"The Future Is With Me"

At its core, this site is about my journey through fatherhood. Apart from the occasional aside regarding the Yankees, a pointer to a link I've found amusing, or a recent post on music, I've made a conscious effort to keep most peripheral aspects of my life off of this site. I'm certainly not concerned about my privacy (can any who hosts a blog be worried about privacy?), it's just that I want my site to have a clear focus, free of politics.

Tonight, however, I find myself at the intersection of politics and fatherhood, specifically that place where our legal system shapes the world in which my wife and I are raising our three children. At one minute past midnight tonight Stanley "Tookie" Williams was executed by lethal injection in California's San Quentin State Prison. Williams was convicted of murder twenty-five years ago, but has never waivered in maintaining his innocence. To my way of thinking, his guilt or innocence is irrelevant. The death penalty is morally offensive, and it saddens me that my children will one day ask me to explain the difference between murder and capitol punishment.

Greater men than I have voiced these same thoughts much more eloquently. The renowned defense attorney Clarence Darrow, arguing in defense of clients Leopold and Loeb spoke of the idea that future generations will look upon the death penalty with the same revulsion with which we view barbaric practices of the past. His words:

I know the future is with me, and what I stand for here; not merely for the lives of these two unfortunate lads, but for all boys and all girls; for all of the young, and as far as possible, for all of the old. I am pleading for life, understanding, charity, kindness, and the infinite mercy that considers all. I am pleading that we overcome cruelty with kindness and hatred with love. I know the future is on my side. Your Honor stands between the past and the future. You may hang these boys; you may hang them by the neck until they are dead. But in doing it you will turn your face toward the past... I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man. (September 1924)

And so with my children in my arms, I face the future. It is my sincerest hope that we will all see the day when Darrow's words come to fruition.

Comments

[Chocolate Makes it Better]

We recently had an Australian executed in Singapore for smuggling heroin. He was 24 years old and it was a terrible waste of life. I think the death penalty is a very very harsh penalty and only a race with the arrogance of humans would think that we have the right to determine if someone should live or die.

It’s a hard call. I don’t agree with it, but then again, I haven’t had anyone in my family murdered, raped or killed by drugs.

[Dutch]

Darrow was one of the finest americans of the twentieth century. his closing arguments in L&L and in the Ossian Sweet trial can bring me to tears just reading them.

I kept expecting arnold to make a cinematic last-minute clemency change of heart, but the heartless bastard never did. to express your frustration with the government sanctioned murder of a lone individual is not "politics." It's the kind of thing that you can't really separate from who you are. So good for you.

[EJ]

I'm personally opposed to the death penalty, but can be sympathetic to its supporters (data on its effect on crime rates is decidedly mixed, so the empirical argument is, at best, ambiguous). Question: what about Tookie's execution moves you to comment? California, with only 12 executions in roughly 30 years, is pretty restrained relative to other states in the union. Williams, clearly, was not a good guy and did many bad things. Maybe he repented in jail, maybe not, but what about the innocents (in Illinois, and doubtless elsewhere) who have taken the needle/noose/jolt/etc? With so many outrages perpetrated in the name of the death penalty, I am honestly perplexed why a guy like this got as much attention as he did.

[Hank]

There was nothing in particular about the Tookie Williams case that moved me to write about it aside from the execution itself. Williams had gained a ton of attention locally and natioinally (and even internationally) because it wasn't just the anti-death penalty people protesting; he had become a celebrity of sorts, inspiring countless supporters. He was, afterall, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. (And if you think Tookie got a lot of attention, just wait until Mumia's number comes up.) But as I said in my original post, it isn't about innocence or guilt for me, or even crime rates, for that matter. It's about the State of California's legal choice to end a citizen's life.