It is nearly impossible to understand the Left's penchant for celebrating killers. From common thugs like Wesley Cook (also known as Mumia Abu-Jamal) and Stanley "Tookie" Williams to serious mass murderers like Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein, the Left often seems to sanctify criminals while vilifying those who stop them. Now one more murderer is finally dead, after forcing the families and friends of his victims to wait an excruciating 24 years for closure.

Like every other reasonably competent human being, Stanley Williams knew that murder was against the law, and that his own life was forfeit for commiting such an act. Yet he made the decision -- over and over -- to take lives anyway. Not only did he murder a convenience store clerk, a couple at a motel and their adult daughter, but founded the vicious Crips gang. The infamous LA gang has been responsible for perhaps thousands of murders and other crimes since its creation in 1971. When the butcher's bill finally came due, the Left -- as usual -- attempted to insulate Williams from the consequences of his actions.

If only they cared this much when innocent human beings are sentenced to death by the courts... or killed without any trial at all. As I have often said, "Liberals will fight to protect the guilty and kill the innocent, while Conservatives will fight to protect the innocent and punish the guilty."

Williams' supporters claimed that he deserved clemency because he wrote books about the bad side of gang membership during the 24 years he spent in prison. Although some of the books had a message intended to steer kids away from gang life, there was no admission of or remorse for the crimes he committed. I'm sure he was awfully sorry he got caught and sentenced to death. However, that did nothing to bring back the people he killed, nor did it atone in any way for their deaths. He denied them a chance to write their own books. What right did he have to ask for consideration after two dozen more years of life than he allowed any of his victims?

Williams was sentenced to death based on overwhelming evidence of guilt, in accordance with the law. Governor Schwarzenegger's statement upon his refusal to interfere said, in part, "Based on the cumulative weight of the evidence, there is no reason to second guess the jury's decision of guilt or raise significant doubts or serious reservations about Williams' convictions and death sentence." Even the ultra-Liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was unable to find legal grounds upon which to grant a reprieve. Still, Hollywood half-wits, race pimps and the rest of the "usual suspects" turned up to demand that justice not be done. Funny how the same people who scream that following the law is "racist" seem to forget that Williams himself committed what would now be termed a "hate crime." After all, Williams told accomplice Tony Sims that he killed Albert Owens "because he was white and he was killing all white people."

I wouldn't be surprised if Schwarzenegger's refusal to overturn the decision of the courts was based, at least in part, on the arrogant presumption of his Hollywood pals that they just "know better" than all the judges who have reviewed the case over the years. Side note to the high-profile Hollywood Liberal crowd: No reasonable person wants to hear simplistic solutions to complex problems dreamed up by poseurs and phonies who are overpaid to mouth lines written by others. We can get the same ideas from children for free, and in crayon.

Few on the Left seemed to consider the rights of Williams' victims. Not only did they not lose their right to justice when he murdered them, but their relatives, at least, are owed some sort of closure. Was their 24-year wait for reckoning made any better by Williams' books and the celebrities who fawned on him? Has Williams -- or his groupies -- ever even bothered to apologise to them for the destruction of their lives for no good reason? Where was the anti-death-penalty Left with their high-sounding idealistic speeches when the Owens family asked why Albert was killed? And what about Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Yang and Yee-Chen Lin? When Robert Yang asked why his parents and sister were shot, where was the Left? Nominating their murderer for the Nobel peace prize, that's where.

In part, society depends upon a pact. We don't seek personal justice or retribution for wrongs, but agree to turn that over to the criminal justice system. If you are the victim of an illegal act, the justice system is supposed to pursue your aggressor, even if you are already dead. It doesn't always work perfectly, but -- on the whole -- it does work. Punishing criminals helps to protect us from repeat offenders and other potential criminals. When the law is carried out and justice served upon lawbreakers, others who would choose to violate the law may be stopped by fear of punishment.

Sure, perhaps Stanley "Tookie" Williams did some good for society by writing books and speaking out against gang life. That in no way precluded society's need for him to pay for his crimes. His final -- in fact, only -- act of redemption, therefore, was to attest to the integrity of the social pact by his death. By visiting justice upon Williams in accordance with the law, the legal system proves to other violence-prone criminals as well as law-abiding citizens that, even if they turn slowly and squeak too much, the wheels of justice do turn.

Joe Mariani is a computer consultant born and raised in New Jersey. He now lives in Pennsylvania, where the gun laws are less restrictive and taxes are lower. Joe always thought of himself as politically neutral until he saw how far left the left had really gone after 9/11. His essays and links to articles are available at http://www.guardianwatchblog.com/