How Relevant is Tookie's "Repentance?"

How important is it whether or not Mr. Williams has really seen the error of his ways, in deciding whether or not he should have gotten the Death Penalty.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

that's it.

Knowing nothing about the case, i'd say probability has it he didn't do it.

To the point however: i'm opposed to DP.
So while i think repenting is important (but only in case of actual guilt) - i also think it bears no relevance to applying DP or not.

Knowing nothing about the case, i'd say probability has it he didn't do it.

If you know nothing of the case, how can you say that?

All sorts of possible answer spring to mind.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

involving blacks, white judges/juries, rigged convictions and death penalty.
Haven't you noticed?

but it ain't relevant anymore.

....and he may have been.
....in any case the debate over his execution should not stop now that the execution has been carried out.

still VERY relevant.

differentiate between those who approve of the death penalty for Williams who thereby don't think his repentance is releveant, and those who are opposed to the death penalty under any circumstances who thereby don't think his repentance is relevant.

It makes it hard to determine what the results of your poll would actually indicate.

I'd be curious to hear from someone who supports the death penalty and yet thinks that his repentance (or lack thereof) is irrelevent. I guess they would have to be opposed to clemency in all cases?

Relevent to what? Whether he should have received clemency? IF so, it's very relevent as he never redeamed himself and thus was not deserving of clemency.

It certainly has no relevence to whether he should have been sentenced to death. All that is relevent to that decision is the law as it stood in 1979.

knows the content of each person's heart, and always knows.

Salaam.

What is absolutely wrong is for the state to execute a different person from the one who did the crime. In the case of Karla Tucker, for example, they did just that. She had confronted her crime and her demons, made public apology and asked for mercy, which Junior didn't grant. The state of Texas, in its long wait and then killing of her, put to death a changed person, someone different from the perpetrator.

In the case of Tookie Williams, as I understand it, although his crimes were established beyond doubt, he never copped to it, never asked for forgiveness, but kept the convict "front" going until the end. He was unchanged, and the person who committed the crime was banished from life.

I think that repentance, forgiveness and change are a very big deal, and should be a part of the process.

even many decades ago when support for the death penalty was higher than it is today. Repentance and reform are common factors in deciding whether to commute a sentence. Everything I've heard about the situation suggests Williams changed voluntarily. I don't see how it's not relevant.

I haven't kept in touch with all the details of the murder case, but I've thought for years that the truce between the Crips and Bloods was an important piece of diplomacy that showed a lot of maturity and saved many lives. Regardless of whether you support the death penalty, I think this needed to be given more weight in deciding whether to commute the sentence.

Nor do 12 other states.

How important is it that the prosecutor in Tookie's case decided to seek the DP, but the prosecutor in OJ's case didn't?

Go figure.

Mn. always will be a non-death penalty state.
every legislative session a DP bill is put in play but even the GOP members bury it.

still, i feel part of the whole (country). I am responsible through my acquiesence for the heinous death penalty in Calif. as I would be in Mn.

End it now!