Tookie Didn’t Deserve To Die!

J.J. Jackson* | December 14, 2005

At least Erwin James thinks so. Well, Mr. James, whether or not Tookie deserved to die is subject to opinion, personal beliefs, and maybe speculation. One thing is for certain: Tookie’s victims definitely did not deserve to die!

But, of course, Tookie was a product of his society. None of his activities were his fault:

He was an individual with a limited formal childhood education, and from an early age he embraced violence and crime as a way of life. During his teens, and until he was convicted of murdering four people in 1979, he considered the street his home. He became infamous for co-founding the notorious Los Angeles street gang, the Crips.

You see, if the school Tooke attended gave him a better education, he would not have co-founded the Crips, but maybe he would have been an astronaut or something. God forbid either of his parents raised him better. Dang it, it is society’s fault!

Later on, in prison - Williams spent 26 years on death row, six of them in solitary - he became famous for altogether different reasons: he won acclaim for renouncing violence and, in particular, gang-related violence.

I truly hope that Williams reformed of his ways and that he renounced violence, and especially gang-related violence. Does it change anything with regard to his killing four people? Are his victims any less dead now?

Williams wrote seven books in which he consistently preached a message of anti-violence. So powerfully did he communicate this that he was nominated four times for the Nobel Peace prize. It is hard not to accept, on the basis of the evidence, that Williams died a reformed character. Yet even if he had not made the effort to change his life and “reform”, I would still struggle to figure out what killing him after he had spent so long in prison - longer, incidentally, than most life-sentenced prisoners in Britain serve - was meant to achieve.

Wow, Williams wrote seven books and preached a message of anti-violence. Everything is okay now. Let’s just forget that he killed four people. In fact, maybe the victims’ families can invite him to dinner.

Oh, and let’s not forget the Nobel Peace prize. I mean, such peaceful people like Arafat got one. I guess killing Jews is pretty peaceful, perhaps we can give one to Adolf Hitler posthumously. And, yes, Jimmy Carter received a Nobel Peace prize. I guess being a half-decent President of The United States isn’t necessary for the Nobel. Maybe being a good peanut farmer is all it takes.

While such people as Arafat and Carter (of course, they are not comparable) get Nobels, Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan don’t even make the Nobel’s radar. These men were able to crush communism in the former Soviet Union without firing a shot. Communism was responsible for killing ninety million people. I guess actually succeeding at something peaceful is not a prerequisite for a Nobel Peace prize.

Heck, since I’ve never done anything worthy of a Nobel, perhaps someone can nominate me. I wouldn’t mind adding that to my trophy case.

I have never been persuaded by any arguments in favour of the death penalty. I wonder about those who champion it as legitimate. Would they be happy to drop the noose, or fire the gun - or, in the case of Williams, administer the injection? Many would say: “Yes, I would.” I think we should be worried about those people, the kind of people who say they are prepared to take the life of another, about whom they know little beyond the crime they committed, in cold, calculated and controlled circumstances. We should be worried too about those who carry out the executions on behalf of the state, people who say they are doing their job, or more ominously, “just following orders”.

I do not care whether or not you have been persuaded by any such arguments. Thankfully, you are not in charge.

Those who would be willing to administer any means used in the executions are providing our society with a service: they are making sure people like your beloved Tookie will never be able to kill another person. You wonder about those who would execute Tookie, but you defend Tookie for killing four people and say it is society’s fault?

Like Williams, it was in prison that I came to understand the sanctity of life. Like Williams, it was in prison that I learned to live a better way. In return, my society showed me clemency. Williams’s society was never going to give him a second chance, but he wanted to live. He petitioned the governor of California. Shortly before he died, he wrote: “If Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger grants me clemency, I will accept it as an obligation to society to spend the rest of my life working to reverse the cycle of youth violence.”

By the time Tookie realized the sanctity of human life, it was too late. Four people died. His valuable lesson was learned at the expense of four people who did not deserve to die. You fail to mention this.

The governor, of course, turned him down. Whatever the rights or wrongs of Williams’s imprisonment (during all his time on death row he pleaded his innocence), putting him to death was a barbaric act, one that no decent society should countenance.

You know what is barbaric? It is barbaric when a man robs stores and kills people. It is barbaric when he brags about killing those ‘Buddha Heads to his friends. It is barbaric to co-found a street gang notorious for their killings.

No society, or person, should countenance your defense of a man who killed four people because, well he’s reformed and nominated for the Nobel Peace prize.

You see, I am trying to see things from your point of view, but I live in this place called Earth. You might want to visit us sometime.

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