Guest Post by Professor Justice: Terminate Tookie

Previously by Prof. Justice: Holiday Correctness
[Ezzie: Quick note - Prof. Justice is getting addicted to blogging... Heh.]

Though I am in the process of writing several future postings on issues involving the recent police murders, MTA strike, and Justice Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court, I have waited all day with bated breath to hear that Governor Arnold “The Terminator” Schwarzenegger has refused Tookie’s bid for clemency. And now, thankfully, in just over eleven hours, Tookie’s toast.

Aside from whether one is in favor or opposed to capital punishment, it strikes me as unfathomable that Hollywood, Hip-Hopsters, Jesse Jackson and other assorted misfits do not turn lobster red with embarrassment by sermonizing how brutal it is to execute convicted murderers. Excuse me? Some single-cell life form (I would label him an animal, but that would be an insult to animals because even they only kill to eat and to defend themselves) brutally and horrifically murders four fellow human beings solely because they were in his way and the anti-social rejects jump on his bandwagon.

Oh, but he has reformed himself! He’s written ten books for children teaching them the evils of gang life! He’s so valuable as a role model because he’s renounced gang violence, that it would be a shame to execute him! He’s done so much good for society, let’s nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize! It’s true. This mutant has been nominated six times for a Nobel Peace Prize. Beyond ludicrous! I mean, when the most progressive federal circuit court (more affectionately know by us conservatives as “the Ninth Circus”) in the country and the California State Supreme were unable to justify issuing a stay of execution, you know you’re in bad shape. Well, after having been made to suffer through the last several days of listening to that stench of idiocy, it is gratifying to know that there is some semblance of sanity left in society.

For Jesse Jackson to state, as he did earlier today, that executing Tookie would be a “senseless act of brutality” and that it would be “courageous” of Governor Schwarzenegger to commute his sentence to life and “cowardice” not to is nothing less than despicable. And Snoop Dog? What did he have to say? Who cares? It just shows you how pathetic these morons are. They lack even the most modest quantity of common sense and good judgment.

Let’s be clear about who Tookie is. He founded the Crips, one of the most notoriously violent bunch of thugs embedded on our streets and in our prisons. He murdered four beautiful innocent souls. One of them was a military veteran. He shot a Seven-Eleven clerk in the back, and as the man lay on the ground bleeding profusely and gurgling his own blood, this breathing piece of fecal matter reached into the deep dark recesses of his evilness and ridiculed him, imitating the gurgling sound. That’s beyond brutal! Renounced violence, huh? Then please explain why, while in prison for the last twenty years and still alive (unlike his victims), he repeatedly committed sexual abuse of other inmates and threw chemicals on prison guards. Nobel Peace Prize, right! Just the kind of role model I want for my child. Let me tell you, the best kind of role model he can be is a dead model!

It is one thing to be against imposing capital punishment, and there is what to be against. For example, if you believe that it should serve as a deterrent, virtually all studies indicate that it is not. If you believe that it should serve to rehabilitate others, it probably isn’t that either. If you believe that only divine retribution can atone for committing murder, so be it. Moreover, there always exists the possibility (some say inevitability) of an error or an unscrupulous law enforcement official. All of these issues can and should be debated. It is entirely different matter, however, to pick Tookie as your poster boy.

Time’s up, Tooks. You’re terminated.

Professor Justice practices Criminal Law in New York, teaches trial advocacy, and is a Professor of Business Law.

Technorati tags: Tookie, Execution, Capital Punishment, Clemency, Murder.