Holding Decisions Hostage

You're the governor of the State of Fornicalia, Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know that, as of yesterday (Sunday, 12-11-2005), the Fornicalia Supreme Court refused to stay the execution of Stanley Williams. The very last hope for clemency lies in your right hand, should you sign the paper granting same.

You're a registered Republican but the Republicans and, perhaps moreover, conservatives apparently left you hanging in the breeze during your special election in November, and all your initiatives went down in flames. Just when you thought you had the support of your proclaimed party and its electorate, you discovered that support consisted of so much smoke.

You regrouped, conferred, let loose your prior Republican inner circle staffer Patricia Clarey and replaced her with the very Left-leaning Susan Kennedy. You caught flack for that from the Right as well.

Stanley Williams is slated to die at one minute past midnight tonight at San Quentin Prison north of San Francisco, by lethal injection.

You can grant clemency and perhaps pick up some votes for your 2006 re-election from the center, center-Left and far Left. That would be a given.

On the other hand, no clemency request has been granted in Fornicalia since 1967, when Ronald Reagan spared a mentally ill killer.

But if you refused clemency, you stand to alienate your potential centrist (and further) voters and perhaps garner support from the Right -- but will you? You know their recent track record. Is it a given that you will acquire their support instead of their rancor or dismissal?

But wait; there's more:

There is information to the effect that if clemency is not granted, riots may erupt throughout the state, likely in Los Angeles, similar to those that occurred in 1992 following the Simi Valley Rodney King verdict when LA police officers were acquitted.

Robin Toma, executive director of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission said, during a news conference at LA city hall:

We picked up information that led us to believe that there were some planned and intentioned acts of violence that could occur in the wake of the decision or the execution planned for Stan "Tookie" Williams.

Toma declined to elaborate on the specifics behind the threats, and sources are unnamed.

How much credence do you give to this information? And isn't this a clear attempt to hold your decision hostage? Do you let thugs, criminals, gangbangers and their sympathizers influence your decision? Or, with this information, do you wait and offer no decision until you've ensured that CDC prison and statewide law enforcement agencies are properly prepared to deal with the potential threats?

I know what I would do. Mr. Williams would be allowed to meet his maker at one past midnight.

What will Governor Schwarzenegger do?

I honestly do not know.