Morituri

Morituri

Early this morning, Stanley "Tookie" Williams was put to death in San Quentin State Prison in California. Putting feelings about Williams's guilt aside, I would just like to note that this is another victory for the "pro-death" wing of the Republican Party.

I had a long discussion about this with Clarence, one of my home nurses, who is as black as Mr. Williams. "He deserved it; he killed a lot of people," Clarence said. Indeed, Williams was a bad man. Therefore, the argument goes, he did not merit clemency.

But, I must ask, when does clemency apply to "good men"? If you are not on Death Row for having committed murder, then why are you seeking a pardon from the governor? Schwarzenegger noted in his remarks denying clemency that Williams had not confessed to his crimes, and that without "repentance" there can be no "redemption." Using religious vocabulary, the Governator assumed the role of Pope.

Yet, what does the Pope say on this subject? The late John Paul spoke often of the dignity of each and every human being, and the "seamless garment of life." If you are pro-life, then you must be pro-life from the moment of conception to the moment of death. Nothing else will do.

They used the excuse of Williams's lack of repentance to carry on with the execution. But, when Governor Bush ruled Texas, he gleefully put Carla Fay Tucker to death, even though she had confessed, adopted Bush-style born-again Christianity and thrown herself on the mercy of the state. It's a no-win game, this death penalty. Russian roulette with all cylinders loaded. If the convict maintains innocence, then he or she must be without a conscience and therefore worthy of death. If the convict confesses all and repents, then the confession must not be "sincere."

Pro-lifers of the Republican ilk always proclaim their desire to protect the lives of the innocent. Yet, what of the 122 death-row inmates across the country who have either been exonerated or had their penalties re-evaluated due to corrupted evidence? In speaking of repentance and redemption, politicians like the governor invoke the mind of God. Who else but God can know the soul of a man? Yet, God said "My ways are not your ways." In Genesis, Abraham pleaded with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah if even one innocent man dwelled among a city of sinners. How, then, can our government set itself above God, and set about to slay the guilty alongside the innocent? Where is the justice in the American way of death?

Capital punishment is a game in this country--a vile, sordid and political game played out for the most cynical purposes. When the state takes the life of an "evildoer" (to borrow a phrase from Illustrious George) people like Clarence are fooled into believing justice has been fulfilled. Nothing can be further from the truth. In a land without justice, killing one man provides nothing but an empty, nihilistic sense of vengeful fulfillment.

What the Republicans, establishment Democrats and oligarchic theocrats want the public to do is shut up, go to work in their crummy, low-wage jobs without healthcare and continue to put themselves out of work by slouching through the aisles at Wal-Mart in a perpetual search for Chinese-manufactured, crappy products.

The death penalty is a platform for demagoguery--nothing more. Global warming? Forget about it: Tookie Williams has met the needle. 2140 soldiers dead and $300 billion blown in a futile Iraq war? Forget about it: Tookie Williams has met the needle. Hurricane Katrina? Forget about it; the world is OK because the State of California has put one man to death in cold blood.