May Tookie rest in peace ...
... and may Arnold have trouble sleeping at night.
Capital punishment is an awful thing. It is an awful thing, knowingly, to take another's life, even if one could know with certainty that the condemned one was guilty of the grievous crimes that were committed. Killing in the name of the State serves no positive purpose. It does not protect society at large. It does not function as a meaningful deterrant. Countries without capital punishment have lower rates of violent crime than does the United States.
Capital punishment is applied haphazardly and inequitably. A person of color who murders a white person is statistically more likely to face execution than a white person who murders a person of color. A poor individual who cannot afford good legal representation is more likely to face execution than a wealthy individual who can afford the best lawyers money can hire.
Capital punishment is the ultimate consequence that can be meted out by a criminal justice system that is, shall we say, human and subject to the fallibility of human judgment and emotion. Judges, witnesses, criminologists, attorneys, and juries are all fallible, flesh-and-blood human beings. Our courts are susceptible to error. Our law grants the Chief Executive (the President, the Governor) the power to check the final judgment of the courts, partially in recognition of this fact.
California law also gives the Governor the power to grant clemency as an act of mercy. Implicit in the law is the belief that there are appropriate occasions for mercy to be granted. If Tookie Williams is not deserving of such mercy, then to what purpose was the Governor given this power?
All of these are familiar arguments. Let me put forward what may be a new thought:
Arnold wrestled with this decision for four days, for 96 long hours. News reports indicated it was an agonizing decision for Arnold to make. Let me put forward this proposition: If Tookie's clemency decision was agonizing to make, then Arnold's decision was really a no-brainer. If there is ever a plausible case to be made for sparing someone's life, then we need to choose life. Every time. This should be a familiar argument to the Christian Right.
Arnold played a movie character (the Terminator) who wasted dozens or even hundreds of other characters in his films. These were just make-belief deaths. Death and violence were depicted onscreen, but none of the actors actually died.
Arnold is now serving in a position in which his life-and-death decisions really do matter. Forever.
It was the will of countless Californians that clemency be offered to Tookie Williams. But only Arnold has the power to grant clemency, and the will of millions of Californians is powerless to affect the outcome of this case.
It was the feeling of countless Californians that reasonable doubt still existed in the case. We have no iron-clad guarantee that the California courts convicted the right man of four horrible murders. Substantial questions still exist, and just because the courts don't want to reexamine those issues, this does not guarantee that those haunting questions are not without merit.
Which brings me back to where I began this blog: May Tookie rest in peace ... and may Arnold have trouble sleeping at night.
In fact, may all of us have trouble sleeping at night, as we realize the fallibility of human judgment, as we contemplate a society that finds itself unable to grant mercy.
Capital punishment is an awful thing. It is an awful thing, knowingly, to take another's life, even if one could know with certainty that the condemned one was guilty of the grievous crimes that were committed. Killing in the name of the State serves no positive purpose. It does not protect society at large. It does not function as a meaningful deterrant. Countries without capital punishment have lower rates of violent crime than does the United States.
Capital punishment is applied haphazardly and inequitably. A person of color who murders a white person is statistically more likely to face execution than a white person who murders a person of color. A poor individual who cannot afford good legal representation is more likely to face execution than a wealthy individual who can afford the best lawyers money can hire.
Capital punishment is the ultimate consequence that can be meted out by a criminal justice system that is, shall we say, human and subject to the fallibility of human judgment and emotion. Judges, witnesses, criminologists, attorneys, and juries are all fallible, flesh-and-blood human beings. Our courts are susceptible to error. Our law grants the Chief Executive (the President, the Governor) the power to check the final judgment of the courts, partially in recognition of this fact.
California law also gives the Governor the power to grant clemency as an act of mercy. Implicit in the law is the belief that there are appropriate occasions for mercy to be granted. If Tookie Williams is not deserving of such mercy, then to what purpose was the Governor given this power?
All of these are familiar arguments. Let me put forward what may be a new thought:
Arnold wrestled with this decision for four days, for 96 long hours. News reports indicated it was an agonizing decision for Arnold to make. Let me put forward this proposition: If Tookie's clemency decision was agonizing to make, then Arnold's decision was really a no-brainer. If there is ever a plausible case to be made for sparing someone's life, then we need to choose life. Every time. This should be a familiar argument to the Christian Right.
Arnold played a movie character (the Terminator) who wasted dozens or even hundreds of other characters in his films. These were just make-belief deaths. Death and violence were depicted onscreen, but none of the actors actually died.
Arnold is now serving in a position in which his life-and-death decisions really do matter. Forever.
It was the will of countless Californians that clemency be offered to Tookie Williams. But only Arnold has the power to grant clemency, and the will of millions of Californians is powerless to affect the outcome of this case.
It was the feeling of countless Californians that reasonable doubt still existed in the case. We have no iron-clad guarantee that the California courts convicted the right man of four horrible murders. Substantial questions still exist, and just because the courts don't want to reexamine those issues, this does not guarantee that those haunting questions are not without merit.
Which brings me back to where I began this blog: May Tookie rest in peace ... and may Arnold have trouble sleeping at night.
In fact, may all of us have trouble sleeping at night, as we realize the fallibility of human judgment, as we contemplate a society that finds itself unable to grant mercy.
posted by David Ourisman at 4:00 PM
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