Tookie, tookie, tookie... what about the victims?

[lastsamurai]

I know what tookie did was wrong but i really feel sad right now...isnt the system to reform the criminal? god bless america.

[BluffTHIS!]

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isnt the system to reform the criminal?

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No way in the US system because the inmates have too many rights to use the physical harshness that would be necessary to maintain order and discipline conducive to reform. Instead a prison is just a huge cage with a bunch of animals who just reinforce each other's predispositions and prey upon the weakest.

[andyfox]

To assign a different value to the life of a person because of his occupation, to me, would be an injustice. Suppose I believe that President Bush is a mass murderer, owing to what I see as the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. Should I be given more lenient treatment by a jury or judge who agrees with me, were I to kill the president, than if he were a good president?

This issue is dealt with in two movies I've recommended on another forum: Collateral, a very good movie, and The Third Man, a great movie. The villains in both movies justify their villainy in that their victims don't really deserve to live, or that their lives don't really matter.

Murder is wrong. No question about it. Tookie killed and should be punished. No question about it. Should Tookie be murdered by the State? No, murder is wrong.

The State should not engage in activities it deems unlawful.

[Peter666]

In a court of law, one would factor in the intent of the criminal to determine the severity of the punishment. A political motivation for killing the president should be taken into consideration.

Regardless, even if you think you were doing a good deed, the punishment for you murdering the President should be higher than the punishment for murdering a street thug. This is not dismissing the life of the street thug, because one would still be punished for murdering him. It is a matter of punishing a person much more for the particular heinousness of a crime.

[ChipWrecked]

A little info on the victims, since I have yet to see any in this thread:



Williams was convicted for the slaying of Yen-I Yang, his wife Tsai-Shai Yang, and daughter Yee-Chen Lin during a robbery at the hotel that the family owned in Los Angeles.

According to a Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily report on Dec 11, Yen-I Yang, a former middle school English teacher, immigrated from Taiwan to the United States in 1970 after he retired. The Yangs invested their money in a motel in south Los Angeles called Brookhaven. Mr. Chen, a friend of the Yang family, told the Sing Tao Daily that customers at the motel only stayed for one or two hours at a time, creating a quick flow of clients and a large cash reserve that attracted robbers.

On the morning of March 11, 1979, Williams allegedly broke down the door into the motel, shooting Tsai-Shai Yang, who was sitting at the front desk. Williams then shot and killed Yen-I Yang, who was sitting on a couch nearby and his daughter, Lin, who came into the room. Williams then took $100 from the cash register and fled. Yang’s son, Robert Yang, was in an adjacent room, heard the commotion and found his father, mother, and sister, who were all shot at close range.

The article doesn't mention that the victims were shotgunned at close range.

Roast in hell, scumbag. Hope your Crip G's are preparing a nice welcoming party for you.

Pacific News dot org