Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday has the opportunity to hear the argument from a killer’s defense team on why clemency is justified in the case of convicted killer Stanley “Tookie” Williams. Clemency is the reduction in penalty for a crime, without forgiving the actual crime. It is the state’s version of “hate the sin, love the sinner.”
As usual, I have conflicting opinions on the issue. Longtime readers know that my emotional reaction to the death penalty is that I am in favor of it, but that logis-tically and financially I am against it. I think that someone who has done the crimes that Mr. Williams has been convicted of certainly deserves to die. I just lack the faith in our system to always get the right person, and thus, it is illogical to condemn someone to death, and execute them, when there is doubt as to their guilt.
I also don’t think it makes financial sense to have the death penalty. It costs us too much money to have someone like Mr. Williams on Death Row, and to fund his extensive appeals and then fight against them. Fiscally, life without parole is a much more cost effective penalty. And quite frankly, in a state that has the financial problems we do, and the prison population, we should be cutting costs wherever we can. The prisons are a great place to start.
I know reducing the prison budget will not sit well with the governor given his close ties to the prison industry and its millions of dollars of fundraising capabilities, but that is where he also should take a look in the mirror, and delve deeper than his tan.
Mr. Williams was convicted of four murders. All four were at close range with a sawed off shotgun. One of the victims had the wadding from the shotgun shell found in her. That means that the gun was just inches from her. He is reputed to have uttered various racial slurs about his victims. The murders were heinous, cold blooded killings. He maintains he is innocent and that he was wrongly convicted. It is the usual litany of prosecutorial misconduct, incompetence of counsel (what losing client doesn’t claim that one?), lack of evidence and racially biased jury.
The pro-life lobby, I mean the anti-death penalty camp, is fighting hard to get the governor to grant clemency. They are pointing to a string of good deeds that Mr. Williams has done since his incarceration. His authoring several children books, his new role as a spokesperson against gang violence, and his letter from President George W. Bush commending him for social activism are all being used. The fact that Mr. Williams has been nominated every year since 2001 for a Nobel Peace Prize is trotted out as if it were proof of his conversion to elder statesman and respectable humanitarian.
On his web page, www.tookie.com, he pleads his case. He has his public service announcements available for listening. They use gunshots and the flatline sound of a heart monitor to convey to young children that the gang life is not all Cadillac Escalades and Spinners. At the end of the PSAs, the voice over says that Mr. Williams has “turned my life around, and you can too.” That’s a great sentiment. I love redemption stories.
The problem for me is that Albert Owens, Tsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang, and Yee Chen Lin don’t have the opportunity to turn their lives around. They were killed. Believe who you want, the reality is that Mr. Williams is definitely one of the co-founders of the Crips, and not a very nice man, at least he wasn’t. He’s had the chance to change, the victims didn’t.
According to a judge, a jury and an appellate process that is designed to put in safeguards, Mr. Williams is the murderer of four people. The state of California, “da peeples” as the governor would say, have spoken. They want him dead.
The governor describes the decision as "the toughest thing when you are governor, dealing with someone's life." Funny, he didn’t say that when he was denying marriage rights to about 3.7 million Californians. But I guess one convicted felon, so long as he is straight, even if he can’t vote, has more value to Governor Schwarzenegger than the millions of tax paying, voting, socially conscious “girlie-men” and dykes the governor so likes to denigrate and demean.
The governor said that the courts should decide the gay marriage issue because the legislature passed a bill that he didn’t like. Yet now, he is conveniently, stepping into the death penalty debate and possibly using his executive privilege to override the court system. One could ask how is this governor a “law and order” kind of guy since he seems to ignore the other branches of government and their roles. One might also ask why this “law and order” Republican would entertain such a possibility as clemency for a convicted four time killer?
Re-election. After his last bruising special election, the governor is making a run to the left, probably on the recommendation of his wife, but a hard left is what this governor is doing.
Whether he grants clemency or not, the fact that he held a hearing with the condemned man’s legal defense team makes him seem more open-minded. A tad bit more liberal. It will allow him to do nothing, which will appease the right wing Republicans who didn’t show up for him in the last election, and he can say that he “thoughtfully considered” all the options and pick up some left-wing credentials by saying how tough this decision was.
It is one more reason why the death penalty, though attractive, makes for bad policy. Here is a media savvy governor, using the life of a killer, to pick up political points on both sides of the aisle. (David Pisarra is a lawyer in the Santa Monica firm of Pisarra & Grist. He welcomes your questions and comments. He or (310) 664-9969.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 6, 2005. Read the original PDF.