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No justice in Williams’ death sentence

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by Letters to the Editor

Friday, October 28, 2005

In mid-September, I attended a prejudice conference. There I saw racism circumscribed on a line, represented in the height of a bar graph, removed of all its venom and made as innocuous as a snakeskin. All the dropouts, the crime, the poverty, the lost identity, the self hatred — even the cold waitresses and the too-profuse praise were reduced to benign charts and data. At the end of this four-day vivisection of American racism, a question was posed to the audience. "How far have we gone from those Jim Crow days?" And despite the solidity of the presentations and the confidence of the speakers, there was no satisfying answer.

So how far behind are those Birmingham days? Before that question can even be approached, one must first ask, "Where are we now?" I could tell you that approximately 12 percent of all black men in their 20s are in prison or in jail. I could say that although blacks only comprise 5 percent of the Wisconsin population, they are the majority in our prisons. I could also mention that there are currently 1,432 blacks on death row in our nation, making 42 percent of all death row inmates. But these are just the numbers. They do not reach the heart of racism; they don't even feel the pulse.

On Dec. 13, Stanley "Tookie" Williams, co-founder of the Crips street gang, will be put to death in San Quentin State Prison of California. In 1981, he was sentenced to die by an all white jury as punishment for the murders of four people during two separate robberies. None of the physical evidence from the crime scenes has been linked to Tookie, and all of the witnesses were facing felony charges. To this day, Tookie maintains his innocence in regard to these crimes.

Since his incarceration, he has written nine children's books denouncing gang life. He has been nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize and four times for the Nobel Prize for Literature. His efforts to stop gang violence have garnered accolades from the international community. In 1999, Tookie was visited by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former African National Congress Women's League President and the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela. In 2004, his story was made into a television movie, "Redemption", with Jamie Foxx starring as Tookie. In August, President Bush praised him for his work, which has reached oppressed youth across the world.

However, this has not been enough to save him. Every level of the judicial system has rejected his appeals. If the Coalition Against Legal Lynching (CALL) and the National Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty fail and Governor Schwarzenegger does not grant Stanley "Tookie" Williams clemency, then he will die like so many marginalized black men before him. Except today, there will be no heavy drop, no awkward suspension and no upward-gazing children wrapped around broad American shoulders. (They can get that kind of entertainment at home these days.) Tookie's death will be smoother. Cleaner. Efficient. He will be our shameful legacy of judicial failure. And for those who capture racism in slopes and graphs, he will be that clear answer to the question, "How far have we gone?"

Not one inch.

Summer Wilken (wilken@wisc.edu) is a freshman and member of the Coalition Against Legal Lynching.

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Anonymous (October 28, 2005 @ 2:12am):

It's amazing what staring at death can bring "out" in a person, isn't it? Too bad Tookie chose to organize felonious street gangs instead of writing children's books. Now Tookie must die.

Anonymous (October 28, 2005 @ 8:11am):

If President Bush is such a big fan of his, why won't he commute his sentence?

Anonymous (October 28, 2005 @ 8:23am):

OK, so he's reformed himself enough to maybe have his sentence commuted to life in prison. But do you really think an all-nonwhite jury would be more lenient? The guy's a killer! He is where he belongs!

Anonymous (October 28, 2005 @ 8:43am):

I'm so thankful to live in Wisconsin where my (state) taxes aren't used to murder people, guilty or innocent. The death penalty is SO last millenium.

Anonymous (October 28, 2005 @ 11:46am):

Too bad the people he murdered didn't have a coalition to lobby for their lives. Also, I'm sure the only reason he was convicted is because the jury was white, not because he was a murderer who actually organized a group of murderers to go out and murder. Are they selling tickets to the execution?

Summer Wilken (October 28, 2005 @ 4:43pm):

I'm not saying that gang violence should go unpunished, but I do believe society is partly culpable in the creation of Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Killing him will not stop gangs. Killing him will not stop other people like him from coming to power in their communities. Killing him is only a surface solution to an even greater problem, which is how do these people come to exist in the first place? The death penalty is easy. It is expedient. It placates a few and keeps the rest secure in the false belief that we are actually attacking gang violence.

So I ask you now, what would the execution of Tookie solve?

Anonymous (October 30, 2005 @ 2:26pm):

It would save me from paying for him to live for the next 50 years. Do I even need another reason?

Anonymous (October 30, 2005 @ 5:44pm):

"Killing him will not stop other people like him from coming to power in their communities."

Yeah, 3 hots and a cot for 25 years just isn't enough to put anybody off. Not like hanging him right after his trial would be.

Is it just me or do old movies make it sound like criminals were actually concerned that they might "get the chair"?

Anonymous (October 30, 2005 @ 5:47pm):

"Now Tookie must die."

Wasn't that a Robin Williams movie?

Anonymous (October 30, 2005 @ 7:05pm):

So I ask you now why are you coddling a convicted killer? Fuck him.

Anonymous (November 20, 2005 @ 12:28pm):

What would killing Tookie solve?

Removing the scum from society that KILLED 4 people.

KILLED 4 people.

He's been breathing air for far too long.

Party on Dec 13. Goodbye Tookie.

BTW, did it ever occur to you that the thug is still running his syndicate from behind bars.

Nah, probably not. Everything is "sunshine, rainbows, and lollipops" to people like you.

Anonymous (November 24, 2005 @ 2:39am):

Get your facts straight on Tookie, he was convicted by a mixed race jury in California the heart of the Left Coast. Tookie threatened to kill the jury members, he also threatened to kill all of the witnesses. He was caught with the same gun used in the four murders, the same gun that he purchased a few years earlier.

Tookie founded the Crips, do you live in a Crips infested neighborhood? I do. I'll tell you what it's like, it sucks. Our local branch of the Crips enjoys shooting out our street lights, mugging woman, gays and the elderly,beating non-blacks for walking on "their" blocks, targeting white women for rape/gang rape, shooting at anyone that "bothers" them, terrorizing Asian business owners, breaking into working class homes, stealing everything and other general acts that make this earth hell. I also forgot murdering others in broad daylight and randomly shooting just for the hell of it.

Tookie should be punshised for robbing millions of people, like me, the right to a safe neighborhood and the right to personal liberty. Living in the ghetto is oppression, but guess what? The oppression isn't from "the man" or The American goverment, it's from creeps like Tookie.

I invite you to move to any major American city's ghetto for five years. So you can discuss your lefty rants with the man who has just broken into your home to rob and rape you.