Taking the death penalty into their own hands

I blogged about Tookie Williams, the killer who has become the cause of the day for the radical chic culture vultures. Dennis Prager doesn't mention Tookie by name, but it's clear that he's talking about him in this article about the death penalty. Prager points out that, while the death penalty as envisioned might result in the death of an innocent man, the death penalty escape route, as practiced by the Left, has in fact resulted in the deaths of innocents. The most obvious example, and the one Prager points to, is Norman Mailer's successful effort to get Jack Abbott out of prison. Here's Prager's account of the story, and please take note of Mailer's own take on things:

Perhaps the most infamous case of a death penalty opponent directly causing the murder of an innocent is that of novelist Norman Mailer. In 1981, Mailer utilized his influence to obtain parole for a bank robber and murderer named Jack Abbott on the grounds that Abbott was a talented writer. Six weeks after being paroled, Abbott murdered Richard Adan, a 22-year-old newlywed, aspiring actor and playwright who was waiting tables at his father's restaurant. Mailer's reaction? "Culture is worth a little risk," he told the press. "I'm willing to gamble with a portion of society to save this man's talent." That in a nutshell is the attitude of the abolitionists. They are "willing to gamble with a portion of society" -- such as the lives of additional innocent victims -- in order to save the life of every murderer.

I'm ambivalent about the death penalty, since it has problems, but I'm sure not ambivalent about making sure killers don't kill again.