I Don’t Think He Should’ve Been Executed, But…

Let’s not deify the man..

Stanley “Tookie” Williams, after many denials for appeal, many years of concerted research and review of his case by dozens of dedicated legal analysts and professionals, failed in his bid to convince the governor that he is a changed man and should be given clemency. Oh, dear.

I think what did it in for Tookie was the fact that he showed not one ounce of remorse for the heinous crimes he committed. He proclaimed his innocence right up till the end, no repentance for him -- never mind the hours upon hours of testimony from credible witnesses, never mind that he co-founded the Crips, never mind that he helped spawn a whole new level of violence and misery. And he hated whitey way too much, which, in my whitey opinion, would’ve been best left unsaid. I mean, jeepers, dedicating his books to other whitey haters probably wasn't a good move. (Wish I had the link to that info, but all searches prove fruitless today.)

Schwarzenegger’s decision to deny clemency must’ve been a no-brainer, really.

Now, I admit that I’m not a Tookie expert -- far from it. I paid cursory attention to all the Save Tookie! brouhaha, mainly due to the fact that in the few details I gleaned while skimming news reports and blog entries regarding his case, I saw nothing that would indicate there was even a remote possibility he was an innocent man. I’m all for helping innocent folks kick the death sentence, and I probably would’ve done something real liberal like and sign a petition or protest in public by wearing lettuce leaves over my private parts while holding a FREE TOOKIE placard, but the dude murdered four people in cold blood, and thus, my interest was minimal, despite my belief that capital punishment should be reserved only for serial killers and child killers.

I was intrigued, however, that he was a writer, that he wanted to help steer at-risk kids away from gang life, but HE MURDERED FOUR PEOPLE IN COLD BLOOD! Cold is probably a huge understatement. I didn’t realize what an understatement until just yesterday when I Googled Tookie and discovered all sorts of things, things that made my usually bleeding heart form a clot. Some of those things can be found in the links above, and also here and here. Addendum: I've now learned that Williams didn't even write those children's books himself, that he had a ghost writer. A big kick in the crotch to the "intellectuals" who nominated him for the Nobel, eh?

I’m sorry that this man wasted his life the way he did, and I’m sorry for his loved ones -- Williams could’ve been a great, important human being, a leader, a true godsend for society, IF he’d chosen to use the brains nature gave him, and IF he chose to not be a murdering, racist fuckwit. But he didn’t now, did he? So, as sorry as I am for all of that, my sympathies really lie with his victims' families, the hardworking innocents he murdered. He killed three members of the same family, you know. Mom, dad, daughter. Will they be remembered, I wonder? Will their loved ones receive thousands of dollars from well-wishers and sympathizers? Will Hollywood trip all over itself to help them out?

Somehow, I don’t think so.