Several years ago there was a guy by the name of Gary Graham that was on the death row in Texas. Graham was a cause celebrite at the time. Some said it was his execution that would change the tide of public opinion on capital punishment.

It certainly changed my mind. I was coming around on the death penalty, from the "for" column to the "against." Graham, however, temporarily pushed me back into favoring the death penalty. Graham became a celebrity because many victims magically materialized as the case got more publicity. The case against the case against Gary Graham was pretty weak, not least of which because even if he wasn't guilty of the particular crime he was convicted for, it was apparent that he was almost certainly guilty of others and would be guilty of more if ever set free. The more I read about this evil and erratic man, the more it sank in that because of the capital punishment that I was beginning to oppose, Graham would never kill again.

I cannot believe that I was the only person thinking the same thing. Gary Graham wasn't what was wrong with the death penalty, he was what was right about it. I couldn't bring myself to fully support his execution, but I couldn't bring myself to defend him.

As opposed to say Karla Faye Tucker, I could not understand why they chose to make an issue of this particular person. Their adamance, their tone, and their righteous indignation was such that I fervently believed that if there wasn't evidence exonerating Graham, they'd have to invent it -- in fact, even though I now believe that Graham should not have been executed, I was pretty sure that they did invent it.

Most of you following the news are familiar with Tookie Williams, the co-founder of the Crips that was recently put to death in California. He's the newest Gary Graham. Utterly unsympathetic to the average American. I respect some of the things he's done since landing in prison, but his conversion to the side of light seems incomplete at best. And it doesn't change what he did. It doesn't change that despite overwhelming evidence, he still claims that it was a racist plot. Blah, blah, blah. I ultimately found myself agreeing with the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson:

Williams's case is about the power of redemption, his supporters say, but I think it's more about the power of celebrity. The state shouldn't execute Williams, but only because the state shouldn't execute anybody -- the death penalty is a barbaric anachronism that should have been eliminated long ago, as far as I'm concerned. But it can't be right to save Williams just because he's a famous desperado (or former desperado) with famous friends, and then blithely go back to snuffing out the lives of other criminals who lack his talent for public relations.

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He was convicted of the 1979 murders of four people in two separate robberies -- convenience store worker Albert Owens, 26; and motel owners Yen-I Yang, 76; Tsai-Shai Yang, 63; and their daughter Yee-Chen Lin, 43. Williams has been on death row since 1981; that he has consistently maintained his innocence of all four killings hardly makes him unique. There's no dramatic new DNA evidence or anything like that to cast doubt on his guilt.

A lot of it, in my mind, comes back to Gary Graham. And the anti-death penalty industry. Whatever sympathy I have for their cause, they simply don't have any credibility with me. They are so charged in their point of view that it often seems that they will tear apart the fabric of reality if it comes between their cause and victory. Interestingly, I've discovered that I'm not the only conservative with this problem. Jonah Goldberg recently wrote:

And, of course, there's all the America bashing from a crowd that can cheer Yasser Arafat's Peace Prize but also can call Schwarzenegger a murderer with a straight face. Indeed, it's difficult not to conclude that, for many, the Tookies are merely convenient props to put the United States on trial. And, as we all know, props aren't responsible for their actions.

I find it revealing that a significant number of conservatives I know (and even work with) either oppose the death penalty on moral grounds or are inclined to. But they are consistently put off by the radical chic crowd, which has grown deceitful, narcissistic and married to agendas no conservative would ever sign on to.

It would be nice if the most vocal opponents of the death penalty pondered that during this teaching moment. But they won't, because they think they've got nothing left to learn.

And Tucker Carlson makes himself another case and point:

And what about the other victims, the three Taiwanese immigrants who Williams murdered in their motel? Does Susan Sarandon even know their names? Yen-I Yang, 76, his wife, Tsai-Shai Yang, 63, and their daughter, Yee-Chen Lin, 43, were shot at point blank range. Yee-Chen Lin had the left side of her face blown completely away, yet somehow lived for a couple of hours in agony. I saw the crime scene photos tonight. I'd love to put them on the air, but they're too gruesome. Williams later bragged about "blowing away" the family, whom he described as "Buddhaheads."

These are not accusations. They're facts, proved at a trial that presented truly overwhelming evidence (including damning statements by accomplices, relatives and passersby) of Tookie Williams' guilt. Yet Williams himself has never admitted what he did, instead blaming his convictions a racist plot. Are Tookie's celebrity defenders bothered by the fact he's still lying about his case, and has never apologized for murdering four people? You'd never know it from listening to them.

Instead, they talk endlessly about Tookie the "author," as if Williams wrote his own books (instead of relying on a "collaborator" on the outside), and as if it mattered anyway. It doesn't. There is no evidence that a single thing Williams has "written" has convinced a single kid not to join a street gang. Tookie Williams hasn't made America better. He took four lives and destroyed many others. Plus he's a duplicitous phony. If anyone ever deserved to be executed, it's Tookie Williams.

And yet it's people like Williams and Graham that they choose to put front and center.

I think a big part of my issue is that the elements leading the charge are, as Goldberg points out, using it as a leg to prop up a larger argument: The Case Against America. The reason that people like Williams and Graham get in front of these debates is because they are supposed to be indicative of several supposed failures of the American system: capital punishment, racism, urban degredation, and poverty. What's a better picture of America to an anti-American than a poor, inner-city black put on death row by a racist justice system?

And that's why people like myself can be opposed to the death penalty and yet squirm whenever our supposed allies speak up.