On Tookie and on Life

A star studded movement to remove Stanley "Tookie" Williams's death sentence has only intensified over Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's head. The Associate Press reported today (December 1) that a California judge refused to grant clemency for the death row sentenced Tookie Williams.

What could possibly cause celebrities like Jamie Foxx, Mike Farrell and Snoop Dogg, as well as non-celebrities, to hold rallies in Los Angeles? Apparently the co-founder of the Crips gang is a changed and reformed man.

As his clemency petition sent to Governor Schwarzenegger states, "At San Quentin, Stanley Williams spent six years in isolation. Alone for the first time in his life, free from the threats and demands of the life he had lived, he looked into himself and found purpose. He openly renounced his prior life and gang violence. He educated himself. He became the messenger of hope, and of the futility and waste of violence. He found his own redemption."

Is this redemption factual? You be the judge. He openly renounced gang violence, but apparently other types of violence were acceptable. As reported on "Hannity and Colmes," he attacked the guards (throwing chemical substances into their faces) and got into many violent fights. This is after his six year period of "finding purpose" in isolation. He was even revealed to be a part of a plot to escape the LA county jail involving the planned murder of three people along the way.

As for his impact on others, it has been touted by many of his petitioners that he wrote childrens books. He even received a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize!

Joseph Phillips (you may know him from the Cosby Show) isn't so convinced. He reports "A quick review of Book Scan shows the Tookie series of books have hardly been blockbusters. His top seller, 'Gangs and Violence,' has sold 330 books. Another book, 'Gangs and Wanting to Belong,' sold exactly two copies."

As for the nomination for a Peace Prize, Adolf Hitler received the same distinction of being nominated for the award. It isn't really a good measure of the person's view toward humanity.

Should one bad decision condemn a man to death? There are consequences to actions. We have no control over these consequences, but we have control over the cause ... the original choice of action. Giving this man the life sentence instead of the death penalty warranted by the horrid crime of killing four other human beings is not a justice to society or the persons he murdered. We really can't make this decision on the extent of his reform in prison. The justification is not really there.

Phillips goes on to write: "Snoop, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover, Jamie Foxx and the other celebrity voices now raised in support of Williams offer a clear picture of the distorted moral vision of the Hollywood left. It is a vision that finds virtue contemptible and props up homicidal maniacs who write bad children's books as role models for the masses."

So should one bad decision condemn a man to death? Yes. One bad decision can have huge ramifications. It can be the difference between life and death ... in more than one sense of the word.

I believe Tookie Williams should be given the sentence warranted by his choices as determined within the extent of the law. If not, why even have a court?