Crime And Punishment

Pete: The Preacher said it absolved us.
Ulysses Everett McGill: For him, not for the law. I'm surprised at you, Pete, I gave you credit for more brains than Delmar.
Delmar O'Donnell: But they was witnesses that seen us redeemed.
Ulysses Everett McGill: That's not the issue Delmar. Even if that did put you square with the Lord, the State of Mississippi's a little more hard-nosed. --From O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Credit for this story comes From Mercury news:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - "Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams moved a step closer to the death chamber Wednesday when the California Supreme Court refused to reopen his case in four murders and halt the state's highest-profile execution since the death penalty was reinstated.

In a last-ditch legal move, Williams alleged that shoddy forensic testing and other errors wrongly sent him to San Quentin State Prison, where he is scheduled die by lethal injection Dec. 13.

Lawyers for the convicted murderer who claims he redeemed himself on death row by penning anti-gang books for kids wanted to re-exam ballistics evidence that showed Williams' shotgun was used to kill three people during a Pico Rivera motel robbery in 1979."

This case reminds me somewhat of the case of Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. What made her case unique was the fact that while on death row, she was converted to Christianity. Because of her conversion, many evangelical leaders, as well as anti capital punishment advocates and politicians rallied to her side, expressing a wish that her sentence be commuted to Life without parole. Karla Faye herself did not ask for pardon, only commutation of her death sentence to a life in prison that she can atone for her crime by working in the prison's hospital.

According to Wikipedia, "While on the death row, Karla Tucker become a born-again Christian and married by proxy the prison chaplain Dana Lane Brown whom she was allowed to see during the marriage ceremony only through a Plexiglas barrier. On February 3, 1998, Karla Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:45 p.m."

I remember personally, an interview she did wherein she stated that she deserved execution and that she was prepared to meet her God with a clear conscience, knowing that God had forgiven her for her sins. She accepted her punishment with grace and aplomb. Upon hearing her testimony, I was convinced that she indeed had been converted, however, becoming a Christian did not absolve her from the crime for which she was convicted, according to the law. Her victim was still dead and she had been sentenced accordingly. She accepted that and so did I.

In my opinion, her execution was just.

The difference in the two cases is this: Karla Faye Tucker admitted her guilt and shouldered responsibility for her crime. Stanley Williams still protests his innocence. His crime was much worse than Karla Fayes as she was convicted of two murders, and he was convicted of four. Penning anti-gang books for kids does not un-commit the crime. He may indeed be reformed but his victims are still dead, and he has not admitted responsibility. The sentence should be carried out.