TOOK TOOK TOOKIE -- GOODBYE

The Governor of California decided not to grant clemency to Tookie Williams.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, the founder of the murderous Crips gang who awaited execution early Tuesday in a case that stirred debate over capital punishment and the possibility of redemption on death row. Williams, 51, is set to die by injection at San Quentin State Prison after midnight for murdering four people in two 1979 holdups.

Hollywood stars and death penalty opponents mounted a campaign to save his life, making him one of the nation's biggest death-row cause celebres in decades. His supporters argued that the founder of the murderous Crips gang had made amends during more than two decades in prison by writing a memoir and children's books about the dangers of gangs.

Prosecutors and victims' advocates contended Williams was undeserving of clemency from the governor because he did not own up to his crimes and refused to inform on fellow gang members. They also argued that the Crips gang that Williams co-founded in Los Angeles in 1971 is responsible for hundreds of deaths, many of them in battles with the rival Bloods for turf and control of the drug trade.

Williams stands to become the 12th California condemned inmate executed since lawmakers reinstated the death penalty in 1977 after a brief hiatus.

Williams was condemned in 1981 for gunning down a clerk in a convenience store holdup and a mother, father and daughter in a motel robbery weeks later. Williams claimed he was innocent.

When it comes to the death penalty, I am a hypocrite.

First, I am against the death penalty. I don't think the government should execute people.

That said, and here comes the hypocritical part, if a loved one of mine was murdered, I would want the person responsible to receive the death penalty. I would not want that person to live to see another sunrise.

I try to be consistent in terms of upholding the sanctity of life.

Although there is a dramatic difference between killing innocent life, (like slaughtering the unborn, or sentencing a disabled individual, such as Terri Schiavo, to death by starvation and dehydration), and executing a murderer, someone with blood on his hands, I still can't support the death penalty -- in theory.

It is wrong to take a life for a life.

However, when I take the matter out of the abstract and think of it in concrete terms, when I think of someone I love being taken away from me, I would want the killer dead.

Since I've never been in that position, I can't be certain; but I doubt that I could muster the Godliness it would take to forgive.

So, I think the death penalty should be abolished; yet I would want it enforced if my loved one was murdered.

I'm a hypocrite.

More than any other moral issue, I struggle with the death penalty. I know what stance I should take; but I know what stance I would take if I lost someone dear to me.

When it comes to the specifics of the Tookie Williams case, I am unfamiliar with the intricacies of the matter, so I am limited in my comments.

I will say that I think it is a despicable affront to the memories of Tookie's victims that the Hollywood community has turned the man into a saint.

He wrote a few books. So what?

I guess Tookie didn't realize that being an author was a career option when he founded the Crips.

His supporters claim that Tookie is such a positive force in the effort to direct young people away from gangs that it would be a crime to silence this good man.

While I do not think Tookie should be executed (in theory), I cannot stand his canonization by the Left. He's not a hero. In all likelihood, he directly and indirectly destroyed many more lives than he could ever hope to save.

Perhaps the ultimate, best message that Tookie can hope to send to the young people who are gang members or those contemplating joining a gang will be made at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday.

Choices have consequences.


The New York Times is already mourning the loss of Tookie.