Do you feel better since Stanley Williams was executed this week by the state of California? If so, why do you feel better? Do you feel safer? Is it a feeling of satisfaction? A life for a life?
I watched the pre-game show on CNN hosted by Larry King. Some of Larry's guest were defense attorney Mark Geragos, conservative radio talk show host and the prosecutor for Williams' trial in 1979. The prosecutor was so excited about being on national TV that he rarely quit grinning hugely.
Opponents of the death penalty debated all night and lost. The death penalty is neither a matter of the severity of the crime nor the criminal's conduct after the crime. It should not matter whether there was one victim or 200 victims. It should not matter whether the criminal is or ever will be repentent and rehabilitated.
It doesn't matter. We don't execute criminals because of what they are. We execute criminals because of what WE are. Uncivilized.
1 comment:
I disagree with the death penalty in any case; however, the Williams case proves to me that we are only interested in revenge. After 24 years on death row and many contributions to the campaign against gangs, we still executed him because we owe it to the family of the victims. Revenge. Satisfaction of a life for a life. That's not justice. Williams was no longer a threat to society and he had in fact been punished by 24 years on death row. All of which appears to have rehabilitated him. Then we killed him.
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