Tookie Williams.
I just started hearing about the case of Tookie Williams this week. He's on death row, scheduled to be executed on Tuesday; found guilty of four murders in the late 70s. He's notable as one of the founders of the Crips gang, but more recently for the children's books he wrote and the impact he's had keeping kids from following in his footsteps. There are two things about this situation that sadden me. The first is that society in general has very little success getting through to these inner city kids in question. It seems like a terrible shame to extinguish a voice that has such a positive effect where so many others have failed, all in the name of vengence (or whatever the reason is for executing people). The second is that this particular situation speaks of redemption to me. It says to me that a person can make amends if he or she has the strength and willpower to do so. It says to me that no one is a lost soul.
On a more philosophical note, my overly idealistic view is that people would naturally act in a just manner if not for the corrosiveness of social conditioning and a negative developmental environment. Society punishes that which it creates, and that is not justice.