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Stanley “Tookie” Williams founded the vicious Crips gang that is responsible for scores of brutal crimes, including hundreds of deaths. He has been convicted as a “cold-blooded killer”, although the jury that put him away left much to be desired in being “of his peers” – one Latino, one Filipino and 10 whites. Nonetheless, most do not argue about his criminal past.

If our justice system was all about punishing an individual for his deeds and also attempting to modify his behavior, Tookie would have been the poster-child for it. After all, he is deprived of his freedom for life and also found a way to turn his destiny around. The one-time gangster once known for the terror and destruction he brought many, has been busy bringing peace and freedom from strife to the same individuals and their communities. He is credited with saving thousands of kids and teenager from gangs and bringing at least one key cycle of violence to end. The man who once took lives, has been busy saving them.

Yet our system is more about revenge than anything else that may matter. Strong Judeo-Christian values of the majority only understands the “eye-for-an-eye” approach of the dark ages and not how to best use an individual’s ability to stop further harm.

It would be easy to kill Tookie, but if he is allowed to live and save one more person from joining a gang, one innocent child from dying in a merciless drive-by-shooting, one at-risk teenager from starting a lifetime of crime, would it not have been worth it?

For that, Tookie deserves a chance to at least try. He deserves to live.