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11-21-05,8:46am
Dear Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger:
Let me put my cards on the table. I am not only opposed to capital punishment; I'm opposed to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. I believe with Gandhi that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. I believe in mercy and forgiveness.
But make no mistake, I do not take murder lightly. I am appalled by our national homicide epidemic, and I refuse to be entertained by purveyors of violence in the media. Nor will I ever forget the victims and their families. It sickens me that we turn serial killers into celebrities; it saddens me that we so egregiously neglect the victims.
I have promised myself not to write about the death penalty without first honoring the victims. So, today, I honor Albert Owen, Thsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang and Yee Chen Ling.
They were the victims of the crimes for which Stanley "Tookie" Williams stands convicted, and for which he is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Dec. 13, unless you intercede on his behalf.
I am ashamed to say I know almost nothing about the four victims. But I do know a lot about Williams. Not about the Crips thug who allegedly committed those 1979 murders, but about the man so many of us now admire and love -- the man who speaks out against gangs and guns, the author whose life work has moved us to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Today, Williams understands deeply what we all need to learn about gang-banging: It is wrong, preventable and best addressed by those among us who provide social programs and compassion rather than cages and lethal injections.
I think Williams should receive the Nobel Prize because he teaches our children peace and because he embodies the miracle of rehabilitation. But I also propose that Williams share his Nobel Prize with Thsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang, Yee Chen Ling and Albert Owen. Let them represent our capacity for forgiveness and our recognition that to heal from violence we must do much more than punish the "bad guys." We must transform our society.
Governor, I can give you all the standard arguments for abolishing the death penalty: It is ineffective as a deterrent. It is racially biased, inhumane and unevenly applied. With every execution, we increase the risk of killing an innocent person, as indeed may be the case with Williams.
But, most of all, the death penalty dishonors the victims. Capital punishment's message is that we, too, pull the trigger on unarmed men. We keep them in a cell for 25 years. We shackle them like animals, by hand and by foot. We ignore their potential for change. And, finally, we exterminate them, according to our laws and customs. The death penalty is bad law and bad custom.
I learned the truth about murder and murder victims from Dr. Martin Luther King. In 1963, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., was attacked by terrorists. An 11-year old girl, Carol McNair, and three 14-year-olds, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, were slain.
Dr. King -- five years before his own murder -- spoke at their funeral. The girls, he explained: "have something to say. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers.
"Death is not a blind alley," King told the dead girls' parents, "it's an open door."
Gov. Schwarzenegger, open the door to redemption. Do the right thing. Grant clemency to Stanley Tookie Williams.
David Howard, of Ojai, California, is co-chairman of CPR/Ventura County Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions. E-mail to: DavidHoward@aol.com.
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