2nd look at Bush service award White House panel unaware honoree was on Death Row
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A White House council on volunteerism said Friday it's taking another look at how the President's Call to Service Award -- accompanied by a laudatory letter from President Bush -- was issued to Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a California Death Row inmate who has written a series of books warning young people against the gang life.
A spokesman for the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation said that neither the council nor Bush had any way of knowing that the person they were honoring was a condemned multiple murderer.
: The presidential citation, which arrived last week, was a lifetime award for more than 4,000 hours of volunteer service. Williams was nominated by William Harrison, an archbishop in the Old Catholic Orthodox Church in West Monroe, La.
The letter signed by Bush said, in part, "Through service to others, you demonstrate the outstanding character of America and help strengthen our country. ... Americans continue to serve and are part of the gathering momentum of millions of acts of kindness and decency that are changing America, one heart and soul at a time. Your actions contribute to this change."