The Death of Tookie Williams
With all of the media surrounding the execution of Tookie Williams last night, I find myself again mulling over the death penalty itself. Coming from a very conservative family in the frozen tundra of NH, I believed that the death penalty was an appropriate way of meeting out justice. Someone commits murder, they should be murdered. Eye for an eye. Better for society because this person can never kill again. Deterrent for others. I believed all of that.
Then, I went to law school. I found there that my little world of black and white, right and wrong, pure good and pure evil, was an illusion based on lack of knowledge. Specifically, based on the myth that our justice system is "fair."
I believed that 9 unbiased individuals chosen from the public at large, can make the "right" choice after listening to two highly educated advocates who had studied the case, and presented the best information they could so that the wise jury could decide, based on all the facts, what the right outcome was. Law school changed all that.
Those who can afford an attorney who can take the time to thoroughly study each aspect of a case, and can then present that case are rare. Even more rare is finding 9 jurors who don't have built in bias, AND the intelligence to properly digest the information being provided. Of course, this cuts both ways, in that many guilty are released, but we can't disregard the fact that many innocent are incarcerated, and some of those are on death row.
Once you factor into the equation the cold fact that the poor can't afford attorneys, and have public defenders who routinely deal with over 100 cases per week, ensuring that there is no time to truly prepare and present a capital case. This is perhaps why so many poor, black defendants are on death row.
So why do 2/3 of Americans favor the death penalty? Perhaps it's because they believe the system is fair. Perhaps it's because it's favored by Judeo Christian ethics. Anyone who truly THINKS about the concept of irrevocably and finally removing life from another human being, sees that there are pros and cons, and both need to be considered.
From my standpoint, I err on the side of life. Do I think Tookie was "innocent?" I frankly doubt it. Were horrible things done? Oh yes. Shooting a person in the back while he was down, shooting another in the face... yes, awful things to be sure. But should "we" as a society, have the power of life and death over individuals when "justice" is an ideal that we strive for but don't always grasp? When "ordinary people" are not allowed to choose their President, how can they choose life or death for a given individual? I don't know.