Lamenting Tookie

Here's a letter I wrote to Eugene Robinson in response to his column, "No Special Break for Tookie," in WaPo today:

Dear Mr. Robinson,
I was making exactly the point you made today in your column, albeit less eloquently, to my colleagues as we watched a rally for Tookie take place outside our office window in downtown Los Angeles. Tookie doesn't deserve clemency because he is a special case. He shouldn't be executed because NO ONE should. Capital punishment is one of the most shameful stains on a country which holds itself out as civilized (the torture of detainees being perhaps equally shameful). The fact that Tookie might get special treatment speaks to the widespread misapplication of this punishment more than it does to any relative merit Tookie might possess as a celebrity inmate. Those who are advocating mercy in Tookie's particular case should direct their energies toward the abolition of capital punishment in this country in general. Thousands of similarly repentant but unknown men and women might then be spared.
Thank you for expressing so well what I have long believed.

Sincerely,

[Noisette]
Attorney
Los Angeles


Here's another WaPo article on the death penalty.