Unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, which is unlikely, he will die at 12:01 a.m. tonight.
My view: A purely political decision and an unbelievably disappointing one, for the reasons I last stated here in a message to Arnold.
Clemency is about mercy. It is an act of grace. You have the opportunity to stop a needless killing. Tookie's execution will not bring the victims back. It will not heal. The welfare of the people of California is best served by the message clemency would send -- one of hope to the tens of thousands of disadvantaged young people your administration has professed to care so deeply about. A denial of clemency will send a message of despair.
You hold a human life in your hand. We've seen enough killing. Please choose life for Tookie.
I am so sick of hearing the ex-prosecutor legal analysts on tv saying the evidence against him was so strong without mentioning it was from jailhouse informants and others with an incentive to lie. People should read the clemency petition and reply.
Attytood on Why Tookie Should Live
To truly oppose the death penalty, one must oppose it not just for the innocent or the remorseful, but for the most vile scum among us. The idea of a government taking someone's life is offensive to our core religious beliefs -- and most likely to yours as well. A so-called Christian fundamentalist who supports capital punishment is going through more twists than a South Philly pretzel. Even the Pope -- and maybe even Rick Santorum -- can get this one right.
Beyond that, there is no practical reason to kill Tookie Williams. It won't bring back Albert Owens, Yen-Yi Yang, Tsai-Shai Yang or Yee-Chen Lin. There's no evidence that capital punishment is a serious deterrent to murder. It costs more of our tax dollars and yours to execute someone like Tookie Williams than it does to keep him locked up.
Also check out the Center for Wrongful Convictions which has a report on innocent people sentenced to death row based on testimony provided by those with an incentive to lie -- snitch testimony:
The report highlights 51 cases of Americans who were wrongfully convicted and given death sentences based on the testimony of witnesses with incentives to lie. According to the Center, snitch testimony is the primary cause for approximately 45% of all wrongful capital convictions, making it the leading problem resulting in innocent people being sent to death row.
Update: More reactions:
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP):
“By every account, Mr. Williams has sought to make amends for the
harm that he has caused and indeed may have done as much or more to
stem the tide of violence than many who say this is their concern,”
Rust-Tierney continued. “A system which has no room for rehabilitation, no room for mercy regardless of the extraordinary contributions that an individual has made is not a system that we can square with our other values. If this execution proceeds, we will be saddened but not deterred. This is all the more reason to push forward to end the death penalty.”
A TalkLeft reader from England who had trouble logging in to comment:
I wish to record my abhorrence of the state murder of a person, no matter what he has done. In justice, the governor of the state should, as the person to confirm the sentence, be the only person who kills Tookie. I look forward to his next film. CGK
Amnesty International:
By refusing to stay Williams’ execution, Gov. Schwarzenegger has failed to demonstrate genuine leadership on this issue. In his prepared statement, he said that he was placing his trust in California’s criminal justice system, which the Senate Commission is currently investigating. Last year, the legislative body recognized the pervasive flaws plaguing the system and tasked the Commission with discovering and exposing the potentially lethal errors and bias that have metastasized throughout the state’s administration of the death penalty.
As California’s highest-ranking public official, Gov. Schwarzenegger has an obligation to guarantee that all of the state’s laws are applied equally to everyone—even people on death row. But today, he abandoned that responsibility and left the more than 640 death row inmates to fend for themselves in the state’s broken system. According to the Santa Clara Law Review, California’s death penalty system is incapable of providing equal protection because it lacks “… the basic safeguards to avoid capricious, erroneous, and discriminatory application of the death penalty.”
James Wolcott:
The death penalty must be abolished. No former movie action hero--or Yale cheerleader with enough psychological baggage to sink the African Queen--should be entrusted with the power of life and death over his fellow citizens. These are essentially frivolous, uninformed men playacting blue-suited roles of grave responsibility. And, no, I don't think Bill Clinton should have executed Ricky Ray Rector either. Capital punishment must be de-politicized, and as long as politicians make the final decision, depoliticization is impossible. So abolish it.
