When Do We Finally Throw Out The Garbage?

On Tuesday December 13th 2005, Stanley “Tookie” Williams, the 51 year old reputed founder of the "Crips", one of the most vicious street gangs to have ever existed in the United States, after serving 25 years on San Quentin’s death row in California, was put to death by lethal injection. His execution came in the wake of one of the most vigorous campaigns ever, by those opposed to capital punishment.

Despite massive protest rallies and the highlighted presence of the’ who’s who’ of ultra Left Hollywood celebrities (led as always by the Reverend Jesse Jackson), to his credit, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied William’s last-ditch plea for clemency. And the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block his execution.

I won’t go into the gruesome details of the four murders he was alleged to have committed, in two separate robberies, back in 1979. Williams was legally tried and convicted for these crimes by evidence that twelve jurors found compelling enough to vote for execution.

     Nor will I dwell on his claims of innocence, supposedly weak evidence and poor legal representation, and accusations of racial prejudice. But in reference to the admittedly flawed Death Penalty System, consider in retrospect the failures of the “Rehabilitation Process.”

     In light of this comparison, the heralding of this hardened street criminal as a shining example of ‘rehabilitation’, having undergone a supposed conversion during his time waiting for execution, baffles me. His supporters argue he’s used this time between multiple murders, trial and incarceration, to become an advocate of anti-gang activities, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and a writer of ‘children’s books.’

So what say I, and so do his multiple victims who cry out for justice from their early graves? Plain and simple, the man was garbage and deserved to die!

Jack Henry Abbott was also in prison serving time for murder, when he wrote of series of letters to author Norman Mailer. The correspondence cumulated in a book authored by Abbott entitled: “In the Belly of the Beast,” detailing the coarse realities and inhumanity of day-to-day prison life.

So impressed was Mailer by this convicted murderer’s literary work, he proceeded to gather influential support and effected Abbott’s early release.

What followed were a talk show blitz and a spate of magazine articles extolling Abbott’s writing talents and pathetic upbringing. Fame, fortune came to Abbott in a blinding fury. Within months of his release from prison, Abbott was on trial for murder – again.

This time he was being held for the stabbing death of a young aspiring actor: the end result of a ‘minor’ verbal disagreement in a restaurant.

Despite this horrifying and tragic outcome of his championing this killer’s freedom, Abbott’s benefactor, Norman Mailer, was there once again in his support. In fact, Mailer went so far as to make an astounding statement to the press in Abbott’s defense: “Sometimes, society must be willing to take risks in support of artistic talent.”

This callous remark was drowned out by the victim’s father who, at the sentencing of his son’s murderer, shouted out in court: “When do we finally throw out the garbage?”

At present there is a very disturbing trend in America, particularly in the cinema, to’ humanize’ villains. And if I were called upon to pinpoint where it all started, my choice would be the 1967 release of the film,” Bonnie and Clyde.”

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow blazed a trail of robbery, mayhem and murder throughout the Midwest of the early 1930’s. The notorious criminal exploits of these thugs were glamorized, and they were portrayed as young lovers caught up in the economic hardships of post Depression America. There was no balanced presentation of the millions who suffered through the same hardships, without turning to a life of crime.

Since that release, the public has been fed a steady flow of films, proselytizing the ‘human side’ of these vicious criminals: particularly those, either fictional or real, given to articulating their social adjustment problems to the glory of the media and the press. One such film that comes to mind is the 1995 film “Dead Man Walking.”

     Adding insult to injury, the public is urged to regard them in a sympathetic light – equal to their victims. Once done, it then follows that they can be ‘Rehabilitated’: but what about the victims among those who have survived their crimes? What about the parents of Polly Klass?

     On October 1, 1993, 39-year-old career criminal Richard Allen Davis kidnapped 12-year-old Polly Klass from a slumber party.   Davis had an arrest record going back to his childhood at age 9, and was a graduate of many ‘rehabilitation’ programs.

After raping her in a wooded area not far from her home, by his own words of confession, as she begged for her life he strangled her to death. At his trial for this horrible crime, Davis exhibited no remorse.

Convicted murderers are not on death row because their victims are in hospitals, painfully recovering. They are awaiting execution because their victims (often more than one) are beyond pain; they are dead. And there is finality about death that resists anything short of resurrection.

Advocates for the abolition of the death penalty need to open their minds instead of their hearts. The elimination of capital punishment would condemn the survivors of murder victims, not the criminals. It is the survivors who will be held responsible for their life long incarceration through taxation. In essence, they will be compelled to pay a ‘survivor’s tax.’

The incarceration of ‘high-risk’ criminals in secure environments, consumes obscene amounts of scarce public funds. Such facilities, by law, must afford the inmates the best medical care – all at the taxpayers' expense.

More often than not, these services were beyond the affordability of the victims and their surviving families. And least we forget, the inmates of these institutions must, by law, have access to law libraries so they may file endless appeals.

     Most of all it means allowing convicted murderers and sex offenders to outlive public indignation to the inhumanity of their crimes, or until their appeals fall on sympathetic ears. When this happens we risk exposure to their violence upon their release onto the streets where, once again, the public becomes victim to social experiment.

     If I held elective congressional office and had the power to do so, I would enact into law what I would call -The Citizens Defense Act, which would read as follows:

“Once an incarcerated convicted murderer or sex offender has exhausted three appeals, he or she will be entered into a court administered legal trust. Should forces or organizations outside of the legal system successfully petition for their release or drastically reduced sentences than those applied, they must sign an irrevocable waiver that will allow the court to attach, without hearing, up to 25 percent of their accumulated net wealth. This attachment would be awarded to the victims (or their surviving families) should they be victims of any post release crimes perpetrated upon them by said individual”

Hopefully such an edict would dampen the enthusiasm of such individuals or organizations, whose convoluted’ bleeding heart’ reasoning never ceases to amaze me. While fanatically campaigning for gun control, in the same political breath, opt to give imprisoned ‘Violent Repeat Offenders’ lethal access to the legal system to gain their release from rightful incarceration.

Citizens have the right to be safe and secure in their homes and on their streets. They need to know that their wives, husbands, mothers, fathers and children can move about in relative safety, free from the acts of known and repeat criminal offenders. They should not be made guinea pigs to social experiment.

This society has made legitimate efforts to apply the principles of Rehabilitation and we have the body count to prove it. For many of the hard-core criminal elements the process simply does not work.

Society must accept the fact that, distasteful as it may be, when it comes down to what to do with the ‘Tookie’ Williams, Jack Abbots and Richard Davis’ of our society, - “It is time to throw out the garbage!”