Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2006 Issue

Crime and Punishment

In a black and white life truth was gray.


By Bruce McKinney

Fyoder Dostoevsky had it right. Crime and punishment are inextricably linked. These links are not entirely mechanical however. They are also emotional and as emotions change so do punishments. The mechanics call for an "eye for an eye" while pragmatists look to understand. To the person who says "He's a murderer. There's nothing to understand" the pragmatist asks "Why did he kill" and "Is the responsibility his alone?" Perhaps the question is "Are we more than the sum of our crimes?"

Recently the mechanics executed Stanley Tookie Williams at San Quentin in northern California. Some pragmatists objected. In the weeks leading up to the scheduled execution there was a showing at the Victoria in San Francisco of a movie about Mr. Williams' life, "Redemption" starring Jamie Fox. The theatre was sold out and Danny Glover spoke hopefully of the upcoming clemency hearing with Governor Schwarzenegger. Ten days later Mr. Williams was dead. He outlived predictions but only by 15 minutes and this only because the "nurse" couldn't quickly enough find a vein for the court mandated poison.

"An eye for an eye" is dumb policy. It assumes the individual is entirely and exclusively responsible and that background, neighborhood, family, timing and luck are not integral aspects. It also tries hard to ignore differences in intelligence. If these aren't important factors we need to get the news out because almost everyone in America treats them as important, even essential. Families that can are always moving out of problem neighborhoods. Many believe where we live will affect who we are, what we become and what we do. Every human being on the planet knows these factors are as much a part of us as our DNA. In court the standards are more black and white and the grays come into play only when competent defenses introduce and judges allow them.

Prejudice has been around for a while and one of the easiest ways to act on prejudice is to impose inflexible standards on those we don't like. People who speak non-native English and others of color often fit the bill. We do this by separating the crime from circumstances, background and color. We provide everyone with a "fair" trial but assume each defendant has sufficient capability and money to engage appropriate defense even when we know this is not the case. In fact in the United States it is expensive to mount a good defense so poor people have the least access to it.

The first trial is crucial because all subsequent judicial processes are simply reviews. Highly material errors are the requirement to overturn and courts reluctant to overrule. And new information is rarely accepted. Repeated allegations that prosecutors withhold information suggest a truly adversarial relationship between prosecutor and defense. Somewhere in this justice becomes an innocent bystander to over-reaching on both sides. That prosecutors do not always feel an obligation to both sides is shameful. Nancy Grace, a former prosecutor whose lair today is CNN, is the poster child of aggressive prosecutorial tactics and prima facie evidence of the failure of today's judicial system. Where the goal is truth viciousness can not reside.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 19th Century Shop
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    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
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    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
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    April 18, 2024
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
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  • Forum Auctions
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    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
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    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
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    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
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    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
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