Tookie Williams and the Death Penalty
I was never really expecting Arnold Schwarzeneggar to commute Tookie Williams's death sentence, and now, in the aftermath of the execution, we can only ponder once again the moral bankruptcy of the American justice system.
Tony Blair was asked in parliament about the the fact that 97% of the world's executions take place in China, Vietnam, and the United States. These days, it is the worst human rights violators that generally carry out capital punishment, which means that the US is in particularly interesting company. While condemning capital punishment, Blair, in his response, predictably made excuses for the United States, claiming that the US is a nation characterized by "the rule of law".
Claiming that the US has "the rule of law" is a rather bizarre claim in light of the fact that the US has almost certainly was imprisoning individuals in secret European countries, carried out by agents of the CIA who acted with impunity and beyond the rule of law. And it is also bizarre to talk of the "rule of law" when the US President flouts international law and has advisors who claim that the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the US when it imprisons its "terror suspects", or when it renders to them to other countries to be tortured, or when its own CIA carries out torture in those secret prisons.
Furthermore, when we talk of the "rule of law" in a society where black people are more likely to be executed than white people, it makes a mockery of the very concept.
But let's ignore all of that and suppose that the US really is a nation of justice and law. Blair claimed that "though I strongly disagree with the death penalty, I think if we're looking for human rights abuses it is sometimes right to look elsewhere at severe human rights abuses that happen around the rest of the world." This statement ignores the fact that capital punishment is, in and of itself, a human rights abuse--something that the EU itself recognizes.
Schwarzeneggar's refusal to commute the death sentence is part of a deeper problem in American culture. It has little to do with which party rules a state government. Schwarzeneggar's predecessor, Gray Davis, was a Democrat who staunchly supported the death penalty. Meanwhile, it was a Republican governor in Illinois who instituted a death penalty moratorium.
Tookie Williams will not write any more children's books condemning gang violence, because he is now dead. Such is the irrevocable outcome of taking a human life as a form of punishment--you can't undo death. This is one of the myriad problems with capital punishment. It is important to remember that this isn't about Tookie Williams per se, or his rehabilitation in prison or the books he has written, or whether or not he ever admitted his guilt. It is about all executions, and the morally wrong path that a nation takes when it carries out capital punishment
Tony Blair was asked in parliament about the the fact that 97% of the world's executions take place in China, Vietnam, and the United States. These days, it is the worst human rights violators that generally carry out capital punishment, which means that the US is in particularly interesting company. While condemning capital punishment, Blair, in his response, predictably made excuses for the United States, claiming that the US is a nation characterized by "the rule of law".
Claiming that the US has "the rule of law" is a rather bizarre claim in light of the fact that the US has almost certainly was imprisoning individuals in secret European countries, carried out by agents of the CIA who acted with impunity and beyond the rule of law. And it is also bizarre to talk of the "rule of law" when the US President flouts international law and has advisors who claim that the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the US when it imprisons its "terror suspects", or when it renders to them to other countries to be tortured, or when its own CIA carries out torture in those secret prisons.
Furthermore, when we talk of the "rule of law" in a society where black people are more likely to be executed than white people, it makes a mockery of the very concept.
But let's ignore all of that and suppose that the US really is a nation of justice and law. Blair claimed that "though I strongly disagree with the death penalty, I think if we're looking for human rights abuses it is sometimes right to look elsewhere at severe human rights abuses that happen around the rest of the world." This statement ignores the fact that capital punishment is, in and of itself, a human rights abuse--something that the EU itself recognizes.
Schwarzeneggar's refusal to commute the death sentence is part of a deeper problem in American culture. It has little to do with which party rules a state government. Schwarzeneggar's predecessor, Gray Davis, was a Democrat who staunchly supported the death penalty. Meanwhile, it was a Republican governor in Illinois who instituted a death penalty moratorium.
Tookie Williams will not write any more children's books condemning gang violence, because he is now dead. Such is the irrevocable outcome of taking a human life as a form of punishment--you can't undo death. This is one of the myriad problems with capital punishment. It is important to remember that this isn't about Tookie Williams per se, or his rehabilitation in prison or the books he has written, or whether or not he ever admitted his guilt. It is about all executions, and the morally wrong path that a nation takes when it carries out capital punishment
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