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We are forwarding this article at Kalima Aswad's request, please feel
free<br>
to reprint as long as it is properly attributed to him- and forward
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necessarily reflect CAPS. Please contact us if you would like
Kalima's<br>
address to correspond with him in prison.<br><br>
<br>
Must Tookie Be Executed?<br>
By Kalima Aswad<br>
(A Political Prisoner in Vacaville, California)<br>
October 15, 2005<br><br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The state
of California, backed by the U.S. Supreme Court, says, "Yes,<br>
the public is better off by killing Tookie Williams." If it
has not<br>
already done so, California will set an execution date for Tookie<br>
Williams in a few days.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>I never
met Tookie and haven’t had the pleasure of reading any of the<br>
several books he has written, but as an Ex-death row prisoner myself,
I<br>
feel a need to speak in his behalf. I got off death row 33 years
ago and<br>
am still in prison. I, along with others who got off death row in
1972,<br>
but remain incarcerated, are living proof that public protection is
not<br>
justified by state imposed murder.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Even if he
is guilty, must Tookie die? His case is unique because he has<br>
been convicted of murder and he is also credited with saving many
from<br>
following the path of the crime violence that marked his early
life. It<br>
is generally accepted that if one kills a person it is as if he
killed<br>
the whole people. On the other hand, if one saves a life, it is as
if he<br>
saved the life of the whole people.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>One of the
things that gives justification to government’s existence is<br>
that it protect the people, but not in any way it sees fit. It also
has<br>
the responsibility of catering to the real needs of its citizens.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The
situation in the black communities in California and all across this<br>
land is desperate. People are living in a state of fear as gangs
run<br>
rampant in seas of alcohol, crime, drugs, and violence.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>For a long
time, people of these communities have been crying out for<br>
protection help from anybody: police (who often turn out to be a
bigger<br>
source of fear than the gangs they are asked to control), preachers,<br>
doctors, lawyers anybody who can help turn the situation around.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>What I’m
saying is not difficult to confirm. Turn on any news telecast<br>
on any given day and the painful message of another shooting death
blares<br>
out a mother’s agony at her child being blown away in another
senseless<br>
act of violence.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>
"Tookie the Terrible, " from death row, the one held largely
responsible<br>
for the gang violence, writes from his prison cell on San Quentin’s
death<br>
row, pleading for young people to turn away from the lifestyles that
lead<br>
to crime, drugs, and violence, and to turn to education and
productive<br>
lives.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>So
forceful have been his efforts that he was nominated more than once<br>
for the Nobel Peace Prize, the most prestigious award in the world
today.<br>
Powerful people in the U.S. opposed the Nobel nominations.
"It would be<br>
wrong to reward this guy. He is criminal!" they cried.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>That is an
interesting argument because this nation embarked upon a<br>
program of slavery; there was genocide against Native Americans; and
the<br>
internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, among other
things,<br>
that depict an ugly part of its history. It insists that people
learn to<br>
accept those facts and to "look at what America stands for
today."<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>If it’s
right for people to judge America by what it stands for today,<br>
isn’t it right for Tookie to be judged the same way? Why is there
such<br>
an obsession with the notion that people in Tookie’s situation have
no<br>
redeemable qualities? Richard Nixon and G. Gordon Liddy, etc. of
the<br>
Watergate era could do it and so could Alabama’s governor George
Wallace,<br>
but for a nobody like Tookie, "he can’t contribute anything to
society." <br>
That’s why they execute people, they say.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>I think
there are at least two other reasons California is in such a<br>
hurry to execute Tookie. One, the state has failed miserably in its
own<br>
method of dealing with the gang/violence problems and it needs to make
an<br>
example out of someone to cover up its own ineptness. The second
reason<br>
is that because he has the ability to reach out and help young
people<br>
change their lives around it makes the state’s ineptness even more<br>
apparent.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Former
governor and so-called liberal, Jerry Brown wants to run for the<br>
State Attorney General’s Office. It would be interesting to see
what he<br>
has to say on the issue of whether under the circumstances of Tookie<br>
turning his life around the way he did, executing him would be more<br>
beneficial to the people of California and the nation than commuting
his<br>
sentence to life in prison.<br>
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