My God, death row doth make a man grow large!

Does this look like a guy who should be put to death?

Hard to say.

It's Stanley Tookie Williams, convicted murderer and the co-founder of the Crips street gang. He was also nominated for the Nobel Peace prize, although that's not quite as difficult as it sounds.

He's scheduled to die by lethal injection Dec. 13 unless he's granted pardon by Governor Arnold Swartz.... Schwarts... Swortsennjager... (fuck it, I can't spell his last name at the moment.)

[Thunderclap and flash of lightning] "Thy nightmares hath come true. Poison shalt course through thy veins until thou art dead!"

Anyway, here's what Williams says about the birth of the Crips in 1969:

"... we started out—at least my intent was to, in a sense, address all of the so-called neighboring gangs in the area and to... cleanse the neighborhood of all these, you know, marauding gangs. But I was totally wrong. And eventually, we morphed into the monster we were addressing."

[Thuderclap and the flash of lightning] "Gangs begat gangs until one day the mother-of-all gangs was begotten, and then: decades of street violence; and then: the Lord sayeth unto his men, 'Thou shalt pop caps in the asses of thine enemies! Thou shall strike blows in the names of security, honor and turf!'"

Williams and his supporters say he has made significant progress in reforming his gangbanging ways. He has apologized for starting the Crips in the first place. He has turned to peaceful, non-violent activity and has also written children's books that encourage readers to avoid gangs and violence.

But is that enough? Has he cut off an ear, burned apologies into his flesh, or otherwise flagellated his demonic body? Simply put, Has he atoned?

I don't know if Williams should be granted clemency. My gut feeling is "why not?", but it's not because I think Williams is the world's greatest redeemer. I just don't give a damn about capital punishment. I suppose I'd feel differently if someone I loved was murdered, but at the moment that's not the case.

[Thunderclap and lightning] "Thou shalt drive by the abodes of thine enemy, and thou shalt unleash a storm of lead into thine enemy's hearth. And thine enemy shalt be thee."