True Redemption for Tookie

With the execution looming in just a few hours, Tookie still has a chance to truly seek redemption. To this point he has never admitted guilt, despite overwhelming evidence, nor cooperated with police. He and his adherents are still claiming innocence. The NAACP even trotted out some former jailbird at a news conference today to claim that Tookie had been framed. His story was not believable, either to me or to the 9th Circuit.

We've been told for weeks that Tookie is a "redeemed man". I've previously expressed my doubts about that, but it's not too late.

Tookie has one more chance to get it right. He'll be offered an opportunity to make a final statement, and I hope he chooses his words well. If he goes to the table maintaining his innocence, his followers will continue to promote the idea the he was framed and he'll be a martyr in certain communities. That wouldn't be good for anyone.

He needs to admit his guilt and encourage his followers to use his life as an example of what not to do so that more lives might be saved from gang violence. That would be the only way I'd be willing to accept that he was truly a redeemed man.