Stop state-sanctioned murder
10/27/2005
We said it before and we’re saying it again: End capital punishment now!
Back in 2004, we made that call in relation to the case of Kevin Cooper, a man sentenced to die for the brutal ax murder of an entire family in Chino Hills.
But, as it turned out, enough evidence emerged of a biased and botched investigation by police, along with indications of other people being involved in the grisly murders, for an appellate court to order another review of the case. Now Cooper’s once sure guilt — and death — hang on the results of that probe.
In the meantime, however, California continues cleaning out its overpopulated Death Row, this time with gang-banger-turned-author and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Stanley “Tookie” Williams.
Williams, so ordered Monday by LA Superior Court Judge William Pounders, will die by lethal injection on Dec. 13 for the shooting deaths of four innocent people more than 25 years ago.
Like Cooper, Williams has maintained his innocence throughout his decades-long legal proceedings. Not only that, he and his friends claim that he was under the influence of PCP when he was arrested. Williams was sentenced to die in 1981.
But none of those arguments, nor the fact that Williams, who is black, was convicted by an all-white jury, seems to have moved any of the judges who have reviewed the case over the years and have denied Williams’ requests for reconsideration.
Nor does it seem to matter that there’s been a television movie made about the life of Williams, who, even the most ardent law-and-order advocate would have to agree, has truly transformed himself into not only an advocate for at-risk children but a peacemaker worthy of consideration for a Nobel Prize.
Back in 2003, then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, found that there was so much corruption and uncertainty in the way the state administered its death machinery that he pulled the plug on all pending executions and granted executive commutations to all 167 condemned men on Illinois’ Death Row.
Now comes California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of West Hollywood who is calling for a moratorium on imposition of California death sentences until a special commission can finish its study on the possibility of errors being made in the cases of our state’s 648 Death Row inmates.
Chances are, even if the bill passes, Williams will die. The only way now for Williams’ life to be spared is through executive clemency granted by another Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But Arnie’s record isn’t all that great when it comes to bucking his behind-the-scenes political handlers on most important issues, particularly those regarding law and order that might make him look like, well, a girlie man when it comes to dealing with crime.
It would be nice to know that Arnold has the political guts to match his bulging biceps, but we don’t think he does, which is too bad for Williams.
We don’t profess to know whether Williams is innocent or guilty. If he is guilty, he certainly deserves to be behind bars for life.
But we do know that Williams is a man, one who apparently has completely changed his life while behind bars. The fact that he is a human being worthy of redemption and forgiveness by people who profess to believe in the Judeo-Christian tenets that shape our society and collective moral conscience should be enough to spare Williams’ life. But if that isn’t enough, just think of all the corruption and wrongful convictions that Ryan’s investigation found in Illinois, all the while looking at only a quarter of the number of men currently waiting to die in California.
If there is just one chance that Williams and any of the other men waiting to be executed may have been wrongly condemned, we hope Schwarzenegger agrees that we have not just a duty but a moral obligation to demand that California stop killing people in our names.
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