Statement from Socialist Party USA Vice-Chair Mary Loritz

Stanley "Tookie" Williams' life was taken by the state last night at 12:35pm by way of lethal injection, after spending twenty-four years in prison. Tookie was one of the founding members of the street gang the Crips, and in 1981 was convicted on four counts of murder, for which he maintained his innocence.

He has since denounced gang life and violence and apologized for his role in establishing the Crips. Tookie went on to coauthor several children's books discouraging violence, and an autobiography that documents the realities of violence and life in prison.

He also helped to establish a truce between the Crips and their rival gang, the Bloods, which has led to a decrease of violence in Newark, New Jersey and California. In the years before his death he corresponded with children and conflicted gang members, urging them to educate themselves and turn away from violence. For his work he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times.

Thousands from across the country pled that he be granted clemency, and gathered on the night of December 12th to protest his execution. This case highlights the racism and classism that pervades not only the criminal justice system, but the whole of American society, which oppresses and denies opportunity to the poor while giving the illusion of mobility. Punishment is selectively enforced, not on the rich, who can legitimize their theft and murder through "proper" channels, but on the people who can't afford decent representation, let alone change laws for their benefit.

But the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, had no mercy — he ignored the pleas and allowed the execution to be carried through. Arnold and Tookie weren't such different people in some ways, though, after all, they were both bodybuilders.

Sure, their backgrounds were a little different — Tookie was born to a seventeen-year old single mother, and Arnold to a high-ranking Nazi.

But Arnold has promoted through his movies (which have included almost 300 murders), the same thing that Tookie did when he was younger?heroism through violence. Yet while Arnold was glamorizing violence (and earning millions of dollars in the process), Tookie sat in prison writing books for children to educate them about the realities of life in prison, discourage gang involvement, and empower them. Tookie did this to help future generations choose a different route in life than he did, and to be redeemed for past actions. In doing so has undoubtedly saved more lives than he ever took. Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, is white and educated, and now uses his political power to deny opportunities to minorities and the poor, and in doing so he perpetuates the same conditions which create street volence — marginalization and poverty.

Arnold now has the blood of Tookie Williams on his hands, but apparently he doesn't feel the need to be redeemed.

Rest In Peace, Tookie.

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