The Williams decision is fundamentally a political one. Otherwise, there would have been no good reason to emphasize that Williams was convicted of "brutally" murdering four people or to note that he "laughed for five to six minutes" after one shooting. And there would be no good reason to acknowledge and then dismiss or deflect any points that might work to Williams' advantage.
It's time for us to stop this absurdity, this pretense of justice. The death penalty today has no purpose except to make us feel good that some rotten bastard has finally gotten his just desserts. We apply it selectively, secretively, and sanitarily. It appeals to the basest of our human instincts, not to the humanity to which we should aspire.
To be sure, Stanley Williams was no choirboy. He was an authentic bad guy, a killer. If anybody deserved to be executed, surely it was he. However, by killing him, we have demonstrated only that we are killers too.
Richard E. Wise, PhD, PMC ValueNet International Inc.
Hartford, CT
It's time for us to stop this absurdity, this pretense of justice. The death penalty today has no purpose except to make us feel good that some rotten bastard has finally gotten his just desserts. We apply it selectively, secretively, and sanitarily. It appeals to the basest of our human instincts, not to the humanity to which we should aspire.
To be sure, Stanley Williams was no choirboy. He was an authentic bad guy, a killer. If anybody deserved to be executed, surely it was he. However, by killing him, we have demonstrated only that we are killers too.
Richard E. Wise, PhD, PMC ValueNet International Inc.
Hartford, CT
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