Two Death Penalty problems:

The death penalty is not unconstitutional, and it does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Whether it is a deterrent or not doesn’t matter. Tookie Williams shot an unarmed person in the back. He is no longer with us, so he, at least, can never commit murder again. But I have two problems with the current death penalty. The first involves the time frames involved. The second is the method.

The time it takes from conviction to execution is way too long. No doubt defendants should have appeal rights, and should have a chance to ask for clemency or even pardon from the governor, but 30 years on death row? He gets to write children’s books? I’ve written children’s books which no publisher has taken; should I get special access to a publisher, or do I have to kill someone to get that privilege? 3 years seems to me long enough.

The method of lethal injection is too easy. The horror and pain and affliction the murderer inflicted on his victims and the loved ones of his victims should be visited on him. This is not torture, this is not cruel. Hanging or the firing squad are many times less cruel than what happened to the victim.

Those who object to the death penalty because they don’t like the government having that authority have a point. If someone is imprisoned unjustly, they can be set free, but if they are executed, they can not be brought back to life. This is a legitimate argument, but two things: 1. If we only execute people when there is absolutely no doubt about the guilt (remember they do have appeal rights), we won’t execute innocent people; 2. The government has a responsibility to protect the law abiding citizen. Harsh punishment for harsh crimes can lead to a safer society.

One thing on the deterrent question: Deterrent statistics are inherently flawed because there is no way to quantify something that doesn’t happen. No one can ever get a number on how many murders didn’t happen because the would-be murderer was afraid of the punishment. The stats are also flawed because when death penalty states are compared to non death penalty states, the length of time between conviction and execution is never factored into the equation.

Tookie has gone to meet his maker. That is a good thing. If his execution never deters a crime, I believe it is because the time frames are too long and the method is too sanitized. Life is precious. I wouldn’t suggest it be taken away lightly, but when someone indiscriminately murders several people, they have forfeited their own life. That's the bottom line.