Laureates seek clemency for Death Row inmate [Tookie Williams]

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 11/24/5 | Lynda Gledhill

[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.

[Melas]

So you believe in giving every multiple murderer a second chance

Just for clarity's sake, I don't think that commuting a death sentence to life imprisonment rises to the level of a second chance. It's entirely possible to be for wanting Tookie off the streets permanently, and against killing him.

[Melas]

WE meaning the USA never used the guillotine, so it can't be brought back. The wretched device was considered cruel by our founders, but as I've found of late, no one cares what they thought when it comes to matters of the 8th Amendment.

[rlmorel]

It is Christian to forgive. I can forgive him. But that does not mean he is should not pay for his actions.

Everyone completely forgets the victims in this. They never had a life to live when this scumbag was done with them.

I am glad he is a nice fellow, all reformed and so on. But he murdered people.

[infowarrior]

Why are they not trying to get Leslie Van Houten free she never murdered anyone and she has been in jail for for about 36 years.

Mike Farrell and company *did* try to get her out of prison in about 1993-1994, and little Leslie did kill, or help to kill two people, Leo and Rosemary LoBianco, whom, if they were still alive, would take umbrage at being considered "nobody".

Van Houten was *not* present on the first night of slaughter, where 4 "gitterati", and one deliveryman at the wrong palce at the wrong time were killed, but she *was* present and took an active part in the brutal killing of the aforemention Mr and Mrs LoBianco who were a retired grocer and his wife, not Hollywooders at all...

the infowarrior

[rlmorel]

Do you regard death by lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Jason Alexander

George I-can't-stand-you.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

LOL. Hey newbie, looks like you didn't do your homework. We FReepers are world-famous for sorting and dissecting BS that comes our way. Apparently, you're wrong.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I don't think that commuting a death sentence to life imprisonment rises to the level of a second chance. It's entirely possible to be for wanting Tookie off the streets permanently, and against killing him.

Why even have a death penatly if states aren't going to use it then?

Life in prison still means that he'll have food, water, shelter, and other basic necessities that most current victims of the recent hurricanes don't have.

[dfwgator]

And there still is the remote chance that he could escape, or be used as a bargaining chip in a hostage situation.

[goldstategop]

And none of them mention mention his victims. Oh wait - its not about him - its about them. Self-absorbed blowhards. Like Laura Ingraham says, they should shut up and sing.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[river rat]

Roger that!

If our Governor saves this POS's life --- his term of Governor becomes a toal failure and an unfunny joke...

It's even money this Hollywood, Kennedy bedding Actor --- will prevent the execution....

Semper Fi

[goldstategop]

Nothing is wrong with liberals. Its OK to butcher babies and the comatose convalescent but its verboten to execute murderers.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[goldstategop]

No murderer can be reformed. I find the idea offensive. Only those whom you have harmed can personally forgive you for your transgressions. In Judaism, the Yom Kippur ritual allows God to forgive only sins commited against Him, not sins committed by one human being against another. The dead obviously cannot forgive and the living are forbidden to do so on their behalf. If that's beyond God's power, its beyond the power of a mere mortal.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[goldstategop]

True repentence requires admitting to the deed and then changing within. This sociopath is playing every one for fools. The only thing he's sorry for is that he happened to get caught. Big difference - and all the usual liberal dimwits are falling for it.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[goldstategop]

And what about the victims' lives? Are they aren't valuable too? Why does a murderer have more right to breathe than they did? The moment this monster took their lives, he forfeited his right to live on this earth. For justice to be done, he must die.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[VNam68]

Do you think Tookie is still running the crips from inside?

[Dustbunny]

Certainly hope that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does not cave on this.

[goldstategop]

I'm not a Christian so I don't share the philosophy of forgiving every one without strings attached. I believe as Simon Wiesenthal did when he wrote The Sunflower that no man has the power to forgive on behalf of others. We don't have the right to atone for a murderer. Maybe Williams changed in prison but it is still irrelevant. The people he murdered are not in a position to forgive him. And we have no right to desecrate their memory by letting him escape justice. He must be punished for what he did. God can judge in the next world whether his good deeds in prison outweigh the horror of the murders (and his other sins) he committed in this life.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Dustbunny]

You are apparently also having elevator problems.

[Melas]

For justice to be done, he must die.

So says you. I disagree, and there is no reconciling our disagreement. Ironically, there was a time when I was a harder man, and further from God that I would have agreed with you.