Stanley "Tookie" Williams..

[ayoub]

Is dead.

Killed for crimes he was convicted of.

Did he commit those crimes? Maybe, maybe not, but he did, as a gangster, do a lot, and none of it good.

Did he deserve to die? I'm not the judge, God is.

There is a theory within Islam, which states that those who suffer on this earth, are saved from suffering in the hereafter. The suffering on this world is your atonement, so that you can approach heaven with a clean soul. This is not to say that all murderers who are given the death sentence will be forgiven, because not all will ask for absolution sincerely. There are no absolutes in life.

The problem with having a death penalty, twinned with an imperfect justice system, is that innocent people will be killed. Therefore, until the justice system is perfect, there should be no death penalty.

The last time I discussed this, though, my views were called into question, specifically, this one:

No one can kill another, except in self-defense, and be an Anarchist, because that would be invading another's equal right to live - the antithesis of Anarchism.

Joseph A. Labadie's quote on my bio.

Let me explain (No, is too much, let me sum up ;)), Sentencing an unrepentant killer to death is self-defence, because if he or she is not willing to repent and reform, then that person WILL kill again.
But how can you be sure? In some cases, there is no doubt. People who kill hundreds, or even thousands, and then stand in a court, defiant, and defending themselves regardless of the validity of the court, will not repent, and should die, not as a penance, but as a removal of a risk from society. I can say this, and have it fit with my views to the letter and in perfection.
In the case of Tookie, though, as long as there is doubt, and with proof of repentance as he has shown, suffice it to say he was no longer a risk, so therefore, he should not have been killed.

I do hope I have explained my views accurately, and questions are, as always, welcome.

Comments

[neneithel.livejournal.com]

We cannot cut out the evil if we give it shelter within ourselves. If we kill people because we deem them unfit to live or because they scare us, we become exactly like them and evil spreads.

I have also seen what violence can do. I have felt it in my own life, as both victim and aggressor. I have been filled with rage and I have felt the intoxicating rush of knowing that I want to hurt someone, even destroy them. I have been in fights in which I loved every blow I landed and knew I was justified, because they were bad people.

I felt how my righteous anger affected me. I died. I ceased to exist. I hurt my enemies and they became stronger, because they had power over me. I could not love, because love and hate cannot share a heart. I ceased to feel. I was less than those I hated, because I had been taught not to hate and I had deliberately overcome my humanity. They had the excuse of ignorance. When you support the killing of another, part of you dies. When you lash out in anger, the person you hurt is yourself. I was lucky, I came to my senses. I gave up the intoxicating pleasures of hatred and tried the terrifying path of love.

As soon as I greeted evil with unconditional love, it ceased to have power. I stopped being afraid. I found my despair about humanity going. I found that the people I had thought monsters were in terrible pain, and I pitied them, and my pity was a punishment to them far worse than violence could ever have been.

I have tried both ways of confronting evil. Fighting evil with evil just strengthens evil and destroys whatever in you is good. Fight it with love, and evil is destroyed.

I would by now be dead, if I had continued to think in the way I did. I would be worse than dead. I would be cut off from God. Nothing is worth that.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

This is why anarchy is so good. Everyone can come up with their own solutions, and we all respect that what works for one, may not work for the other :D

[neneithel.livejournal.com]

It's also anarchy's main flaw, that what is right may not be done. The world will be a bloodbath until humanity learns to love. While the death penalty is allowed to happen anywhere, humanity is enslaved, whatever system of government (or lack of one) we use.