Gang Co-Founder Is Executed in Calif.
Having exhausted his appeals, Williams, 51, who co-founded the notorious Crips gang, was killed via injection at 12:35 p.m. Pacific time (3:35 EST) for four murders committed during two separate robberies in Southern California in 1979.
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The burly Williams, who had maintained his innocence since his arrest, gained prominence speaking out against gang violence in a series of children's books and through writings appealing directly to gangs. His supporters have said that the evidence against him was weak, that his lawyers botched his trial, and that during his years on death row his conversion to an anti-gang advocate made him a strong candidate for mercy.
I wonder if the alleged victim's family feels safer now that Tookie is dead. I have a little experience at being the victim's family (I won't go into it here) and can honestly say that if the accused (never proven, but I don't think even proof would matter in my mind) were killed, I would not feel better about our loss.
The death penalty doesn't make economic, social, or psychological sense. Rather it is a morbid medevial holdover.
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1 comment:
I know--I voted in the aol poll and was saddened to see 68% of the people who voted in the poll thought he shouldn't be spared. Getting rid of the death penalty should be right up there with other rights issues for all of us.
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