Bay Bridge Sue wrote:Why won't they actually test the shotgun
Actually, it's my understanding (and I could be wrong, not being a professional ballistician) that you CANNOT do forensic tests on shotguns, given that they do not have a single projectile (like a handgun or rifle) that bears the markings of having been forced down the barrel at high pressure.
Bay Bridge Sue wrote: - shit, test ALL the evidence they still have - to prove if Williams did the murder or not? There's a lot of evidentiary testing they can do to actually prove this case one way or the other. But they won't do it, and have refused to over and over.
I confess, I haven't followed the case that closely. But capital crimes, especially high-profile ones like this, tend to be tested up the wazoo. I personally don't have a firm opinion on capital punishment; on one hand, what if they're wrong? On the other, the recidivism rate is very low. Such people have ordered/orchastrated additional murders from behind prison walls. An Israeli judge was killed under just such circumstances (Israel is one of those countries more "civilized" than us

which does not have the death penalty).
But on the third hand, even if he didn't pull the trigger on THAT particular murder, he enabled many others. Founder of the Crips, remember? Under his influence, many other people (including undeniable innocents caught in the cross-fire of one of their many little temper-tantrums with other gangs) HAVE died. The leader of a criminal syndicate (or a military unit, for that matter) is held responsible for any murders committed under his command, even if he, himself, was miles away from the actual doing. Once you start carelessly slinging bullets around crowded neighborhoods, someone is going to get killed. It ain't like in Hollyweird, where they fire off machine guns and no one is even hit, much less killed. Tookie lived the high life, spread boku misery and fear around his 'hood so no one would "dis" him, and now the bill has come due.
"All the great villainies of history have been perpetrated by sober men, and chiefly by teetotalers"
H.L.Mencken