Posted on 11/24/2005 6:29:21 PM PST by SmithL
Sacramento -- A bevy of Nobel laureates and celebrities have written a letter urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to commute the death sentence of Stanley Tookie Williams, himself a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
Williams, 51, the co-founder of the Crips gang convicted of four 1979 murders, is scheduled to be executed at San Quentin State Prison on Dec. 13.
The letter praises Williams' work as an anti-gang crusader, including writing children's books.
"Each year at the holiday season voices the world over cry out for peace," states the letter to the governor. "This year, one of them, a voice of great power, will be lost unless you act."
Among the signatories of the letter are Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Irene Kahn, secretary general of Amnesty International; and Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who founded the Community of the Peace People in 1976.
Among the celebrities who signed the letter are Jason Alexander, Jackson Browne, Russell Crowe, Carl Reiner and Susan Sarandon.
Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, with the Human Rights Center of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, also signed the letter. She is a cousin of Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver.
On Monday, civil rights activists Jesse Jackson and Bianca Jagger visited Williams at San Quentin. His case has become a cause for many activists.
"Through his work, gang truces have been mediated, and long-standing wounds have been healed," the letter states. "Lives have been saved."
Williams has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize each year since 2000, initially by a member of the Swiss parliament and more recently by a Bay Area philosophy professor.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
No... lives were TAKEN!! Thats why he is on death row. He was sentenced for taking lives. What is wrong with liberals?
In my opinion, an intensified method of death would be justified for this piecee of garbage.
I like your thinking. Very creative.
Thank you.
Do they all visit the victims families!!!!!
I guess the MS-13 gang bangers didn't get the memo
Seems to me that the clemency option is made for people who have reformed and made a contribution to society.
If this killer has reformed and is doing some good in his life, why not grant him clemency?
While I am putting on my flame suit, consider that the Apostle Paul, a killer of Christians, was given a second chance and changed the world for the better.
Maybe if he had murdered a few worthless celebrities or Nobel Prize winners, they wouldn't be so hot to try and get this guy off death row.
A better comprimise might be to have him switch places with Jesse Jackson.
At leat Tookie Williams is sorry for what he has done.
"Each year at the holiday season voices the world over cry out for peace"
What season is for the murder victims to cry out?
Fry this bastard.
Funny that Jason Alexander would want this guy to live. It was a few years ago that he stated on a talk show that the world could use lots more people dying of cancer to help it deal with overpopulation.
NO no no no no! He not only isn't repentent, he continues to whine that he's innocent despite overwhelming evidence (and a confession) that he DID!!!
He is still a convicted murderer.
He can not completely undo the gang mentality he started as a lifestyle for so many.
When prisoners change personality wise, they frequently make themselves look better, not worse, for clemency or parole reasons. Many revert when released from prison.
The clemency option shouldn't be available for anyone who is convicted of four murders. If he had been executed in 1980 like he should have been, there wouldn't be any discussion about it now.
Your comments are fine in the abstract. Problems arise when you try to apply them to a worst case example. Just won't work.
After you learn far more about Tookie than you know now, which seems to be nothing, come on back here with any further bleeding heart sanctimonious do-goodisms.
We'll be waiting.
Title: 'Tookie Meets Sparky'
With a name like that...
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