Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr.

    In January 2005, Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr. was seen in various photographs with a grin on his face while the prisoners in Iraq were being humiliated by the rest of the soldiers. These Iraqi prisoners had to endure degrading behaviors such as being stacked on top of each other to symbolize a human pyramid and being forced to masturbate, it was very funny to the soldiers so they decided to take pictures of the Iraqi prisoners, just to show that they were less than human beings. Graner was also accused of punching one of the in the head and knocked him out. The reasons why Charles Graner Jr. allegedly did those horrible things to those men because he was ordered by his superiors to abuse them, in order to interrogate these men so they can tell them what they wanted or needed to hear. He claimed that he thought it was right or lawful to mistreat the Iraqi prisoners and he had to follow orders, or else he would get into serious trouble. After all of these incidents occurred, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison when he court-marshaled. I agree with the sentence because he should not have treated those men in a negative way, even though he was following orders at that time. It did not seem like Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr. was very remorseful when he was abusing the Iraqi prisoners and having a grin on his face. Graner should have used more common sense in the way he treated those men if he wanted to get some useful information from them.

    Graner might have thought at the time of the scandal that he was just simply following orders from his superiors, however; deep down inside he knew what he was doing was wrong and he did not question the superior officers. Maybe they thought that it would be very amusing for them as well to abuse the Iraqi prisoners. As a result of following those inhumane orders, Charles Graner Jr. had to be sentenced to 10 years in prison, being dishonorably discharged, demoted to private, and he has been ordered to to give up all of the money he earned and his military benefits. Even though Graner has to do time in prison, I do not think that it was fair for him to go to jail and the rest of the soldiers who also participated in this abusive behavior towards the Iraqi prisoners should have received the same punishment as well as the superior officers who authorized this kind of treatment. If one person has to be punished for what they did to those prisoners, then so should the rest of the people that were involved in the scandal.

Tookie Williams-In Favor of Clemency

    As you all may be very aware of the fact that Stanley a.k.a "Tookie" Williams was one of the early leaders and founders of the street gang called, the Crips. The Crips originated in a South Central neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. Tookie was convicted on three counts of murder in 1979, which he maintained his innocence during his incarceration. While he was serving his sentence he co-wrote children's books and made his best efforts to educate the youth about the dangers of being involved with gangs and did everything he could to stop them from living a very dangerous lifestyle. Thousands of people became involved by signing online petitions in their efforts to convince Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant Mr. Williams clemency based on his tireless work on being an anti-gang activist and he has been redeemed for his past wrong doings. Despite all of the efforts from celebrities, politicians, Nobel laureates, and Williams' attorney, Governor Schwarzenegger denied Tookie's clemency in early November 2005. One month later of that same year, Stanley "Tookie" Williams was executed by lethal injection.

    Punishment and Responsibility means that when a person does something that is against the law such as stealing someones car or hitting someone with their own car by accident or on purpose, then leave the scene of the crime. That person would be charged with a hit and run and leaving the scene of an accident, he or she would be severely punished for what they did. Now in the case of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, he was convicted in 1979 on three counts of murder, in which he believed he was innocent of those crimes. Even though he was part of the Crips street gang, was there any evidence indicating that he was involved in the deaths of three people? Governor Schwarzenegger should have granted clemency for Mr. Williams based on his tireless work to prevent young people from joining gangs and writing children's books about doing something productive in their lives, instead of wasting their time and energy on something that is non-productive.