Good Tookie Analysis @ Galley Slaves

There is a good analysis of the Tookie execution issues over at Galley Slaves. There are also links to an excellent article by Joseph Bottum. As an anti-death penalty conservative and a Catholic, I often find myself making the same case as Bottum. It is the rare occasion in which I find myself sharing the same position as the left, although it is clearly for different reasons. The left, however, still has some serious problems on this issue.

First, the Hollywood and left supporters of Tookie Williams defended a brutal murderer while uttering hardly a word about the victims of his heinous crimes (not only the four murder victims, but also all of those families affected by gang participation and violence). Further, the argument made by many of the Williams supporters, namely "what would be gained by killing Tookie?" is almost word-for-word the argument made by many on the right in favor of sparing Terry Schiavo from death by starvation. When that argument was made on behalf of Schiavo, however, very few, if any, of the Williams supporters were there to support Schiavo.

Now contrast these two persons: Williams, a gang leader and criminal responsible for much death and destruction, and Schiavo, a helpless woman who committed no crime. Which is used by Hollywood and the left to advance the "what would be gained by killing him/her?" argument? The convicted killer and gang leader. This is just another example of what is wrong with the left.