Posted on 11/21/2005 8:04:00 AM PST by SmithL
Williams, who was a hard-bodied weight lifter as well as a notorious gang member, recounted the brief encounter in a book published last year: Arnold Schwarzenegger was so impressed with Williams' physique, he noted that Williams' biceps were as big as thighs.
Nearly 30 years later, the two men are again crossing paths.
With the world watching, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must decide in the next few weeks whether Williams will live or die.
Williams, 51, the co-founder of the Crips gang and a four-time murderer who has become an anti-gang crusader and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is scheduled to be executed at San Quentin State Prison on Dec. 13.
With court appeals nearly exhausted, Williams has pointed to the children's books and gang-peace initiatives he has produced from behind prison walls as proof he is a reformed man and worthy of clemency. Sunday was the last day of a weeklong "Tookie Williams Teach-in" that included a rally outside the gates of San Quentin on Saturday featuring the rapper Snoop Dogg.
Prosecutors argue that a man responsible for four shotgun murders who was involved in nearly a dozen violent incidents in his first decade in prison -- before he changed his ways -- deserves the sentence a jury recommended.
After a year of plummeting popularity and squabbles with Democrats and labor unions over sometimes-arcane ideas about ways to change government, Schwarzenegger now turns to a more basic and far more gut-wrenching task.
He must contemplate crime and punishment, redemption and race.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Actually, he is supposed to die as decided by a jury of his peers. The Gov. is making a decision whether he should overturn a jury sentence and allow him to live.
Different wording, different concept.
:)
You Bastard! I have to get a filling drilled out and the cavity under it fixed next Tuesday. I always suspected dentistry was one big sadism syndicate and now I know.
:^)
gee, how much empathy did tookie have for his VICTIMS!
It seems as though all the death penalty advocates can only point to waht Tookie did while he was behind the prison walls. If he were still on the streets, he would still be killing people. Some people like Tookie have forfeited their right to breath.
With a big ol' smile on my face, of course. The funny thing is, most people don't lok at the page to see I am not really a dentist. They assume the worst. Some even ask advise, the poor souls... their jaws have probably rotted off by now.
My gut feeling is that Arnold is going to commute his sentence to life. Then the next Democrat or even Republican Goveernor will pardon him.Then the murdering sob can begin his killing.
He caluclating, and I would say with pleasure, took the lives of people who only wished to live. They were harming no one. They only wanted to support themselves and their families, to earn a living. Nothing more.
Decent people should take notice on who wants to turn this murder loose.
a mean engineer with a sense of humor is a dangerous thing.
BUMP
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