I'm waiting for word on Schwarzenegger's clemency decision for Tookie Williams. Williams' position is a compelling argument against our current conception of capital punishment versus lifetime incarceration. Who are we penalizing through his execution?

Tookie has accomplished many undeniably good things since remaking himself into an educated man in prison. He's given back to society in ways he may never have without the experience of solitary confinement and life behind bars. If we kill him now, everything he might still contribute to society will be gone.

Whether Tookie is guilty or not, we cannot bring back the murdered. We're better off with him alive, working for progress and good, spreading the word gang life is not a positive path.

I'm not alone in considering capital punishment a barbaric practice, a throwback to a less enlightened age. There have been vigils for Tookie across the nation, and it seems the entire state of California is on edge.

Some points to consider:

Not everyone our legal system condemns is guilty. Our courts are biased by frame-ups, money talks, favoritism, career-building, prejudice, religion and simple incompetence. We all know this. How can execution be endorsed by the public in such a system? Do you have enough faith in our system of justice you would willingly trust your life to it? Any possibility of executing an innocent person must force us to think twice. It could be you strapped down for the killing crew, waiting for the injection.

Imprisonment for life actually costs the taxpayers less. Hard to believe, but true. In Los Angeles county, the average cost for life imprisonment: US $1,448,935. Average cost for execution: US $2,087,926. Every state conducting financial analysis has found capital punishment much more costly than life without possibility of parole.

Where is the penalty? There is no balanced penalty for murder. To honestly redress the crime, we have to end up with the perpetrator dead and the victim once again alive. For someone convicted of murder, execution is no actual price they are paying. The urge is there to punish them for what they've done, but instead we give them release from their imprisonment. Which sounds worse to you: going to sleep and not waking up, or a lifetime spent in a tiny jail cell, knowing you will never again see the outside world?

We don't know what happens after death. We don't even know what kind of release we're sending the executed into. I would never claim religious faith in an after-life, but neither would I profess atheism. I don't know, and neither does anyone else. We may be providing basic cessation of existence, or we could be sending these folks off to some bold new realm where they can continue to hunt and murder as they wish. If you're a Christian who believes all is forgiven by accepting Jesus as your savior, then we're sending those who find God while imprisoned directly to Heaven.

What about the families of the victims? We mistake vengeance for justice, the machinery of the state for individual action. Vengeance is an option open to each of us, should we so desire. It's not the government's place to exact vengeance for an individual. If someone murdered one of my own loved ones, I might exercise that option, risking imprisonment by going against the law of the land. Vengeance should remain the action of those wronged, not be institutionalized by the state penal system.

At root, endorsement of capital punishment is the belief people cannot change, that there is no possibility of redemption. I would never advocate the release of murderers or broken humans back into society. The potential for innocent loss of life is too great. Tookie Williams, however, as is obvious through his works post-incarceration, is not the same man who went to jail in 1981.

If he's guilty, life behind bars is terrible punishment and society benefits from his continued outreach to children. An imprisoned ex-gangbanger speaking out against gangs is a far more effective deterrent than a gangbanger turned martyr by state execution.

If the state kills him, we're all murderers.