A useless death

Well...in slightly less than three hours from this very moment Stanley "Tookie" Williams will be put to death (unless some truly extraordinary event occurs). I believe this is very wrong. Do I believe this because I think he is not guilty of the murder he has been charged with? No, quite frankly, I believe whether he is guilty or innocent of those murders is basically irrelevant at the moment. I have no idea if he is guilty or not. Do I believe he should get a reprieve because he has tried to turn his life (such as it is) around, written anti-gang books, and such? No, I don't think writing a few books makes him any the less guilty or innocent and should have nothing to do with the issue of life and death. Do I think his life should be spared because he has so many celebrities and others supporting him? No, I think that, too, is irrelevant. Do I think he should be spared because he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times? No, remember that even George W. Bush has been nominated. Being nominated, in and of itself, is basically meaningless. I think he should not be put to death because it is, at this point in time, utterly pointless. What conceivable benefit results from his death at this time? He has been on death row for 25 years. He is not going to be pardoned and set free unless, somehow, it might be shown that he was, in fact, innocent (which seems highly unlikely). He cannot harm the broader community in any way and he might, in fact, be able to contribute some some positive input into the problem of gangs and gang violence. The only reason for his execution that I can see is revenge. But if revenge is the only motive why have we waited for 25 years? Twenty five years on death row seems to me clearly harsh and unusual punishment. At this point in time I don't care if the evidence against him was overwhelming or not. No useful purpose is being served by taking his life. There is also the question of whether a so-called civilized society should even have a death penalty in the first place. Note that most other countries abandoned the death penalty long ago and think we are little more than barbarians for continuing it. I don't know Stanley Williams, I don't even know much about him, I have no idea if he was truly guilty or not, but I do know that killing him for the basest of human motives, revenge, is not something to be condoned. I wonder, does the Gropenfueher not want to be accused of favoring another bodybuilder? I see no other reason for this decision.

The present administration is refusing to allow the Red Cross access to some of their prisoners. They claim these prisoners are not subject to the Geneva Convention and do not have any rights. Thus they can be held in secret for presumably as long as they live with no access to a lawyer, no visits from anyone, no way to challenge the authority under which they are being held. Do you believe that any human being anywhere, under any circumstances, for any reason whatsoever, should be able to be held indefinately with no rights at all? I don't. I think anyone who does is simply a monster. We seem not to lack for monsters at the moment.