I dunno….just a thought.

In theory I should like to be against the death penalty. But then I read the newspaper, or well actually I look at the news on the internet newspaper site, and read about some child-porn ring, or a guy who kills women and children, stalkers, hate crimes, or other people that prey on the weak and do these horrible crimes to babies, and really I have no sympathy for them and I would like to kill them myself.

But then I figure what good does that do? And it takes so long to do it, they get automatic appeal when the death penalty is involved. And cases are so expensive and take so long, that most cases are never even tried anyway, probably less than 2 % of cases are ever actually tried.

With Williams I thought that he should be held for life in prison instead of death. But I can see why the governor would not change the sentence. For one thing, this man Tookie committed extremely violent and horrible crimes, he murdered people in cold blood, that he did not even have to murder to commit his crime, but obviously he wanted no witness to his crime, so fro him, escape from his sentence was more important than human life. Secondly he never admitted his guilt to these crimes, and , many people including Simon Wiesenthal, say that a person must admit their guilt before they can repent and before they can be forgiven for their crime.

Tookie never admitted his guilt and this is not insignificant when a governor is deciding if he should intercede and stop the outcome of what the courts of the state have decreed.
The governor is not meant to simply change the outcome of the events that he simply disagrees with, even though he has the power to stop or change things, the executive branch should not overreach the balance of the equality of powers of our government system, but there is the mechanism for special cases. Here the courts had come up with a judgment and a sentence. The governor had to decide if he should over ride and change what was deemed the appropriate and just decision of the courts. The governor spent extra time in contemplating his decision.

The Governor stated that the lack of admission of guilt was a looming factor in his decision. No one can find fault in the governor for his analysis or decision; it was made on the facts, and reasonable criteria. One might disagree with capital punishment at all, but that is a different matter.

Despite his lack of admission, because I am of two minds about capital punishment, I thought that Tookie should be given life, as consideration for his change in behavior and deeds of childrens books and such trying to warn of the perils of Gang life. Considering Tookie’s crimes, there is nothing outrageous or corrupt about his sentence. Perhaps his death serves as his final and most powerful lesson to the children that he attempted to warn of gangs, that this is what happens to boys and girls who choose a life of gangs, degradation, despair and death.

Actually, I would argue after you see this documentary, that you might realize alot of criminals are out on the street because our judicial system has been way too hasty with convicting based on loose circumstantial evidence and faulty eye witness accounts. They want anyone to take the wrap so often the real criminals aren’t found and are a danger at large to society.

I am not trying to say I do not hold up in high esteem the role or the people themselves who are prosecuters and public defenders but the system is flawed and is not serving the public at large as well as it could.

Combine that with the fact that in nearly all states, there is really no compensation for people who have been wrongfully imprisoned for years and are being cleared based on DNA evidence. After years of their life has been wasted, they are out on the streets without jobs, health care, and technically they still have a criminal record. All they have that is different is exonerated papers.

It is my personal opinion that until there is significant financial compensation (although you can’t put a price on years of someone’s life being taken away but at least something that these people can live on), the criminal justice will continue to not be held accountable for their actions and not one thing will change.

Actually, I would argue after you see this documentary, that you might realize alot of criminals are out on the street because our judicial system has been way too hasty with convicting based on loose circumstantial evidence and faulty eye witness accounts. They want anyone to take the wrap so often the real criminals aren’t found and are a danger at large to society.

I am not trying to say I do not hold up in high esteem the role or the people themselves who are prosecuters and public defenders but the system is flawed and is not serving the public at large as well as it could.

Combine that with the fact that in nearly all states, there is really no compensation for people who have been wrongfully imprisoned for years and are being cleared based on DNA evidence. After years of their life has been wasted, they are out on the streets without jobs, health care, and technically they still have a criminal record. All they have that is different is exonerated papers.

Furthermore, I don’t feel like either our justice system or the death penalty is really doing a great job to keep the citizens of our country more protected either. Pyschologically, in terms of the idea of relief to the family, I don’t believe relief should come from the idea that you have done the very same heinous thing to someone that you so object to he or she having done. That simply does not make any sense. I’ve never been in the position where I have had a loved one murdered but I feel very strongly that true healthy relief and coming to terms with something that heinous has more to do with the act of forgiveness. It’s natural to think you wouldn’t be able to forgive something like that but spefically the action may not be forgiven whereas the person might be depending on the circumstances and mental state.

Ultimately, Arnold and Bush are just about the largest hypocrites in the bunch. They have no understanding of valuing life even though Bush claims to value it so much he’d like to take choices completely away from women. Bush even went to the extent to make fun of mentally ill and people with cognitive disabilities on death row publically. Doesn’t seem like any kind of Christianity I’ve ever heard of that he’s following. (despite what he so claims)

I was hoping that tookie williams would get life from the gov instead of death, but even there, I could see how someone that committed such violent crimes against perfectly innocent people that did not deserve to have some one brutally blow their head off might be seen as deserving his fate.
Too me its not an easy issue, I know if we got rid of it, I wouldn’t really be upset, but I also don’t shed any tears over some horrible person being put to sleep like a dog after they have been a hurtful and terrible person that took life from others, and mostly sat in jail for years after anyway.
Maybe you have to build lots of prisons and lock up all the dangerous people to keep the rest of us safe, or maybe you have to change the consciousness of the society, so people don’t do stupid things like kill people etc. but I don’t think government cares about “society” “consciousness” or “equality” or “democracy” but maybe I’m being cynical because I been working all day, and I’m tired. When it comes down to it, if I could choose to have the death penalty or get rid of it for this country, I would choose to get rid of it, even though I hate a lot of those criminals with a passion.