> Capital punishment should be shut down until a) the machinery can
> be refined so that mistakes are not made and penalties are
> apportioned fairly; and b) if the public still favors it. If it
> can't be refined, then it should be abolished.
>
> I see no relation between these considerations and the case of
> Stanley Williams.
AB 1121, the California Moratorium on Executions Act, will be voted
on in January.
(If you are a Californian, go to <https://ssl.capwiz.com/aclu-nc/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=8131521> and sign onto an ACLU letter to elected officials and send it.)
One may wonder why Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders set December 13 for the execution of Stanley Williams (cf. <http:// www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1025-06.htm>), given the imminence of the vote on the bill.
While support for death penalty (if respondents are given no alternative such as a life sentence without parole) remains high, support for a moratorium on it has been gaining in momentum: e.g., "In a little-noticed 2001 Field Poll, 73 percent of the state's population supported then-Gov. Gray Davis halting all executions until a study of the death penalty's fairness could be carried out" (Joan Ryan, "Suspend Executions -- for Now," December 8, 2005, <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/08/ BAG9LG4E4M1.DTL>).
If Schwarzenegger couldn't bring himself to showing clemency on the grounds of Williams' good works in prison, he could have still ordered a moratorium himself. It could have been a popular move.
Williams' death may not be in vain -- it probably prompts more people to support the moratorium bill.
<blockquote>Execution puts spotlight on moratorium effort Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:32 PM ET -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: <../attachments/20051213/985157b3/attachment.gif> -------------- next part -------------- SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The execution of Stanley Tookie Williams has put the spotlight on a campaign by opponents of the death penalty for state legislation that would temporarily halt capital punishment in California.
Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a Democrat, said on Tuesday he would renew a push for a bill he introduced earlier this year that calls for the state to stop executing condemned prisoners until January 1, 2009, so a committee can investigate whether California's justice system sends innocent people to death row.
"It's targeted at the accuracy of the system," Koretz said of his bill. "If you don't execute people for a couple of years, I don't see the great harm, but you could prevent an innocent person from being executed."
Koretz predicted that Democrats, who control California's legislature, in the state Assembly would rally behind his bill following Williams' execution, and provide enough votes to overcome expected opposition by minority Republicans.
Williams was the 12th person executed since California reinstated the death penalty in 1977.
Koretz's bill will have a legislative hearing a week ahead of the state's next scheduled execution, but the lawmaker said the bill was unlikely to influence the state's planned execution of Clarence Ray Allen.
Allen, 75, is scheduled to die on January 17, 2006, for ordering three murders while serving a life-sentence in prison for arranging the murder of his son's girlfriend, a potential witness against him in a burglary case.
<http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx? type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-12-14T003151Z_01_SPI401891_RTRUKOC_0_US-C RIME-EXECUTION-CALIFORNIA.xml></blockquote>
See, also, "Williams Execution Prompts Calls for Moratorium, Defense of All Life," <http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/ 0507101.htm>.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>
