Capital Punishment: Tookie’s Gone, Death Penalty Debate Rages On
The law was carried out in California last night, perhaps twenty years late. Though Tookie Williams evened up the ledger so far as the State of California is concerned, the debate rages on.
Why does it take so long to get from the court room to the execution chamber? So there is adequate time to erase any ambiguity that the sentence is being administered to the right person. Yet there are still examples of capital punishment where the wrong person is waiting on death row, even prompting one State’s Governor to declare a moratorium on the death penalty.
”I now favor a moratorium, because I have grave concerns about our state’s shameful record of convicting innocent people and putting them on Death Row. I can’t support a system which in its administration has proven to be so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare: the state’s taking of innocent life.”- Illinois Governor George Ryan January 2000 (Source: PBS)
There are those who say the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment. It is certainly cruel, but hardly unusual. There have been 1000 executions in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. A number of States are reviewing their death penalty laws in order to insure innocents are not executed.
There was enough doubt about Tookie’s case to ignite a serious debate, not only over Tookie’s guilt or innocence, but over the death penalty in California over all. Anti-death penalty supporters demonstrated outside San Quentin in the hours leading up to Tookie’s execution, but so did death penalty advocates.
Death penalty advocates point out that the victims are often forgotten in the debate. They believe there is a deterrence factor in the law, and advocate punishment, not rehabilitation. As the nightly news reports a seemingly endless stream of increasingly brutal crimes, one has to wonder if there is any merit to the deterrence argument, but the punishment idea has merit. Some are simply unfit to live amongst us.
Tookie’s gone, but the debate rages on. Though there is no longer a reason to debate the merits of his case, have no doubt the debate will continue over the State’s right to exact the ultimate punishment. Though it is not reasonable to expect a resolution anytime soon, it is reasonable to work towards laws that insure that innocent persons are not executed.
UPDATE:
Captain’s Quarters: A Prosecutor’s Rebuttal
(Thanks to reader Windybon)
RELATED:
Let Tookie Williams Die
Should Tookie Die? (Cast Your Vote)
Cross-posted at the SactoDan BLOG.
December 13th, 2005 at 9:42 am
Ed Morrisey at Captain’s Quarters has a really good post this morning regarding use of the death penalty. In it is a link to a Brookings Institute study that surprisingly finds that each execution deters eighteen potential murders.
December 13th, 2005 at 11:36 am
Thanks. We included it.
December 13th, 2005 at 3:22 pm
Tookie’s Legacy
I’m finally heading to bed at about 5:00 a.m. after being up most of the night covering the Tookie Williams execution on KRON4.com. Check us out. You can watch streaming video of all three panels of media witnesses as well…
December 14th, 2005 at 1:35 pm
[...] Simply Disturbing News From Planned Parenthood » Rebutting Pelosi, Murtha & Dean » California Assembly to Mull Moratorium on California Death Penalty » Not What the Doctor Ordered » The President’s Speech » Ronnie Earle:Political Hack » News From the Iraqi Theater, Part III » Doolittle is Trying to Protect Sacramento from A New Orleans-Type Disaster » Random Links: Instapundit-Style » For Sale: allthebeeryoucandrink.com » Sen. Obama Says Republicans Practice “Social Darwinism” » Showdown At the O.K. Corral? » Judge Clears Way For Border Fence » Conservatives Slay Civil Rights Leader » Capital Punishment: Tookie’s Gone, Death Penalty Debate Rages On » Murtha’s Wrong (Again) » U.S. Energy Debate: White House Pushes Congress on Alaska Drilling » Killer Klaus In New York » Operation Skinner: Major Success In Iraq » The Smackdown Continues List all posts » [...]
December 15th, 2005 at 12:07 am
THE DEATH OF AN AMERICAN TERRORIST
This is my response to the many misguided, “Hollywood†individuals who flocked to the “rescue†of Stanley “Tookie†Williams, who was put to death this week.
Stanley “Tookie†Williams, besides being a cold blooded killer, was the head of one of the largest anti-American terrorist organizations in the World, the “Crips Gangâ€Â. The Crips gang or terrorist organization was co-founded in South Central Los Angeles by Mr. Williams. The Crips are now located in cities all over the United States, reeking havoc and terrorizing innocent Americans. They deal drugs and sell stolen guns to children. They are involved in just about every criminal enterprise imaginable. They have terrorized many people and communities in our country, for decades!
They have cost our country billions of dollars over the last 20-30 years. If you don’t believe me, then factor in such things as low property values, which in-turn create lower tax revenues, auto and other insurance costs, court costs, graffiti removal, vandalism, medical costs, law enforcement costs and basically all other costs associated with gang crime in our country over the last couple decades.
The Crips and other gangs have cost this country and the tax payers more money in the last twenty to thirty years than the “War on Terrorismâ€Â, including the War in Iraq. Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center, in South Central Los Angeles was almost closed because of the enormous costs associated with treating the un-insured victims of gang violence. Martin Luther King Medical Center was loosing millions.
The Crips Gang and many like them, are responsible for countless attacks and murders of innocent men, women, children and police officers. Their total number of attacks and murders is probably higher than Al qaeda’s. I believe that many Crips, if not all of them, were involved in the looting and rioting which occurred during the Los Angeles Riots. More than six thousand structures were burnt to the ground.
The capture of Stanley “Tookie†Williams, the head of the Crips gang, was for Los Angeles the equivalent of the capture of Osama Bin Laden, the head of Al qaeda.
If Osama Bin Laden is responsible for all of the crimes and murders committed by Al qaeda, the organization he founded, then isn’t Stanley “Tookie†Williams responsible for all of the crimes and murders committed by the Crips? You bet he is!
Submitted by,
Jimmy Brousseau, LAPD-Retired
December 8th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Tramadol sale….
Tramadol sale….