The Use of the Death Penalty
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will hear arguments on Thursday about whether or not to reduce a convicted murder's sentence from death, to life in prison without parole. The death penalty always stirs up controversy, but this case is particularly in the news for two reasons.
First of all, the prisoner in question, Stanley Williams, was a co-founder of the Crips, but while in prison for murder renounced his life of violence. He wrote children's books urging kids not to join gangs, and earned nominations for the Nobel peace prize for attempting to halt gang violence. Second, a California study of death row inmates between 1990 and 1999 shows that people convicted of murdering whites were three to four times as likely to end up on death row as people convicted of murdering Latinos and African-Americans. Williams, an African-American, was convicted of murdering one white person and three Asians.
Some people want the execution to happen as planned, on December 13, as punishment for the murders. Other people want the sentence reduced to life in prison. An article and related links can be found here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051206/ts_alt_afp/
usexecutionrace_051206065347
If you were the governor, what decision would you make in this case?
First of all, the prisoner in question, Stanley Williams, was a co-founder of the Crips, but while in prison for murder renounced his life of violence. He wrote children's books urging kids not to join gangs, and earned nominations for the Nobel peace prize for attempting to halt gang violence. Second, a California study of death row inmates between 1990 and 1999 shows that people convicted of murdering whites were three to four times as likely to end up on death row as people convicted of murdering Latinos and African-Americans. Williams, an African-American, was convicted of murdering one white person and three Asians.
Some people want the execution to happen as planned, on December 13, as punishment for the murders. Other people want the sentence reduced to life in prison. An article and related links can be found here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051206/ts_alt_afp/
usexecutionrace_051206065347
If you were the governor, what decision would you make in this case?
posted by Crosby | 9:16 PM
8 Comments:
I think that Stanley should not serve life in prison and he should recive the death penalty. He helped start a gang and he murdered 4 people, but I'm supposed to reconsider based on the fact that he supposedly gave up violence. So I guess I could go kill 4 people, start a gang, and then suddenly write a book against crime and win the Nobel peace prize for attempting to halt gang violence. WOW doesn't that sound strange to you? He kills 4 people he should die. An eye for an eye.
I agree that you should not punish someone for murder by murdering them. What lesson does that teach? It is just like your parents yelling at you not to yell. It teaches you nothing, just that people with higher power have the right to do things against the law (or rules) that people with lesser power do not have. Murder is not the answer no matter how much power you have. Murder was not the answer for Stanley, look at the situation it got him into, and is not the answer for the government. Stanley did something wrong, he should be punished. As Kendra said life behind bars is no party and will be a harsh enough punishment for him.
Well, Williams was executed last night. So, is the world somehow better now than it was while he was sitting in prison?
It is interesting that in the United States, more than any other place on earth, people talk about the nation being founded on Christian principles. (You may agree or disagree with whether it really was or not - all I am saying is that people seem to say that a lot in the US). And yet, here's a guy who apparently gave up his evil gang-founder ways and tried to use the remainder of his life to combat the very gang he started, but he was executed anyway. So much for redemption.
I think that even though he did something bad, he should not be killed for it. Killing someone for killing another person isn't right. Besides, I think it would be worse to sit in jail and think about what you did than it would be to die.
Will we ever really know whether Williams repented or not? What he did was unexcusable, and though he ended up, supposedly, trying to stop gang violence, he still had to receive the punishment for his crime--which was decided before he started advocating peace and anti-gang warfare.
Although life behind bars is a bad punishment, does someone who kills another deserve to live? If someone you knew was murrdered, say a family member, would you want the killer to go to jail where he could possibaly be relased, or would you rather have him get the death penalty so he could not harm anyone ever again? Personally I would choose the second.
When I mentioned repentance, I didn't mean that Williams repented for the murders - he actually maintained his innocence regarding the murders. I just meant that while in prison, he seemed to turn his life around and tried to help others stay out of situations like those that led to his death.
I agree with kendravvv, it is inexcusable that Stanley Williams took part in murder. However, he should not be executed for it, even if he had not repented. I don't believe in the death penalty because I don't think it helps anybody, it justs helps the cycle of killing and revenge. If we want peace, we have to start in our prisons.
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