As I write this, convicted murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams is scheduled to die after Midnight tonight by lethal injection at San Quentin Prison in California, a sentence which was handed down by a jury 24 years ago.
Much has been said about Williams, including comments from those who wished him to be spared from the will of the people on behalf of the four victims who died at his hands, as well as those who strongly believe that justice for Albert Owens, Thsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang, and Yee Chen Lin must be served.
Count me among the latter.
For all the fervor expressed by the usual celebrities, the race warlords, the radical left, and sadly, those who are morally opposed to the death penalty (whom, IMHO, are using the wrong vehicle to advocate their cause), California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Supreme Court, and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have agreed with the People that Williams must pay for his crimes as judged by a court of law. For all the protests, all the last-minute appeals, and all the false cries of the death penalty being racist, an unrepentant man will meet his well-deserved punishment.
Why should I care?
Well, I do have a few reasons:
* In the Spring of 1981, I was walking home from John Muir Junior High School in South Central Los Angeles. A crowd of older boys in mostly blue garb walked up behind me as I crossed Vermont Avenue and 67th Street. They engaged in light conversation, and then, for no reason at all, they began throwing punches and kicking me. As I took off running for my life, I can remember the malt liquor bottle zooming inches past my head in an attempt to deliver a life-threatening blow.
I was jumped by a group of boys who were being initiated into the Rolling 60s Crips gang.
* Later that year, I came home to the two-story house on West 70th Street between Normandie and Vermont where I lived as a kid. I was privileged to have a small bedroom to myself. That evening I felt a draft, but the French windows were closed. I noticed a small hole in the heavy glass, then I noticed a bullet lodged in the wall across from the window.
I was lucky that night. There was a shooting, possibly related to a fight from either the Rolling 60s or the Eight-Trays. Both are Crip gangs that bordered my old neighborhood.
* In the Spring of 1988, I mourned the death of a childhood friend who I grew up with (his foster parent used to babysit me while my parents worked during the day). He was gunned down by the Inglewood Crips in a drive-by shooting. Prior to his death, he had been approached by gang recruiters who wanted him to join up. Having just married and seeking to be a responsible father to his newborn child, he said no to them. They didn’t like his answer.
* Ten years ago, my cousin, an ordained minister, was visiting friends. He and his wife had just returned from their honeymoon. As he left, he was approached by a teen who shouted out to him, “What set you from?” My cousin replied that he wasn’t with a gang set. The next moment, he was on the ground, wounded from being shot in the left shoulder at close range.
After three years of physical therapy, he regained use of his left arm and hand.
The shooter, who happened to be a member of the Bloods, was never caught for the crime.
I know that “Tookie” didn’t personally order these crimes to be committed. However, as a co-founder of what became known as the Crips, he helped spawn a legion of psychopaths who committed heinous crimes for crime’s sake. These domestic terrorists, along with their rivals, have brought needless death and destruction upon the communities of Los Angeles and beyond.
Those who are involved with saving “Tookie” often cite his efforts at “redemption”, namely his anti-gang books for children, his “peace protocol” for gang intervention, and his alleged renunciation of his gangster past. However, as Schwarzenegger stated in his clemency decision, “without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings there can be no redemption.”
“Tookie” has never shown remorse for the crimes he committed. By feigning innocence, refusing to cooperate with law enforcement to help stop the violence, and by falsely taking on the role of a martyr, he willfully refuses to accept responsibility for his actions.
Such behavior is not fitting for a peacemaker, but for a coward.
It’s amazing that cold-blooded murderers are fearless when they rob an innocent bystander of life; but when it’s their turn to die, they are quick to beg for mercy.
I have absolutely no sympathy for Stanley “Tookie” Williams as he prepares to die this evening. I feel no joy tonight as his death will do little to take away my painful memories of childhood and youth. Also, Williams’ well-deserved demise will neither bring back my childhood friend, nor erase my cousin’s physical pain which he must live with for the rest of his life.
However, it is my hope that the families of his victims (known and unknown) may find peace and closure when justice is served after Midnight.
I will shed no tears for “Tookie”, and quite frankly, you shouldn’t either.
Update: baldilocks confronts a Williams apologist, and Cobb reflects on “Tookie’s” South Central L.A. in the 1970s. David Anderson also recalls growing up in the ‘hood and surviving the Crips.
Update #2: Justice Served. And there was no rioting.
Your blog is a good arguement against the death penalty, the death penalty given every day without judge, jury, attorney or appeal. I have no love for the anti death penalty crowd because they don’t see the daily carnage as anything they should be concerned with. I only hope they never have to face the spawn of Tookie and his ilk, they would probably piss all over themselves.
I would bet that those celebrities that fought for clemency live in houses with high walls and expensive alarm systems to protect themselves from people like tookie.
All I can say is … Wow.
Powerful stuff, there, D.C.
Had yet to see this argument in
quite such poignant terms.
Thanks.
Thank you for a thoughtful piece of writing on the subject. It is better by far than most of what I saw on TV last night.
