Arnold had little to lose by denying Tookie's plea for clemency, as the SJ Merc-News notes today in a news analysis piece. Brickbats to NAACP honcho Bruce Gordon, though, for his lame claim that Tookie has earned redemption.

Bruce S. Gordon, NAACP president and CEO....said Schwarzenegger's decision not to spare Williams, who is black, sent a terrible message to the African-American community. "It sends a message that the criminal justice system in California and across this country will continue to look at African-Americans differently,'' he said. "There is absolutely no recognition given to redemption.''

Arnold's decision sends a GREAT message to "the African-American community" and the community as a whole, of which African-Americans are a significant part, especially in L.A. Consequences matter , especially for convicted quadruple murderers whose appeals have entirely failed.

The SF Chron's Debra Saunders has more on the "Tookie's innocent" line of bull - and Earl Ofari Hutchinson has some very pointed observations on blacks and the death penalty.

LOS ANGELES--The small crowd of clergy, community activists and death penalty opponents that gathered in front of the Los Angeles courthouse recently was no different than other groups that for weeks have kept up the drum beat for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant Stanley "Tookie" Williams clemency. There was one very loud exception. A young African-American man shouted that Williams was a thug and a murderer and should die. He was not an agitator or a crank. He represented a body of pro-death penalty sentiment among blacks that has seldom been publicly heard during the great Tookie debate. I was not surprised when I heard this young man's words, for there are many blacks like him who want Williams dead.

The instant I went to bat in my columns for clemency for Williams and against the death penalty in general, the e-mails and comments I got flew hot and heavy. Black critics bitterly reviled me for advocating clemency. They were adamant that Williams must pay for his crimes, and for the murder and mayhem the Crips gang, which he helped found, has unleashed on impoverished black communities. Their hardened attitude toward Williams flew in the face of conventional wisdom that says that blacks are passionate opponents of the death penalty. They aren't.

During the past decade, even as more whites have said they are deeply ambivalent about the death penalty or oppose it, many blacks continue to say that murderers, even black ones, must pay with their lives....Blacks are scared stiff and fed up with that continuing surge in murder violence that tears at black communities.

Interestingly enough, another convicted killer - Wesley Eugene Baker - was quite deservedly put to death this month in Baltimore. While there were protests and appeals, national media made barely a peep. Guess he didn't have the right celebrities in his corner.

UPDATE: The deed is done.

TECHNORATI TAGS: TOOKIE WILLIAMS, DEATH PENALTY, BLACKS, AFRICAN-AMERICANS, CALIFORNIA, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, WESLEY EUGENE BAKER, MARYLAND

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at December 12, 2005 07:46 PM