Criminal or Criminalized?

An unattributed but relatively well-known quote reads, "Kill one man, and it's called murder; kill a hundred thousand, and it's called foreign policy." But there is a way to kill one man without calling it murder: capital punishment. And there is a kind of capital punishment that is preceded by use of biased informants, malicious prosecutors, racist prejudice, and weak evidence: American capital punishment.

Such is the predicament faced by Stan Tookie Williams, a death row inmate at San Quentin prison near San Francisco, California, who faces execution on December 13 at 12:01 a.m. unless he is granted clemency by the Gov. Schwarzenegger.

Williams, who founded the notorious Crips gang in South Central L.A. at the age of 18, was arrested and charged with the murder of four people in 1979, convicted in 1981, and sentenced to death row. But as Williams' day of execution approaches, a campaign aimed at saving his life, supported by a number of anti-death penalty groups and celebrities such as Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg, has taken root - and with good reason.

Stan Williams, or Tookie, as he is frequently called, has undergone a Malcolm X-like transformation while in prison. After spending several years in solitary confinement, Tookie emerged in 1993 as an inverse image of his former self, renouncing all gang ties and beginning a comprehensive crusade against gang violence.

He has produced nine anti-gang books aimed at children, including one which won an award from the American Library Association; he has spoken to schools and community groups imploring youth not to get caught up in gangs; and he has even drafted a specific program for resolving conflict violence between gangs - one which has been used to reduce violence between the feuding Blood and Crips gangs in New Jersey.

Explaining what he calls his "redemptive transformation," Tookie recently said in an interview:

"As a youngster growing up, I had the unenviable experience of digesting the most negative stereotypes about Black folks being illiterate, being criminals, being violent, being promiscuous, being indolent, etc. When you're spoon-fed these things on an incessant basis, you eventually morph into those negative stereotypes, unwittingly. That's what happened to me. I became the stereotypes that I was spoon-fed.

As far as amending the problems, I believe that education is the key. I know I consistently talk about this, but I believe it, because it's what woke me up. It was my form of an awakening - though over a period of time, because I've never had an epiphany or anything like that. I had to undergo years of battling my demons."

Tookie also downplays any glorification of his past, even when suggested by others. When an interviewer mentioned that some reporters said his founding of the Crips gang was initially a means of "protecting people in the community," Tookie responded: "People -- not me -- have a tendency to hyperbolize my past…We wanted to protect one another, for sure, but we were no angels, make no doubt about it…We were not the good guys."

It is undoubtedly both rare and remarkable for a man who is first immersed in violence and then caged in isolation to wage a struggle from within and change his entire outlook. It is even more remarkable when that man actively and continuously strives to help prevent and dissuade others from ruining their lives.

Activists hoping to save Tookie's life are certainly justified in pointing both to his own redemption and his outreach efforts as excellent reasons for granting him clemency. The story of Tookie's life is so compelling it has even made the big screen, with Jamie Foxx playing lead character in the 2004 film, Redemption. But in highlighting this appealing aspect of Tookie, activists sometimes underemphasize another important point: it is not Tookie, but rather the society that imprisoned him, that should be judged and scrutinized for its misdeeds.