Stanley Tookie Williams/Favor of Clemency

Stanley Tookie Williams was a gang leader for “crips.” He was convicted for murdering 3 people. There is truly no evidence if he really did murder the people. Though he had founded a gang, he did not deserve a death row. There are many cases of innocent people going to jail. After they have still found no evidence that he had commit the murder, he was still sentence to death row. Mr. Williams had wrote several books and help organization to keep gangs from spreading/expanding. William didn't deserve a death row, he realized his mistake and had tried to better not only himself but the society. 

In the utilitarian theory of punishment states that if the punishment does well to the society than the person deserves the punishment. Williams help many people by making the positive choice. Giving Williams the punishment to death row does not make society a better place. It would only justify the things he did wrong but in the future consent of the society. Deterrence theory is preventing crime from exceeding. William didn't further his crime, He not only prevent his crime from exceeding but he helped many others avoid making the mistake. 

Wendigo Case (Defense)

Native American is charged with manslaughter in Northern Canada. The Native American was thought to believe that the man he killed was an evil spirit clothed in human form. In the Native American tribe, they believed to eat human beings and felt that the best way to save his tribe was to kill the evil spirit

My defendant has no intention of killing a human being. What will my defendant get out of by killing an unknown human being? Nothing. My defendant has no reason to kill a man. If my defendant wanted to kill this man, would he still be here on this trial? Wouldn't he just escape and avoid this? The reason my defendant did kill this man is because he was believed that the man was an evil spirit. He was protecting his people and himself. My defendant, in his thought does not believe that it is a human. His thought is that this will harm others and he believed that the right choice was to kill this evil spirit.

In my defense, my defendant was protecting himself. He felt threaten. My defendant had been feed various stories and tales about the evil spirit. His tribe believe in such things. Is it his fault for believing this part of his culture? My defendant was protecting himself and the other Native American because in my defendant’s mind, he was not seen as human but rather an evil spirit.