Howdy,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on how it was growing up in an area that was subjected to gang violence. I have never experienced that, however fortunatley through the blogs I am able to see the other side of what was created here.
Dave
This is a fantastic post.
I supported clemency, but I would be lying if I said that Tookie
did not deserve what he got. Justice was served.
Those stories from your childhood are amazing.
The closest I can get is that I went to a magnet program in a high
School on the west side of Fresno. I heard shootings and saw projects
but nothing like where you grew up.
God Bless you and have a Merry Christmas!!!
Two points…
First about the death penalty, I’m a conservative/libertarian who is opposed. I think it’s a hold over from a time when justice and retribution were often confused.
Second, about this particular case, the man has maintained his innocence from the beginning, why would he havee to show atonement and apologize if he actually is innocent? Just a question.
All that said, I just couldn’t generate the interest in this case that so many have had. I have enough fith in the system to beleive that he did commit these crimes, and the sentence was legal.
THANK YOU for your commentary. Too many people are swept up in the
“sympathy for the devil”.
Its about time, only 25 years what a waste of the taxpayers money? This guy was a punk as he did the crime but couldnt do the time and for ANYBODY dumb enough to believe he was innocent I have a large parcel of ocean front land in Nebraska I will sell you!
You’re on the mark.
Though I still can’t comment directly (God, I miss my blog on days like this!), I can say that I’m proud of you and all my CB bretheren.
M
KG: Please read this and this (Warning: graphic photos).
Tookie’s claim of innocence was nothing but a selfish act to help garner sympathy. He was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, and the evidence proves his guilt.
He had the opportunity to atone and apologize, and he chose to blow it. As a result, his arrogant pride died with him in the execution chamber.
End of the “innocence” discussion.
DC - I didn’t say that he was innocent, as I said, my faith in the system assures me that he was in fact guilty.
I have mixed feelings about the death penalty, but yours sure is a compelling argument in favor of it.
KG: My bad.
My appologies for contributing so late…
1) I have no “faith in the system”. This is after all a system where racist men in the south could commit crimes at will against anyone of a darker shade and not worry abut being convicted.
2) It is highly unlikely that black men, which don’t even make up 1/3 the population of this nation are purpetuators of 3/4s of the crimes herein. Yet they make up just under 3/4s of the prison population.
3) Jury of peers. It’s a psycological fact that people tend to show empathy toward people “more like themselves”. It would be interesting to know what the make up of the convicting jury was.
4) White men have been acquitted of charges when there was far more compelling evidence against them than black men who were convicted of crimes with little or no evidence.
5) Black and hispanic men tend to receive harsher punishment for the same crimes than do white men.
Given all of this it’s hard for me to say that Tookie was guilty as charged. While there is no doubt that he did some terrible things, it’s completely possible that he’s innocent of that for which he was convicted. Which raises the question of wheter he should die for a crime that he didn’t commit based on the fact that we know he did commit other crimes?
I’m against the death penalty because the system is flawed. Man is far from infallable and to submit the mortality of a person to such fallability is woefully irresponsable at best.
GCW: Please read this and this (Warning: graphic photos).
I’ll reply at length later.
Read it..I’m still not convinced that he was guilty. Even if we knew without a doubt that he was guilty, it wouldn’t change the point that the system is fallable. Too many men and women (most of them people of color) have died at the hands of a vastly flawed system.
There was a time in our country’s history when a man was innocent until proven guilty. Now it seems that men are assumed guilty based on many things including economic status, social standing, pedigree, aliances, acquaintences, etc.
Understand that I’m not saying Tookie was a saint… nor that he was a “good person”. I believe that he committed crimes and egregious trespasses against he fellow man. With that said; 1) I’m not so certain that he was guilty of the crime for which he was convicted 2) don’t believe that the use of the death penelty is appropriate period.
I’m going to say the following and close this thread:
1. Tookie Williams was guilty as sin. He was tried by jury in a court of law and was presumed innocent until proven guilty at the time. Had he been white, affluent, aligned with “the right people”, etc., he still would have been found guilty. Therefore, he paid for his crimes with his life. If he didn’t want to die, then he shouldn’t have committed murder.
2. The anti-death-penalty crowd doesn’t seem to care about the pain and anguish suffered by the victims of murder and their survivors. To say that the killers of their loved ones should be spared from capital punishment is a slap in the face to them. Unfortunately, many anti-DP types have never suffered the loss of a loved one due to a thug acting as judge, jury, and executioner in a selfish act of self-gratification.
3. I submit to the anti-DP crowd, that if they wish to have their cause taken more seriously, they need to seek out more valid cases where the death penalty may be inappropriate in cases where one’s culpability might be called into question, such as the case of Cory Maye. To date, I have yet to hear about the anti-DP crowd coming to his rescue. I guess being a murdering gang banger carries more weight with them than a law-abiding citizen who acted in self-defense.
Do you want to lobby for a man on death row who’s TRULY innocent? Cory Maye needs your help, GCW. Right now.
As for the Tookie Williams case, any further argument is moot. Dead man, dead topic.