaders would hand down these edicts to us and we would accept them. But we live in America where we decide our laws by a system of representative government that has certain checks and balances. Unfortunately for Tookie, our public will has not had the opportunity to express itself in time to provide him with any saving grace. Currently the country is split down the middle on the death penalty. However, the trend of public opinion is turning away from the death penalty.

I would agree that the question of deterrence is not a clear-cut answer. So, we move on to the simple fact of cost. There is a significant amount of evidence that shows that it is much more expensive to execute than it is to house a criminal for life. That being said, why not chose to be pragmatic, save the state money, and make these criminals live with their crimes, attempting find their own Personal Jesus (or not).

But in the end, if Stan “Tookie” Williams has honestly found his redemption then it matters not that we executed him. If he did not find redemption then we did him a favor by allowing him the coward’s way out.

Either way, he did not deserve our assistance with his path of life.

Keep it real!!