Execution of Williams is Wrong
I think it is wrong at this point to execute "Tookie" Williams. I generally support the death penalty for people who commit crimes such as those of Williams (or worse), but I think there ought to be a time frame in which the punishment must be carried out. Twenty-five years later, you are not the same person you were, and the punishment no longer represents justice, but revenge.
Something must be done to speed up executions to, I would say, at most one year from the date of sentencing. If this cannot be done, then the case was not solid enough to warrant the punishment of death.
I'm sorry, Tookie, may you have peace when this is done.
Something must be done to speed up executions to, I would say, at most one year from the date of sentencing. If this cannot be done, then the case was not solid enough to warrant the punishment of death.
I'm sorry, Tookie, may you have peace when this is done.
5 Comments:
I agree that often people are not the same twenty-five years later. However, Williams was totally unrepentant-- he wouldn't acknowledge his crimes and he wouldn't apologize. Those children's books he wrote? They sold like 300 copies. He did nothing to atone for his crimes. I think he probably still had the same hatred in his heart that led him to commit his crimes. Not that this in and of itself warrants death, but the point is that I don't think Williams was much different than he was when he killed those four people -- just older.
However, twenty-five years to carry out justice is ridiculous. At that point, Williams should have been allowed to live out his life in prison, if that's what he wanted.
It seems odd to me that this is a man people rally around. He was an unrepentant beast. He murdered 4 people whose only transgression against him was that they had the courage to pursue the American dream by going to work while Tookie felt he was owed more than that. He lived the way he wanted, and in the end, that cost him his life. It’s a shame it took 25 years for his sentence to be carried out, but I am fearful of too many steps designed to curtail constitutional rights.
What really amazes me is how the left can support this killer and who generally are lenient towards those who commit crimes, but who wish to pass all kinds of laws (most obvious gun control laws) to “protect us” from criminals.
Otter
The problem with speeding up the timeframe for death penalty cases is that we do, in fact, convict innocent people of murder and sentence them to die. Barry Scheck (actually one of O.J. Simpson's lawyers) has a project going where he takes old cases and reexamines the evidence with modern DNA technology. To date, he has freed almost a hundred people from prison - several from death row.
I realize that. I think there needs to be some sort of balance between carrying out the sentence in an expeditious manner or changing the sentence to life in prison. Twenty five years is too long.
I think many or most on death row should have life instead. In some cases though, death should be the sentence, and it should come quickly.
Ted Bundy comes to mind. Pretty much anyone who is guilty of murder beyond any shadow of a doubt (caught on video, witnessed by many etc).
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