An Eye for an Eye

It may be the twenty-first century, but the American legal system is still in the Dark Ages. We're still killing those who kill. Stanley "Tookie" Williams, cofounder of the Crips gang and convicted killer, was executed this morning in California at San Quentin State Prison. The United States is one of the only world powers that still executes criminals. Execution is illegal in the European Union.

Yes, Williams killed people, but he did a great deal of work, while on death row, to dissuade teenagers from joining gangs. He was nominated for Nobel Prizes in peace and in literatuare. Even if he had continued to be unrepentant, he should not have been executed. Why? Because human life is sacred. And because the threat of execution in no way deters people from committing crimes. And because by executing people, we become killers ourselves.

Instead of killing criminals, we should be revamping the penal system to rehabilitate them. But we should go even further: We should be working harder to eliminate poverty and hunger and homelessness and prejudice, to make mental health services more readily accessible to everyone, and to provide educational assistance to learning-disabled students of all racial and ethnic groups. If we were to remove the barriers that so many people in this country face, our prison population would decrease substantially.


execution Stanley Tookie Williams gangs prison penal system crime rehabilitation poverty hunger education prejudice EditorMom