California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is mulling clemency for Tookie Williams, the founder of LA's "Crips" street gang. Conservatives are attempting to cast this as a Mumia redux, and liberals are crying for Tookie's life to be spared.

I think they're both wrong.

While I believe the death penalty to be wrong, the fact is, the jurors in southern California did not. And the appellate court did not. And their opinion is more compelling than mine.

Tookie has, to his credit, found a sort of redemption behind bars. He has worked to steer youth clear of the life that landed him on death row, and that work should be acknowledged. That is why comparing this case to that of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal does a disservice to Williams' life work.

But Tookie's redemption, however, impressive, however inspiring, should not spare him from the sentence that was delivered. To do so would ironically undo all of the work that Tookie has done.

Gang members across the country need to know there is a price to be paid for their actions, that they will be held accountable. While Williams' redemption is much deeper than the jailhouse religion so many cons attempt to use as leverage for shorter sentences and clemency, sparing his life sends the message that the sentence is negotiable, that we will tolerate horrific actions if later altruistic actions balance them out properly.

Tookie Williams was sentenced to die. And Tookie Williams SHOULD die. And we, as citizens, should remember him for both the good AND the bad, the Yin AND the Yang.

And we should mourn for his loss but rejoice in the thousands of youth his death may well deliver from a similar fate.