Re: DON\'T KILL TOOKIE
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Well, for one thing, I don't have to pay for feeding him anymore.
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See, this doesn't fly with me because there are still hundreds of thousands of drug dealers, rapists and murderers who you are paying to feed but don't care about.
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The arguements about it's cheaper just to feed him than the process of killing him really don't fly with me, fundamentally because I don't believe the lawyers who make that arguement really want to put themselves out of a job.
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It really isn't lawyers who are making the argument but anti-death penalty activists. Also, by your logic, wouldn't an anti-death penalty lawyer ENCOURAGE the death penalty if his only concern was keeping his job?
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Another way is to say that the figurehead of a culture which followed a convicted murderer and sought to emmulate him is gone. Murder is not a socially tolerable offense and should in no way be excused.
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He was hardly a figurehead. He had been in jail for nearly 25 years when he was executed and, as far as we know, had little to no contact with current gang members. I also don't see how execution is the only way to show that murder is not acceptable. Also, if anything, he became an enemy to the people who say adored him because he became such an ardent anti-gang advocate in his later years.
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The law has been upheld and was not subverted in spite of the huge activist campaign. The rule of law has sent a very clear message here that it is not subject to the whims of the mob.
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It was hardly a huge activist campaign. There were certainly many people who felt that he should not have been executed, but that is a far cry from what you describe. Also, had Gov. Schwarzenegger granted clemency, it would have been perfectly acceptable within the confines of the law.
Basially, my question is, why do you really care whether he lives or dies?
EDIT: Actually, we do know that he had some contact with gang members because he helped to successfully negotiate an agreement between the Bloods and the Crips to end 2 decades of violence.
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