Guest Post by Morbo
I don’t pretend to be an expert on Christian theology. I was raised in a Christian home but concede I have strayed far from that upbringing. But I remember enough to know that a core Christian doctrine is that everyone always has hope for redemption. Amazing grace, after all, could even save a wretch like me.
The problem is getting your hands on some of that amazing grace and persuading Christians to go to bat for you. If you’re Stanley Tookie Williams, you found grace, redemption and indeed forgiveness in short supply.
Williams was executed at California’s San Quentin Prison Tuesday morning. He had been sitting on death row for years, having been found guilty of murdering four people during two robberies in 1979.
Williams maintained his innocence, and there are people who believe him. I don’t know enough about his case to make an informed judgment. I do know that lots of men behind bars insist they aren’t guilty, that it was all a frame-up. Although he denied being a killer, Williams admitted he had a violent past. He went on to assert that the man California sentenced to death more than two decades ago was not the same man facing lethal injection today.
Williams educated himself while locked up. Although he was cofounder of a violent street gang called the Crips, Williams spoke out against gang violence and even worked with a writer to produce children’s books denouncing gang violence.
In his petition for clemency, Williams spoke of his “personal, spiritual transformation over the years.” He said he had come to understand “what a simple human being is capable of achieving through education and study and thought.”
Williams made a strong case for his personal redemption. His supporters mustered outside voices to speak for him, including some celebrities. Yet most of the religious leaders on the list were Roman Catholic prelates, who oppose the death penalty in most cases. Other members of the clergy, it seems, were more interested in Old Testament modes of justice — “an eye for an eye” — to take notice of the man Williams had become.
The story has a predictable outcome.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, sagging in the polls and facing reelection next year, probably never seriously considered Williams’ plea that his sentence be reduced to life in prison. A headline in The Washington Post said it all : “Schwarzenegger Clemency Denial Called Politically Safe.”
Even after Schwarzenegger denied the request, there was still time for a final insult: It took the technician 12 minutes to find a vein on Williams’ left arm in which to pump the lethal chemicals. Imagine lying on a gurney for 12 agonizing minutes while someone poked around your arm, looking for the best way to kill you.
Williams got so frustrated he asked the technician if there was anything he could do to help out. Calm to the end, he died at 12:35 a.m. Pacific time.
I know the man was no saint. I don’t think he should have been released. He was found guilty by a jury and deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison. I just wish that in these cases, the Christians among us, especially the conservative ones, could occasionally find something other than bloodlust to guide them — perhaps an appreciation for the redemptive power of their own faith, as outlined by its founder.