“Tookie” Williams and the Death Penalty in Korea
The Korean government’s recent decision to explore abolishing the death penalty in the country got me thinking if this sudden change in policy was in anyway related to the recent controversy surrounding the execution of Crips gang founder and quadruple murderer “Tookie” Williams.
The death penalty has been part of Korean law since the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948. According to Amnesty International, Korea has executed approximately 900 people since 1948; most by hanging. Executions in Korea have been suspended since 1997 by then President Kim Dae Jung who was once sentenced to death himself in 1980 for his political opposition to the then military dictatorship. This hasn’t stopped the legal system from sentencing people to death anyway because six people were sentenced to death last year alone.
South Korea for it’s part is exploring the banning of the death penalty due to human rights concerns:
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is expected to make recommendations for the national action plan (NAP) on human rights which contain controversial issues such as abolishing the death penalty and the National Security Law.
The commission has drafted a 130-page in-house report on the action plan to better protect human rights in South Korea.
I find it interesting that South Korean liberals want to abolish the death penalty for human rights concerns in, but could care less about the state sponsored mass slaughter currently happening just 35 miles North of Seoul in North Korea, but that is a whole other topic.
I think the banning of the death penalty is just a natural progression for South Korea from it’s suspension of the death penalty in 1997. The Williams controversy may have just acted as a stimulant for a movement that has long been in the works.
My opinion on this is that I think the death penalty should be banned. For those that have read my blog for while now, they know I am no bleeding heart liberal and trust me I am not shedding any tears for “Tookie” Williams. He deserved what he got because he was an unrepentant quadruple murderer that the media and Hollywood turned into a celebrity, which was a slap in the face of the families of his murdered victims:
“Tookie” Williams, put to death by lethal injection last week in California, was a “legend” who underwent “a meaningful martyrdom that sent a lasting message to the world,” according to old-time leftist Tom Hayden, formerly Mr. Jane Fonda.
“Meaningful martyrdom”? What can Hayden be talking about? Martyrs die for a cause. Williams died for executing four unarmed people during two 1979 robberies, shooting a woman in the face, and laughing uncontrollably at the gurgling sounds a male victim made as he died in agony.
Opposing the death penalty, of course, means speaking out even for people like Williams. Still, the campaign for him has been wretched excess. His book editor and friend Barbara Becnel compared him to Rosa Parks. She plans a massive funeral as well as a memorial to him in South Africa. Several people nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize (anybody can nominate anybody, by the way).
Also keep in mind he was only convicted of the four murders that could be proven. He probably committed many murders before the four he got convicted for not to mention other crimes as the leader of the notorious Crips gang.
For those who think he was “railroaded” in court keep in mind that the most liberal appeals court in America the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco looked at the evidence and found no reason to overturn the conviction or the death sentence. That was the clincher for me because these are the same judges who have banned the Pledge of Allegiance in schools and over turned other death sentence cases. However, in this case, which was being advocated by many famous liberals, the judges still could not find any reason to over turn the decision.
“Tookie” is guilty yet he never would admit to it. This doesn’t sound like redemption to me like many liberals would like you to believe. However, I still don’t approve of the death penalty because I think there are better deterrents to preventing crimes while meeting international human rights standards.
I think that creating prisons in let’s say North Dakota or Alaska where inmates are not given cable TV and other creature comforts but instead given hard labor in cold remote setting would do more to deter crime than the death penalty where criminals know it will be at least 20 years before they are executed and stand a good chance of getting off on an appeal while in the mean time they chill out lifting weights and watching cable TV. Just think if a criminal is quickly convicted and immediately put into a remote, hard labor facility; how much this would relieve the stress put on the courts by all these appeal cases and serve as a deterant to crime.
Plus the US could meet international human rights standards which would set a better example for the US in regards to criticizing human rights violations in countries like Cuba, North Korea, and China. Like I said before I’m no bleeding heart liberal and I am not shedding any tears for “Tookie”, but I am a realist and I don’t believe the death penalty is meeting US interests anymore just as much as it is not meeting Korean interests in today’s world.
For more on the “Tookie” Williams case from a K-Blog perspective I encourage everyone to read Jodi’s “Tookie” related post at the Asia Pages.
