The Terminator had a real-life problem. California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneger was the last line of defense in the effort to spare the life of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a death-row inmate and co-founder of the infamous Crips gang in Southern Caliifornia.

Williams was convicted of murdering four people 26 years ago and has been on death row for many years while his case was appealed. But he reached the end of his appeal process and was put to death on Tuesday, Dec. 13.

Reading about the case online last week, I ran across an editorial in the Marin Independent Journal (a San Francisco Bay area paper) which called for the governor to spare this man's life. They acknowledged that Williams had never admitted guilt and never showed a moment of remorse for the people he killed.

I find that I have more sympathy for Schwarzeneger than I do for Williams. What politician is prepared to make the weighty decision to save a convicted criminal from the electric chair? To grant the power of life and death to an elected official is a terrifyingly powerful matter, as it imbues that person with the collective consciousness of the community.

There is one other person awaiting execution on death row in California. Clarence Ray Allen is 76, in poor health, and legally blind and in a wheelchair. He was convicted of arranging the murders of three people while he was already imprisoned for robbery.

One of the ostensible reasons for assigning the death penalty to cases of capital murder is to create a deterrent. Allen's attorney's have said that putting him to death provides "no penological purpose" and questioning whether putting to death someone old and gray who does not pose a threat is appropriate.

This case is about a man who paid another man to murder witnesses to a crime. What difference does it make how old or infirm he is? California has a death penalty for crimes of the type he committed.

I think he should be put to death for the crimes as was Tookie Williams. Getting old and sick should not be a factor in the decision. What matters is that these men committed crimes and have managed through legal maneuvering to avoid paying an ultimate price.

To extend clemency sends a message to the community that it is okay to murder people and that smart lawyers will run a long string of appeals until you are so old that the community takes pity on you and spares your life.

Why should we grant clemency to murderers while we send our best young men to war where they might be killed?

The reason prisons are a growth industry is that we unreasonably punish some people (e.g. those convicted of possession small amounts of marijuana) and unreasonably keep in jail true criminals.

Remember the case of Mitchell Rupe, who shot to death a couple of women in a robbery at a small branch bank in rural Thurston County? He was caught and convicted of murder and while on appeal, ballooned to remarkable obesity. His lawyers used his enormous size to keep him from hanging, the preferred method of capital punishment in Washington State, because it would be "cruel and unusual" due to his weight. More gravy, Mr. Rupe?