BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US ex-gang boss Williams executed
Former gang leader Stanley “Tookie” Williams has been executed by lethal injection, 24 years after he was convicted of killing four people
Regardless of whether Williams was guilty or not, I still don’t believe it is right to take another life as a punishment for any crime. It makes us no better than the criminal. This has nothing to do with religion, it is just a belief of mine.
There was some doubt about the conviction in this case, and couple that with the steps that Williams had taken in recent years, including being nominated for a Nobel Peace prize sheds some doubt on the original conviction. I always thought that someone had to be convicted ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. I can’t believe that there wasn’t any doubt in this case and after all it was 24 years ago that he was originally convicted.
You see, I know nothing about the case other than I have read in the press. I know nothing about his crime, nor anything about the victims of the crime. I don’t know what he said at the orginal trial, or what he has been saying lately.
What I can say, is that I have seen on the news that some person (a fellow human) was put to death by another human, intentionally, by lethal injection this morning around 8am GMT. That is the part I cannot understand. There is no place for the ‘eye for an eye’ punishment. Lock them in a room, throw away the key, put them in a bricked up room with a hatch for the rest of their life, but it doesn’t give us the right to take another life. We can make mistakes too, then what do we do? If we condone someone else to death only to find that we got it wrong, do we then send the judge and jury to the chamber? I don’t think so.
Again, were it any of my children whose lives where taken, then would I still feel the same way? I would hope so.
