I was going to write a post about Tookie Williams, et al, but Flight Pundit has already said it for me:
...Should Tookie receive death for the brutal murder he was convicted of? No, I can think of a thousand ways to punish him that is worse than death.I added, "I also have one more reason for being against the death penalty. As a Christian, I believe in the possibility of redemption. So in my mind, allowing someone to continue to live gives opportunity for them to desire/find that redemption and positively impact the world. I’m not comfortable with the idea that we flawed humans are collectively wise enough to know when it’s okay to cut someone off from that opportunity forever."
My Christianity figures strongly in my anti-death-penalty stance. I accept and recognize the Old Testament endorsement of capital punishment, but that was under theocratic government in which the judges and people were of the same religious mind, and attempting to determine the will of God. We don't live under a theocracy, and as I wrote above, "I'm not comfortable with the idea that we flawed humans are collectively wise enough..."
Better safe then sorry. Let him live in the knowledge of what he's done. Someday he might understand.
For an alternate (and very powerful) perspective on this topic, see what a prosecutor wrote at Captain's Quarters.
