Posted on 11/28/2005 10:39:14 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Monday, 28 November 2005, 10:58 GMT
Stars line up in ex-gangster plea
Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx is among a number of high-profile stars calling for clemency for reformed gang leader Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
Foxx, who starred in a dramatisation of Williams's life, protested against Williams's planned execution at the premiere of his new film Jarhead.
Last week rap star Snoop Dogg spoke at a rally at San Quentin prison saying Williams's voice "needs to be heard".
Williams, 51, was sentenced to death in 1981 for the murder of four people.
Co-founder of the notorious Los Angeles Crips street-gang, Williams denies committing the 1979 murders that put him on death row.
He faces death by lethal injection on 13 December 2005.
While in jail, Williams has won praise for his anti-gang books, earning several Nobel Peace Prize nominations for his teachings.
His supporters range from Foxx and Snoop Dogg (himself a former Crips member) to Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
They hope to persuade California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that Williams can do more for society alive than dead.
When the Williams' biopic Redemption aired on US television last year, Foxx said: "If Stan "Tookie" Williams had been born in Connecticut in the same type of situation, and was a white man, he would have been running a company."
"But, born a black man who has the capability of having brute strength and the capability of being smart in the ways of the world, he's going to get into what he gets into."
But US prosecutors said Williams was a "cold-blooded killer" who did not deserve "atonement" for his "brutal, murderous acts".
The crimes Williams was accused of were "heinous," said former MASH star Mike Farrell, who has lobbied for him for several years, but insists he has made"an extraordinary transformation".
Russell Crowe and Harry Belafonte are among the signatures Farrell has collected calling for clemency for Williams.
The Hollywood left just never gets it... I am sure some are doing this in order to win over some fan support? Perhaps they should talk to the victims family and see how they fell about this guy??
Absolutely....I seem to recall that a couple of thousand "nominations" take place every year.
2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten says that Tookie should take a dirt nap, and the sooner the better.
The answer to your trivia question is 2005. Not what you expected, was it?
Have these defenders of a murderer
seen the crime scene photos ! ?
I wonder if George Bush made an "an extraordinary transformation" if Mike (I hate everything American) Farrell would support him?
You're not alone. I'm also becoming increasingly against capital punishment.
Line em up and knock em down. Tookie is toast and those that try to aid his bid to get out of what a jury sentenced him to. My prediction is that Ahhhhhnold will say he has weighed the merits of what Tookie has done while in prison in comparison to the lives he took and how.why he took them. He will say that even though SOME of the things he has done while awaiting his sentence are positive they do not outweigh the crimes he has committed.
These folks that stump for Tookie are ignoring four dead souls and the families that love them. They are ignoring what Tookie did to those folks directly and they are ignoring what his actions lead to indirectly (that being the growth of terrorist gangs). Ahhhhhnold will make the proper choice and refuse clemency. Those that oppose this decision do not respect the rule of law or the fact that people hold personal responsibility for the choices they make. Tookie did what he did and it is long past time that he pay the ultimate price.
You know, I find it odd how people will try to grant folks like Tookie exactly what it is they "TOOK".....that being someone'e life. How does one reconcile rewarding someone that stole something with the very thing they took? How exactly do they find 'punishment' in doing such a thing?
Some think that if they put enough years between the crime and the actual sentence, that people will settle in their desire for justice. That they will indeed somehow forget what the crike was or how brutal it was. All this in the push of their own anti death penalty agenda.
Tookie is done. December 13th will see justice done for familes that have been waiting many many years for it to be done.
Zero remorse should equal zero consideration.
Like I said: Ahnold is listening to advisors for re-election, not to his conscience. And as he needs moderates to want to believe he is worth voting in again, he'll likely do the clemency option.
Oh, yeah. I thought it was especially great how he shot that kid in the back twice while the kid was lying prone on the floor.
A really great guy indeed.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050119-0231-ca-beardsleeexecution.html
California executes man who killed two women over drug deal
By David Kravets
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:31 a.m. January 19, 2005
almost 25 years on death row..
"Beardslee was declared dead by San Quentin State Prison officials at 12:29 a.m., becoming the first California inmate put to death since 2002 and the 11th since the state resumed executions in 1992. "
There are around 600 inmates on death row in California.
does it really matter? if he hits the streets he'll be dead in a week anyway.
not me, he's 25 years my senior.
And stars wonder why less and less people go to see their movies or buy their junk. All I need is to see a star pulling this crap and I won't view another of their movies. Besides, why go to see their agenda driven drivel when I can watch Denzel Washington or Bruce (Iraq War in the true light) Willis? Oh, can't leave out Kiefer Sutherland, (24). I won't miss these.
"But, born a black man who has the capability of having brute strength and the capability of being smart in the ways of the world, he's going to get into what he gets into."
Did Foxx just state that Black Men have no control over their animal instincts? Did Foxx just state that Black Men are more animal than human, something less than human?
I'm not sure if I am reading his statement correctly, but something seems terribly wrong with it.
[Snicker] Yeah, that's right. White people get away with murder everyday. Just like O.J. Simpson. It's a conspiracy, Foxx.
that's is his extraordinary transformation. he now has famous friends that didn't know who he was before he became a murderer.
"Why don't these numb skulls spend their valuable time lauding the accomplishments of people who haven't murdered others? Is that too much to ask?"
The folks lining up to stand beside this murderer are also the same folks lining up to demonize Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Condaleeza Rice, and many others. The best and brightest of our community are sneered at and have their reputations spit upon, yet an evil murderer is celebrated.
Liberalism is a mental disorder!
It's too bad. If anyone should get zapped, it's this dude.
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