Was Stanley Tookie Williams guilty? I have no idea. Is the system fair to all citizens? No. Was this a basis for Governor Schwarzenegger to commute Mr. Williams' term to life in prison? Absolutely. It would be nice if comic book characters really had great courage. To those of us who read the adage that "truth is stranger than fiction" may be close to the mark. It's interesting to note that the Governor's native country Austria does not employ the death penalty and if he governed there he could not have confirmed a death sentence. Mr. Schwarzenegger is after all only a politician. We needed a statesman.

Running keyword searches in the AED I found the terms, death, murder, hanging, execution and McDade [reference to capital cases before 1900] that offer few conclusive observations. The 19th century appears to have been more violent than earlier centuries and war periods the most violent. Lincoln is well known for commuting the sentences of many condemned. He clearly considered history and circumstance. Were he a judge in America today in most states his hands would be tied. We remember his courage and intelligence but today we would limit his power to exercise judgment.

Lest it go unnoted Tookie Williams is probably a unique figure in American letters. Before he went to prison the only thing he may have written were bad checks. In prison, in time, he became a different man, an author of nine books about his experiences and perspective with his co-author and editor Barbara Becnel. He was five times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

For anyone who wonders if serious crime is a recent phenomena I ran keyword searches in the AED by various periods and found, as it says in Ecclesiates "there is nothing new under the sun."

	Death	Murder	Hanging	Execution	McDade
1493 to 1600:	350	12	10	62	0
1601 to 1700:	1307	86	11	190	0
1701 to 1725:	772	63	6	76	10
1726 to 1750:	701	49	9	71	1
1751 to 1775:	972	161	10	202	1
1776 to 1790:	527	73	21	117	3
1791 to 1800:	1314	138	17	148	5
1801 to 1810:	422	131	17	61	3
1811 to 1820:	469	198	4	70	5
1821 to 1830:	403	316	10	63	9
1831 to 1840:	346	164	15	104	19
1841 to 1850:	627	249	12	67	20
1851 to 1860:	611	199	28	150	15
1861 to 1870:	905	220	30	143	11
1871 to 1880:	260	116	62	61	17
1881 to 1890:	305	79	42	68	3
1891 to 1900:	359	69	38	20	6