Life offers something that
death never could: Hope
Guest Opinion
By Jonathan David Morris
|  Imagine
if, instead of crime-ridden Los Angeles, the man who
would come to be known as Stan “Tookie”
Williams had spent his early, formative days elsewhere.
Imagine if he had spent his youth in one of the nice
new suburbs to which many whites fled after failing
to stave off desegregation in the ‘40s and ‘50s.
Would he have lived the life that earned him a death
sentence, set to take place this December 13th? Would
stars such as Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg be rallying
‘round his cause? Would websites like SaveTookie.org
be set up to save him? Would his whole life rest in
the hands of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger? Would his
very being come down to a question of clemency?
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Imagine if, instead of co-founding the world famous Crips
gang—which inspired waves of crime and violence in cities
across the country—the man known as Tookie had, as a
young American, satisfied his sense of time and place by pledging
allegiance to the betterment of his street, his hood, his
city, or even his country. Imagine if he’d been politically
active, instead of criminally active. Imagine if he’d
lived not for the moment but for the fulfillment of some kind
of destiny. Imagine if he had had ambition. Imagine if he
had had a dream. Would he have been caught, tried, and convicted
of four murders? Would he have been behind bars since 1979?
Would we be having this discussion today?
Imagine if the American legal system worked quickly. Imagine
if, instead of this December 13th, Tookie had been executed—“served
justice”—in 1981, the year he first entered death
row. Imagine he’d never gotten around to renouncing
gang violence in the early 1990s. Imagine he’d never
penned the book Life In Prison, or several kids’ titles,
which dared kids not to live the life that he lived. Would
some kids turn to drugs, without Tookie to turn to? Would
young men and women in major cities across the country be
better off without some voice of reason, some soul who understands,
who sees clearly the context—the destitution—in
which they were born and bred and still live?
Ask yourself: Would Tookie’s death bring back the four
innocent souls he murdered? Would those victims be with their
families this holiday season? Would the world be restored
to the way it was before Stan “Tookie” Williams
walked the streets of L.A.?
Would killing a man for killing four others solve anything?
Would taking his life somehow make our lives better, even
if we’ve already got him right we want him—right
where we need him—in prison, without parole?
I can’t imagine how it would.
Stan “Tookie” Williams is just the latest in
a seemingly unending series of death row “cause celebre”
cases. But beyond all the hype, beyond all the famous faces—the
Jamie Foxxes and Snoop Doggs—lies the scheduled execution
of a human. Not just a man with a violent past who co-founded
a street gang, but a living, breathing person. This man, good
or bad, for better or worse, is scheduled to die on December
13th. Imagine knowing the date of your own impending execution.
Imagine knowing how many minutes you’ve got left. How
many breaths. How many eye blinks.
Can you even imagine that?
Death penalty supporters will argue, as death penalty supporters
often argue, that a man like Stan Williams deserves to be
treated the way he’s being treated. He deserves to die.
He deserves the fate that a jury has sealed for him, for sealing
the fates of four innocent souls some 20-plus years ago. He
hasn’t shown remorse, they’ve noticed. He hasn’t
admitted his guilt. And besides: He’s a murderer. All
true. But this line of thinking asks the wrong questions.
It asks if a murderer deserves to be murdered, not if we,
the people, deserve to murder him. It asks: Would society
be better off without him? But it fails to ask: Would he be
better off without society? Would he be better off dead than
alive? Would he be better equipped to contribute—even
atone for his sins—if he were buried six feet underground?
Many folks who oppose Tookie’s execution ask the wrong
questions, too. Some point to his accomplishments over the
last 10-15 years. He’s reformed, they say. Rehabilitated.
They wonder: Why are we doing away with this man—this
invaluable resource? Likewise, others cast a shadow of doubt.
They ask: What if we’ve got the wrong guy here? What
if Tookie didn’t do it? What if he was framed? What
if he was the victim of racial bias? These are all the wrong
questions. The position they take is one that lacks principle.
They suggest it’s okay to execute someone… as
long as it’s the right someone… and as long as
he never wrote books for kids. Well, is it okay to execute
people, or isn’t it? And what’s it matter who
we execute, if we decide it’s okay to execute? Either
every human life is an end unto itself, or it isn’t.
You can’t have it both ways. A murderer is no more or
less valuable than the murdered. That’s what makes every
life wasted tragic. Or: That’s what makes every life
wasted no big deal.
That’s the real question people ought to be asking
here. Not if we should execute Stan “Tookie” Williams,
convicted murderer and Crips co-founder. But if we should
execute—period. People don’t like asking this
question, because asking this question requires imagination.
To electrocute someone, to inject him with poison, to suffocate
him, or shoot him, is simple. Even spread out over 20 years,
it’s a knee-jerk reaction—a quick, easy answer
to the complex problem of how we should deal with those who
would do, or have done, us harm. But for all the talk of the
death penalty deterring murder in this country, it obviously
doesn’t. For if it did, murderers would’ve long
ago been deterred. Instead, to this day, we’re still
debating whether to execute men like Tookie Williams this
December 13th. Imagine a world in which that debate was the
only thing we killed dead.
Perhaps the most famous victim of execution ever was Jesus.
Jesus asked God to forgive the people who killed him, because
he believed—even knew in his heart—that they killed
him out of ignorance, arrogance, and general human selfishness.
Jesus also fraternized with the kinds of people who today
would lead lives like Stan Williams. He offered redemption
to the lowest rungs of society. And he spoke out against eye-for-eye
punishments. America is supposedly a Christian country. Religious
beliefs are unregulated here; we don’t all have to follow
in Jesus’s philosophical footsteps. But still, it’s
quite clear our modern American beliefs don’t gel with
what he practiced and preached. A life sentence is a better
deterrent than a death sentence, because life offers something
that death never could: Hope. If murder is something you’re
looking to stamp out, hope is something you’re undoubtedly
going to need.
I say save Stan “Tookie” Williams—not just
for his sake, but ours. Only a country that expects the worst
from its people would be so quick to give up on them.
Jonathan David Morris is a political writer -- and sometimes
satirist -- based in Pennsylvania. A strong believer in small
government, JDM often takes aim at oppressive taxes, entitlements,
and laws, writing about incompetence at the highest levels
of culture and government. Catch his weekly ramblings at readjdm.com.
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