Tookie Williams and More

I haven't been able to blog consistently for months. I don't know why that is. I don't know if I use work as an excuse, or if I really am too busy to keep up with this in a dedicated fashion. The thing is, keeping up this blog wears me out and yet it impassions me at the same time. It keep me aware and it allows me to feel connected to my cause and to my passion. Regular posting also attracted regular readers and those readers brought in other readers and together, through the grass roots of Internet blogging, we spread the word. Somehow though, I just haven't had the energy to write these last few months.

Tonight, I want to write. I want to write about a man I've never met but to whom I feel connected. California will shortly kill Tookie Williams. There is very little left that could spare him. The Gubernator was almost his last chance, and as politics goes, he was not about the spare Tookie because its not in his best interests politically (arguably!).

As you know, I am against the execution of any individual; however, I am APPALLED at the execution of Tookie Williams. I don't get it. What purpose does it serve? Tookie Williams could do more good for the morally bankrupt kids that end up getting sucked into Los Angeles gangs like the Crips than any other person alive. Tookie Williams changed his life from behind bars and he could serve so much good in showing others how to as well. What good can he do dead? Does his death REALLY show that California is serious about crime and will execute you if you do something it deems deserving of death? Does it really show that? How long was Tookie on death row? Do you even know? 25 years! Tookie Williams served on California's death row for 25 years. Now, after all that time, California thinks its time to kill him.

I don't know if there were errors in Tookie's trial. Even if there weren't critical legal errors, it was almost certainly racist and classist. Despite all that, sparing Tookie should have nothing to do with whether his trial was proper. It has nothing to do with whether he's innocent or guilty (and admitting guilt could be a double edged sword). Tookie Williams writes books to children and counsels teenagers about getting out of gang life. He reportedly spends his time in San Quentin trying to figure out how to save teenagers from entering a life (likely shortened life) of violent crime. There is some evidence that contradicts this and there are skeptics out there that believe that Tookie's books are all a scam and a way to try to get attention and prevent his death. I suppose they could be. That said, there are doubters of everything in this world (even obvious monstrosities). You will ALWAYS find someone with the opposite viewpoint on things. I don't know what the truth is, but I do know that Tookie's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times by reputable sources.

Is Tookie Williams a "good man"? I don't know (and how does one define a "good man"?). I do know that he should be given a chance. I do know that the chance that he could help even one person stay out of a gang is worth a shot. I would bet my everything I own that he would save more lives alive than dead. Pro-death penalty folks argue that his death will show gang members and other violent criminals that there is a penalty for murder. They say it will deter future murders. (Perhaps, but the evidence on deterrence is nominal to slim at best.) I tend to think that if Tookie Williams is as legitimately changed as he appears to be that he can do a lot more good and prevent a lot more murders if California just lets him live and continue his work.