Well, it's over now. No more appeals, no more hype. Stanley "Tookie" Williams entered immortality a few short hours ago. And while I see his death as necessary, I will not celebrate it.

Governor Schwarzennegger surprised me, frankly. I thought he'd cave to the pressure to grant clemency to Williams, but he exercised the proper restraint. He made the right decision, in my estimation. You see, while the press clamours on about judges subverting the roles of the legislatures by being activists, they all too often miss the reverse; when governors and legislatures subvert the roles of judges. There are clearly defined roles of each in the Constitution, and while a governor CAN grant clemency, and in certain case, SHOULD grant clemency, it should only be when there's a legal reason for doing so, not simply when the voices of a thousand fools demand it.

If I were to assume that Tookie was innocent of the long ago slaying for which he was convicted (and in doing so call into question without substantiation the credibility of MANY juries and judges over the long span Tookie spent on death row), then I can't ignore the deaths for which he WAS responsible over the years; those of the tens of thousands of youth destroyed in our inner cities by the legacy Tookie left behind. A truly penitent Tookie, in my estimation, would have LONGED for death, would have known that his final end was an apt punishment for the death and destruction that will be forever associated with his name.

I hope Tookie found redemption. I really do. Nothing would please me more than to see his face when I cross over to the other side. If he HAS found redemption, then, like any of us who have found such after straying far off the path, he deserves redemption.

But that's for God to decide, not me.