Killers deserve the death penalty

Re “Shut down death row,” editorial, Oct. 27

Once again The Times is off the mark. It seems to me that since this country has watered down the death penalty and criminal punishment, our society has become increasingly uncivilized.

In Saudi Arabia, merchants leave their money unattended in the open, because the penalty for stealing is getting your hand cut off.

In Stanley “Tookie” Williams’ case, he deserves the death penalty for starting the Crips. He was convicted of murdering people and has never produced any evidence to contradict that fact, nor has he shown any remorse.

The Times should ask itself this question: Has he changed because he is facing death, or is it an attempt to curry sympathy to avoid the death penalty?

BRIAN MARTINEZ

Adelanto, Calif.

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I do not believe for a single second that Crips founder and four-time murderer Williams has undergone some kind of miraculous conversion to right-thinking ways. But I guess writing a children’s book from death row is all an evil man needs to do to win the support of The Times.

Normally, I’d suggest that Williams write one new children’s book for every single child killed as a result of gang violence perpetrated by his beloved Crips or their mortal enemies. But with Williams, not even an eternity of book writing could keep up with the body count.

STEVE MEISTER

Sherman Oaks

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If innocent people sit on death row, it is an argument that the standards used in determining guilt in capital murder cases need to be set much higher, not an argument for abolishing society’s most profound judgment.

For some of us who do not believe in an afterlife, the preciousness and inviolability of a life deliberately taken is not even marginally compensated for by allowing murderers to live out their natural-born days sitting in a cell. It is a just and decent society that commands those who intentionally steal the lives of others to forfeit the right to retain their own.

SHANNON JOSEPH CREAM

Anaheim