Justice and a Needle

What do China, Iran, Cuba, Egypt, and the United States have in common? They all allow the death penalty. In fact, the United States is the only Western democracy to still allow executions. This past Tuesday, the United States’ criminal justice system struck again, as Stanley Tookie Williams, a cofounder of the street gang the Crips, was executed by the State of California. While there is no question that the crimes Williams was convicted of were horrific, Williams’ reformation in jail was remarkable and could have served as a model for other prisoners.

It is morally reprehensible that the death penalty still exists in a country that disavows “cruel and unusual punishment” in its very constitution. The death penalty exists today as a grisly spectacle meant to soothe the retributive minds of a majority of Americans as much as it does to deter potential violent criminals from committing crimes. But punishment should not be tailored to the electorate. Rather it should follow the same moral norms that every citizen of the United States is expected to follow—moral norms that prohibit killing except in self-defense. As Stanley Williams reportedly tried to help the technician deliver his own lethal injection, it can hardly be argued that the state believed Williams to be an imminent danger. With the myriad problems afflicting the current criminal justice system, the death penalty also allows for tragic mistakes. Innocent people have too often had their convictions overturned for us to have confidence in the accuracy of the system.

In the name of moral consistency, it is incumbent on all governors to grant clemency to those who face execution and commute their sentences to life imprisonment without parole. Until the federal government or the states ban the death penalty, governors should have the courage to protest the travesty that is government-sanctioned execution. Governors are not automatons that must bend to the pressure of unjust laws. They more than any other individuals have the power to achieve true justice.

Tookie Williams, before his execution, served as a prime example of why the death penalty should be abolished. Williams showed that even the cruelest criminals can be rehabilitated to exert positive influences outside their jail cells. While it is regrettable that he never apologized for the crimes he committed, Williams accomplished praiseworthy projects while in prison. He wrote a series of children’s books designed to steer young people away from street gangs and towards a life of nonviolence. He produced public-service announcements urging kids to stay out of gangs, and he participated in anti-violence mentoring programs via telephone. Newark city officials also credited Williams for helping to broker a peace between the rival gangs the Crips and the Bloods, which helped lead to a drop in Newark’s murder rate.

The killings Williams committed and the crimes his founding of the Crips caused are tragic and horrific. But the work Williams did in prison to help stem gang violence is laudable. Williams could have continued that work if his sentence had been commuted to life without parole. Instead, California killed Williams. The state did nothing more than prove to the youths Williams taught not to kill that death is sometimes the only acceptable punishment. Twenty-five years in jail changed Williams’ mind about the rightness of murder. How long will it take the rest of us?