** EXTRA ** Guilty or Not Guilty: Tookie Williams vs the Politicization of the death penalty ** EXTRA **

Execution date: Dec. 13
Conviction: Stanley Tookie Williams 51, a co-founder of the Crips gang in Los Angeles, was found guilty in 1981 and sentenced to death for murdering a convenience store clerk, Albert Owens, in Whittier (Los Angeles County) and two motel owners, Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Yang and their daughter Yee-Chen Lin during two separate robberies in 1979.

His final appeal, to the U.S. Supreme Court, was denied in October.

Williams' claims innocence and his petition for clemency briefly alleges that evidence against him was circumstantial and as well as racial bias in the convening of an all-white jury (Williams is black). With court appeals nearly exhausted, Williams has pointed to the children's books and gang-peace initiatives he has produced from behind prison walls as proof he is a reformed man and worthy of clemency. Williams has never admitted guilt for any of the murders he was convicted of.

Williams, 51, the co-founder of the Crips gang and the four-time convicted murderer, has become an anti-gang crusader and Nobel Peace Prize nominee while on death row.

What's next: With the world watching, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must decide in the next few weeks whether Williams will live or die.

At Issue: After a year of plummeting popularity and squabbles with Democrats and labor unions over sometimes-arcane ideas about just how to change government, Schwarzenegger now turns to one of the more basic, weighty and far more gut-wrenching tasks of his office. Gov. Schwarzenegger must contemplate crime and punishment, redemption and race.

There is a strong national trend that has turned clemency based on atonement a new political third rail for political chief executives, flying hard and fast in the face of the conservative right’s schizophrenic and hypocritical ideas about the right to life, punishment, atonement and grace.

In the few weeks since a special election in California, marking a new low point of Schwarzenegger's tenure as governor, he is faced with a decision he admitted this week that he dreads.

As ridiculous and preposterous as infusion of the death penalty into political races actually is, it is rising to new extremes and warping the ability of our criminal justice system to hand down fair sentences based on crime and severity. While using the death penalty to gain political leverage is far from a novel concept, the morose demagoguery aimed at electorate, ghoulishly promising more executions is far beyond insidious and invasive.

The politicization of the death penalty results in a significant and horrifying defeat for the natural right, legal and personal freedoms which the American people so take for granted.

Candidates campaigning for legislative office loudly proclaim with a Gomez Addams ferver “Hang’uhm High” or “Let’uhm Fry” when asked about the death penalty. More ghoulish still are the judges and local prosecutors who, with a morbid pride more akin to Jeffery Domer than a public servant, cite the numbers of people they have succesfully sent to death row in their campaigns for political office.

The political promotion of capital punishment by those accountable for reading and executing the law is heinous, despicable, dangerous and in direct conflict with the basic judicial right of EVERY American Citizen to a fair and impartial hearing. This during an era of scores of commutations reaffirming the recent revelations that politicization of this issue increases EXPONENTIALLY the prospect that innocent people are going to be executed.

The anti-crime/pro- capital punishment advocates are in a constant foot race these days, in a morose, ‘one up man ship’ to out-do each other in expanding the death penalty to new crimes, curtailing the appeals process, lessening the burden of standards necessary to kill someone for a crime and, through increased pressure on their political representatives, are accelerating withdrawal of resources ESSENTIAL to defending those whose very life is on trail for the crimes there are accused of committing.

At the mercy of anti-crime zealots, in scewing blind justice, the very judges who regularly make the final decision on whether a defendant lives or dies, are more than not, subject to elections, appointments or confirmation proceedings, during which the ‘Hang’uhm High Crowd’ attacks as softness on crime, ANY judicial ruling short of execution. More dissolute still, is that it's in capital punishment cases where Prosecutors, who in most cases are the initial impetus with almost unlimited prudence as to when to pursue the death penalty, are repeatedly presented with occasion to transmit their blood thirsty "toughness" to the electorate by seeking a death sentence in a case.

Even mature, sagacious, respected jurists who dare to believe that capital punishment is arcane, inhumane and ineffective get voted out of office after correctly holding certain capital procedures unconstitutional. More unbelievable and terrifying is that there are candidates that are of such weak character that they afraid to speak out for fear of losing their job. (NOTE: Since 1973, 122 death row inmates have been released after being declared innocent after new evidence presented itself or the real criminals were caught).

LOSING THEIR JOB!!!!!! GIVE ME A BREAK!

Death row inmates, guilty and innocent alike, who would never have been given a death sentence if afforded a fair trial, have JOhnny Cochran or some alternate superior legal representation, are denied hearings or lawyers because, frankly, an evenhanded appeals process makes for a very unsexy sound bite.

NOW HERE THIS: The use of the death penalty, on the books in 38 of 50 US states, has declined since 1999, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That year, 98 people were executed nationwide. Last year the number was 59 and is expected to be similar or LESS in 2005.

OK. Not enough? Dig this: No matter what it says on the box there is no such thing as a humane way to put a human being to death. If passing in ones sleep is the preferred way to die, when one must, then not one of the current forms of execution passes anywhere near this solar system of humane execution. The only humane thing is not to do it.

And yes kids, I did find and detail oout the Top 3 fcurrent forms of legal execution.

Lethal Injection: the condemned person is usually bound to a gurney and a member of the execution team positions several heart monitors on this skin. Two needles (one is a back-up) are then inserted into usable veins, usually in the inmates arms. Long tubes connect the needle through a hole in a cement block wall to several intravenous drips. At the warden's signal, a curtain is raised exposing the inmate to the witnesses in an adjoining room and the inmate is injected with sodium thiopental, pavulon or pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the entire muscle system and stops the inmate's breathing. Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the heart. Death results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest

Electrocution: The person is usually shaved and strapped to a chair with belts that cross his chest, groin, legs, and arms. A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline. An additional electrode is moistened with conductive jelly (Electro-Creme) and attached to a portion of the prisoner's leg that has been shaved to reduce resistance to electricity. The warden signals the executioner, who pulls a handle to connect the power supply and a jolt of between 500 and 2000 volts, lasting for about 30 seconds, is given. Doctors check to see if the inmate's heart is still beating and if it is another jolt is applied, again and again until the prisoner is dead.

Gas Chamber: the condemned person is strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber. Below the chair rests a pail of sulfuric acid. A long stethoscope is typically affixed to the inmate so that a doctor outside the chamber can pronounce death. The warden then gives a signal to the executioner who flicks a lever that releases crystals of sodium cyanide into the pail. This causes a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen cyanide gas. The prisoner is instructed to breathe deeply to speed up the process. According to former San Quenton, California, Penitentiary warden, Clifton Duffy, "At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool." ….unquestionably experiencing pain and extreme anxiety...a sensation similar to the pain felt by a person during a heart attack, where essentially the heart is being deprived of oxygen." The inmate dies from hypoxia, the cutting-off of oxygen to the brain. At postmortem, an exhaust fan sucks the poison air out of the chamber, and the corpse is sprayed with ammonia to neutralize any remaining traces of cyanide. About a half an hour later, oderlies enter the chamber, wearing gas masks and rubber gloves. Their training manual advises them to ruffle the victim's hair to release any trapped cyanide gas before removing the deceased.

OH MY GOD! WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?

How can these be the actions of one the most free people in the world? We are on par with countries the likes of which are North Korea, Iran, Vietnam, the Peoples Republic of China who still practice the death penalty as a regular part of their judicial sentencing.

PLEASE STOP THE INSANITY!

To contact your elected representatives:http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home

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Addresses for major U.S. daily publications/wire services/weekly publications: http://digbig.com/4cqge

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