Goodbye Tookie

Tookie Wilson is dead – no big deal. From all that I’ve read in the past several days, he was a very bad person, and the only redeeming things to be said about him are that in prison he tried to tell young people that the outlaw way will not lead to a productive life. Perhaps his death will reinforce the lesson.

That said; I’m unalterably opposed to the death penalty. First and foremost, there is and always will be the chance that we will execute innocent people. If you believe that then you have to accept that the Tookie Wilsons of the planet – and there are more than a few of them – will have to be spared.

I don’t want to blame Governor Schwarzenegger for his call. I don’t know anything about the law in California, but capital punishment is the prescribed penalty there and only if the case in point overtly fails to meet the requirements then can sending a person to his or her death be set explicitly at the governor’s door step. I read the governor’s statement on the case, and he seems to have genuinely tried to give full consideration to the total Tookie Wilson. The governor was, however, under pressure from his conservative base and politics is always part of the process

This morning while running errands, I listened to a local right wing talk show and was appalled. Wilson’s death was treated by many his callers as an event of joy. The host parodied an old time popular song by singing “Took, Took, Tookie, Goodbye.” This barbarism was mighty callous for a person who holds himself out to be a civilized person.

It is possible, even likely, that Wilson was every bit as evil as the callers indicated, but I cannot understand why the death penalty is the answer. If innocence is possible, how can we send people to their deaths and be unable to make amends should it ever come to light that a mistake was made?

Capital punishment is certainly not a deterrent to offenses warranting the death penalty. California has had the remedy for years and still people are murdered in heinous manners. Texas has taken the lives of killers in huge numbers and still grisly murders take place there. The same can be said for my State of Virginia which has executed more than its share of killers and probably innocent men and women. In each of these jurisdictions the murder rate is significantly higher than in some other states that have abandoned the ultimate penalty.

How much greater penalty is execution than life in prison without the possibility of parole? I read the account of the Wilson death, and he got on the gurney without any sign of struggle. Most of the people facing execution do so with stout hearts – or at least resignation. Years on death row seems to have steeled them against their fate. In some cases there is probably a release; it’s over, so be it. Besides some perhaps most of them are guilty as sin and accept the need for society to seek its punishment, and most of them are not trained ethicists.

I’ve read and do not doubt that it costs far more to carry out capital punishment than to incarcerate convicted killers. Clearly, California with the longest appeals process in the country with average terms on death row of a quarter of a century spends far more than would they would by simply locking them up and throwing away the key.

In every controversial case, the family of the victims is trotted out and they claim that they will not get closure until the beast is killed. While I know that I would make the same type of statement were I the father, brother, husband or friend of someone murdered in cold blood, it should be the role of the state to seek justice in the name of all of the people – not just those who loved the victims – and not to cater to the bloodthirsty needs of those left behind. Besides, my – and their – need for revenge could possibly be misplaced; it has happened that innocent people have gone down to the savage satisfaction of those loved ones still alive. An apology and a `too bad' just don’t hack it in such circumstances.

Why then are so many people, especially those committed to the sanctity of life, filled with joy when a fellow human being is put to death?

The fault lies not exclusively with the politicians – although they owe us leadership in such circumstances – but with us all.

Blog on!

Wild Bill