San Francisco: Day of Action Against Executions

Then we can talk about lessor criminals

I am not advocating for any actual execution, but I am making the point that in my opionion, the aforementioned (in my above posting) criminals are far worse than Tookie could ever have been.
Just wanted to make that clear, I don't want any secret svc. mis-interpreting the meaning of my statement---It was purely meant as theoretical.

You embrace this killer, but have you done anything for the victims' families? There are consequences to murder, he should not have killed.

So, it's OK when chickenhawk politicians are responsible for thousands of murders, but not when a poor person of color may be....Hmmm

hhahaha i love the above comment true shit right there...anywho he HAS faced consiquences hes been a slave to the prison industrial system for years and that shit is more than just sitting in your bunk all day and if i listed the things that go on in jail id the administrator would probably delete this comment for being obscene not to mention how many lives he has saved and improved threw his work in jail so why dont all the ppl that wanna exicute tookie go kill yer self right now so we can save some bullets during the revolution...

just keeping it perspective

The death penalty is on of the things that disturbs me most about this country. My major problem with it is that it an irreversable punishment, and if DNA or other highly conclusive evidence is found after execution- what are you going to do? I also do not believe that is man's place to choose matters of life or death- but that is neither here nor there, as (unlike certain fanatical right wing Christians) I avoid mixing my religious beliefs with my politics. Having the death penalty in place also characterizes the penal system as one which does not aim to help criminals repent, rather, it is purely one of punishment, where repentance doesn't mean a thing.

That aside- why Tookie? I realize that he has worked hard on stopping gangs, etc, but he clearly has not repented for the acts that he is in prison for. He refuses to apologize to the families of his victims. So, I ask again, why Tookie? Why can't death penalty activists concentrate more on a general death penalty moratorium- writing letters to their representatives, etc- than exhausting their resources on one man who has not fully repented?

"Why can't death penalty activists concentrate more on a general death penalty moratorium- writing letters to their representatives, etc- than exhausting their resources"

activists *could* focus only on a *general* moratorium, but that would be to ignore the many very real individuals and their cases. also, there is a better chance of saving Tookie now than there is of some kind of immediate total moratorium

no one is *exhausting* their resources. activists are quite capable of fighting on the individual and general fronts at the same time. often it is one and the same front

"why Tookie?"

it's not just Tookie. it's many individuals. it's everyone on death row. Tookie, though, is a person who has influenced many other lives for the better and has been internationally recognized for his efforts.

"one man who has not fully repented"

that's the Catch-22 pro-death penalty people love to throw out there - "he didn't even repent - he didn't repent, so he deserves to die."

if he did publicly "repent" as you and they say (regardless of his actual guilt or innocence), then the pro-death people would all say, "well, he did it, he even admitted to it, so he deserves to die". it wouldn't make a lick of difference to pro-execution folks.

Once again, I DO NOT in any way support the death penalty. My question was why him, above the others.

Thanks to "wrong assumptions," though. Though I would prefer to spend anti- death penalty money on things that will always have value, like signs that call for a moratorium rather than just for Tookie, I definitely see your point of helping to save "real people." I still feel, though, of all people, Tookie is a fairly pointless case because seeing as he has not apologized, I highly doubt he will be pardoned. Then again, with Schwarzzeneger in office, I doubt anyone would. It just upsets me that we don't see the same level of activism for everyone.