Wednesday, December 14, 2005
THE ARGUMENT FOR THE DEATH PENALTY
Does the right to life extend to those behind bars...ALL of those behind bars?
The recent execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams in California serves as a perfect case study for when the death penalty is acceptable, even under the stringent standards of the Catholic Church. In almost no circumstance will the Vatican find the death penalty acceptable, however, there is an exception: The circumstances of the life and crimes of Stanley Williams is one of them.
The Church's current teachings on the Death Penalty and its use stem from Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical "Evangelium Vitae". In this papal letter addressed to the church's hierarchy, Pope Paul wrote that a government may only execute an individual "in cases of absolute necessity, in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady improvement in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically nonexistent." Tookie Williams however, despite the hollow propaganda of the left, is just such a case. Violent gang member, Williams, posed a continuing danger to society both in and out of the California correctional system. This was an execution even the Pope could endorse.
The mainstream media has ignored the realities of the Williams' case in order to promote an anti-death penalty agenda. To present this mass murderer as a martyr is an insult to victims everywhere. True, the left has made a valiant attempt at misleading most people into thinking of the reborn Williams as a benign "children's book author" who was nominated for the Nobel prize but the reality is a far cry from this pretty picture. Yes, he did write a couple of books and, along with such luminaries as Hitler and Stalin, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. None of this, however, excuses his unrepentant crimes for which he was originally placed in prison, nor does it prove that he was no longer a threat to society even from his cloistered location behind steel bars. In fact, as the founder of the Crips, "Tookie" Williams had the power to order the murder of anyone he desired and many lived in fear that he would. In fact, "Tookie" is his original gang name, a moniker that many observers, including this author, couldn't help but notice that Williams' failed to renounce.
So feared was Tookie Williams from behind bars that the majority of the relatives of Williams' victims were afraid to even speak to the media about the clemency issue which confronted Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Those watching either the FOX or CNN news networks would have noticed that, among the numerous guests arguing for or against the execution of Williams, nowhere to be found were the relatives of Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Yang or Yee-Chin Lin, whom Williams executed in cold blood. Their absence highlighted the justifiable fear of retaliation from the Crips, the notorious gang that Williams founded that is responsible for the murders of thousands of individuals. How did the Crips get their name? Founding member, Williams', mandated that you had to cripple a person in order to qualify for membership. This is a man who is beyond redemption.
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