Who Deserves to Die?

Former Crips co-founder Tookie Wilson was executed in California when Governor Arnold Schwartzenager refused to grant him clemency. Even though I don't believe in the death penalty I still debated with myself whether if I did I would still execute the guy. He's been on death row for twenty four years, supposedly a changed man. But really, if they were going to keep him there much longer then they might have lost the opportunity of taking his life at all because he was getting old, man. The debate centered on two things, first, whether he actually committed the murders that he got sent up for and, second, whether he had redeemed himself through good works and was doing more good alive than he would dead. I don't know if I would stress so much who he had or had not murdered myself so much, because even if he hadn't killed the particular people that he was convicted of - he's killed a lot, I'd bet you. I can't prove it. But what do you think? Do you think one of the founders of one of the bloodiest street gangs in the world has clean hands? And what about the good works he's committed since being incarcerated? Well, I don't think you should get so much credit for seeing the error of your ways when you're not given any choice in the matter. As far as doing more crimes and murders and such - it's not much of an option when you're on death row. So, why not write childrens books saying how awful gang violence is? Who knows better how awful gang violence is than the guy who created a whole bunch of it? He's an expert on the subject if ever there was one. Killing people who kill people is thought to be a fair punishment - eye for an eye and such, like Hammurabi told us. But is it a Christian punishment? Most of us here in the US claim Christianity as our faith - eighty percent - so you other twenty percent can sit this one out. Christians believe in redemption. They believe in forgiveness. They believe that through the power and faith in Jesus Christ anyone can go to Heaven as long as they truly repent and accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. Just like Tookie Wilson did. Do any of the Death Penalty Christians - who worked so hard to see that this man got what was coming to him - realize that what he got coming to him was a trip to Heaven? According to the Christian scheme, he goes straight to the head of the line. And he gets there sooner than others, because instead of letting him cool his heels doing more good works in the slammer, they all decided he should get his afterlife right now. Did they consider that maybe God would want to decide when Tookie Wilson's number was up without our help? Maybe the Lord Almighty wanted this guy to write more books or maybe he just wanted him to stick around and think about the suffering and pain he'd caused. It should be his call, not ours.