BBC News: US ex-gang boss Williams executed
Former gang leader Stanley “Tookie” Williams has been executed by lethal injection, 24 years after he was convicted of killing four people.
Several hundred of his supporters gathered outside San Quentin prison, north of San Francisco, where he was declared dead at 0035 (0835GMT).
He denied the murders and, while in jail, campaigned against gang violence.
California Governor Schwarzenegger questioned his claims of redemption and refused to grant clemency.
I can’t say I’m surprised that his sentence wasn’t commuted particularly given the Governor’s recent political travails but it has outraged many in Europe particularly his birth nation of Austria.
I don’t know the specifics of this case enough to know whether he was innocent of the crime or not but the idea that he might be and that he might have been executed because of his assertion that he was innocent of this crime and thus failed to show remorse for it horrifies me.
But even if he was guilty and he was almost certainly guilty of many crimes I don’t believe he should be executed. No person should be able decide whether another human should live or die and neither should the State because ultimately it comes down to the decisions of human beings.
In discussions I’ve had recently the reasons of finance and safety were raised by somone who was in favour of capital punishment. A case can be made for both but ultimately they are both too flimsy in my opinion to justify a death sentence.
There maybe a valid reason for the death penalty if it makes people feel safer even if it doesn’t actually make them any safer. But it’s just Security Theatre like air travel security, most airport security procedures are nothing more than things done to make passengers feel secure but offer very little real security benefits. Better to devote resources to something that will actually make society safer rather than make people think they are safer.
The financial reason that was mentioned is an interesting one. It’s something that has occurred to me before and I’ve read of in an abstract way in economic writings but never known anyone really express it.
Imprisoning people for a long time is expensive and therefore it’s a lot cheaper to execute someone than to to imprison them for life. But taking someone’s life becasue it’s a cheaper alternative is distasteful to virtually everyone even those who are in favour of capital punishment. In addition this reason is less applicable in the US where people can be on death row for decades before their execution.
Which is yet another thing in this case, Stanley “Tookie” Williams was on death row for 24 years before the death sentence was finally carried out. He was a very different man now from the person that was found guilty of murder, he had by all accounts become a reformed character that had attempted to undo many of the wrongs from the time prior to his incarceration. In effect the man he was died in prison and the new man he became was the executed.
It’s odd that that should be the case in the US that the carrying out of capital punishment should follow such a protracted period of imprisonment.
Why not get it over and done with far quicker? Trial and then appeal then execution if appeal fails. I don’t know about other modern societies who execute but back when the UK still had capital punishment (which really wasn’t very long ago) it all happened pretty swiftly.
There is a website titled Murder File with the relevant data.
Take the last case in 1964, which was pretty typical but notable for the date being only just over 40 years ago.
Peter Anthony Allen & Gwynne Owen Evans comitted murder on Tuesday, 7th April, 1964, were tried between 1st – 7th July, 1964 and then executed Thursday, 13th August, 1964.
Barely 4 months between the commission of the crime and the carrying out of the sentence. Is it cruel and unusual punishment to be imprisoned for so long before the ultimate sentence is carried out, or is it crueler for the sentence to be swift?
Tags: security, death penalty
