Tookie Must Live!

I have written against the death penalty

in the past, but generally have focused

my human rights work on other matters

such as the prevention, cessation and

monitoring of international armed

conflicts- i.e., wars. But in the case of

Tookie Williams, the chickens have

come home to roost. The war is at home, and Tookie is a bona fide peacemaker.

If there is

anything more to ask of a man to demonstrate

rehabilitation, it is difficult to speculate what that might be. But those who would have him die argue that the one thing that demonstrates that he is fit only to die is the one thing that he refuses to provide. What they don't see is that is the one thing he cannot provide as it would be a Faustian pact in which his very soul would be tarnished forever. When they demand his "contrition" what they really mean is that they demand, under pain of death, a confession.

They would have us believe that because he has not completed the two steps of confession and contrition he deserves to die. But that begs the questions of whether he is really guilty of the charges. It does not matter if one judge,or twelve jurors, or a million people believe he is guilty. No one really knows, perhaps not even Tookie himself. Only God knows, the very God we are taught, variously, is the God of atonement and forgiveness, the compassionate. This is not an argument for Christian charity or that Tookie should be forgiven; it is a challenge to the smug assumption that he is guilty at all. That twelve jurors believe him guilty proves nothing but that twelve people were convinced by a zealous, and some would argue deceitful, prosecutor. All which is certain is that the State of California is poised to kill.



II. Part Two

As stated above, the flaw in the argument

of those who are now howling for

blood is that only God really

knows whether or not Tookie is really

innocent or guilty of the charges.

They claim that his failure to

confess and apologize shows that

he lacks remorse. What they overlook

is that if he is indeed innocent, telling

them what they want to hear would be

the ultimate sell out of his own

integrity and ultimately his own

soul. Tookie would rather face execution

than cop to a bum rap, and for that

he is entitled to respect.

I take it a step further:

even if Tookie is indeed guilty of

these crimes, confessing and stating

contrition is not necessarily the litmus

test of the state of his soul, nor does his

failure to so state a license for

the State of California to take his life.

The United

States, from its early days, has held

coerced confessions to be repugnant. The Founding Fathers remembered the brutality with which witches were forced to drown as the only accepted form of confession, and they remember the rigors of the Spanish Inquisition which fomented much of the Protestant Reformation which laid the Calvinist foundation for American individualism.



In China, to this very day, confessions are routinely beaten

out of suspects, often suspects who are

taken completely by surprise when they are

accused by vile manipulators with self-serving

motives and agendas.

I recently reviewed the case of Saccho

and Vanzetti, in which the judge held biases and

outright bigoted opinions which he freely expressed

to the press. As Saccho stated, before he was

executed, his execution was his highest triumph,

bringing the cause of the workingman to the

public eye and searing the memory of his name onto

the American conscience for all time.

Tookie Williams is a changed man. If every

perpetrator of a serious violent offense were to do

one tenth of what Tookie has done for society, there

would be no more war and no more street violence. There

would be peace.

I understand that sceptics are not swayed by the

prestigious names, such as Bishop Tutu, which have attached

themselves to this cause. So I invite sceptics to read what

Tookie himself has written. Tookie's Protocols for Peace

is better thought out than a lot of what so-called professional

legal writers are putting out, and what is important is

that he backed it with his imprimatur, without which it

would carry little weight.

This and his numerous other accomlishments are not to be

lightly dismissed, nor is his appeal for clemency. Seldom has

such a tight case for clemency been presented to any Governor.

The sole objection of the mob calling for his execution - his

unwillingness to confess and express contrition - is a red herring.

You simply cannot kill someone and argue that he deserves it

because he will not confess to something he may or may not have

done.

Unfortunately, the demand for confession/contrition is a common

excuse given by parole boards for continuing the punishment of

the most exemplary offenders. Always, the assumption is that

no one is ever wrongfully convicted, but that is an assumption

which even a school boy is capable of understanding is not always

the case.

If Governor Schwartzennegger, who I hope these words reach in some

form, fails to spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, any perceived

victory on the part of the prosecutor's office and the lynch mob

which is now screaming for his blood will be a hollow, Pyhrric victory;

indeed, the real victor will be Tookie Williams, who demonstrated

character and conviction. I pray to God that Tookie is spared, but

if he is not, the whole world will watch as he, a better man, at this

point, than his persecutors, achieves the ultimate moral victory, and

immortalizes his name on the pages of history.

December 4, 2005

Santa Barbara, California

What you can do:

Call Governor Schwartzenegger's switchboard

Sign the Petition

Go to www.savetookie.org

Read and take action.