Posted on 12/04/2005 9:57:17 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Death Row inmate Stanley 'Tookie' Williams sits in a visiting cell at San Quentin prison November 16, 2005, after granting Reuters a rare interview. (Photograph taken by prison guard in accordance with San Quentin prison visitation regulations) (California Department of Corrections/Handout/Reuters)
Nation of Islam Minister Tony Muhammad is surrounded by his security team as he speaks during a rally to protest the scheduled Dec. 13, execution in California of Crips co-founder Stanley 'Tookie' Williams, at Leimert Park in Los Angeles, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Actor Mike Farrell, a long-time death penalty opponent, representing Death Penalty Focus, calls on California Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger and the state leadership to suspend all executions Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005, during a rally at the City of West Hollywood, Calif. Three men on California's death row face imminent execution dates: Stanley Tookie Williams, Dec. 13, 2005; Clarence Ray Allen, Jan. 17, 2006; and Michael Angelo Morales, March 2006. The City of West Hollywood affirmed its commitment to abolition of capital punishment Wednesday by joining the Fourth Annual World Day of Cities Against Death Penalty. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
There. Fixed.
Looks like the guys who trashed that liquor store...
Arnold's a fool if he thinks anything positive (including self preservation) will result from clemency.
A political risk for not granting clemency?
FRom who?
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(see above images)
What really sucks is that Arnold could cave on this issue and there would be loads of vacuous idiots here who would defend him for it.
Stanley 'Tookie' Williams. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will hold a hearing on clemency for the former gang member turned Nobel Peace prize nominee who now faces execution, a spokeswoman has revealed.(AFP/File)
I really didn't think there was any way that Arnold would grant clemency. But after after making Susan Kennedy his chief of staff I don't know what to think. If he grants clemency I am officially no longer an Arnold supporter.
No. Schwarzenegger will face a recall.
Williams' supporters -- such as Barbara Becnel, who edited his anti-gang books -- say Schwarzenegger could win over new voters by sparing the inmate's life.
Nope! Why should Democrats vote for a RINO that's a sucker, when they can vote for a Democrat? This Republican strategy of moving to the left for the Dems has always been a loser. Republicans who do this deserve to lose. The only act Arnold needs to do is to instruct the warden at San Quentin to have: "Tookie gurney on up to the Juice Bar"!
Let's hope Arnold does the right thing and denies clemency. There is no "state-wide" massive majority of support for this murderous thug. If Arnold caves to these pathetic freaks, he's not worthy of re-election, or of my money should he make any future films. I do understand however, that he is going to hear the lawyers on both sides as they give him their scoop. That's fair and I don't find anything wrong with that.
But after after making Susan Kennedy his chief of staff I don't know what to think.
That's the real issue. Just who or what, did we elect with Arnold in the recall? A Republican, a RINO, a Democrat? (Maria?)
Good leadership is that which encourages confidence in its followers. Arnold has only encouraged anxiety.
FIELD POLL / 68% of California residents still support death penalty
excerpted..
Friday, March 5, 2004
Californians' support for the death penalty has dropped since the 1980s, but residents still back capital punishment for serious crimes by more than 2-1, the Field Poll reported today. The survey also found support, though by a lesser margin, for the proposition that the death penalty has been implemented fairly in the state, where 10 prisoners have been executed since California resumed the death penalty in 1992.
The poll, conducted among a cross-section of 958 registered voters last month, found that 68 percent agreed that the death penalty "should be kept as a punishment for serious crimes,'' 26 percent disagreed, and 6 percent had no opinion.
The previous Field Poll, in 2002, found support for the death penalty at 72 percent. A Field Poll in 2000 reported 63 percent support - a 30-year low - during a period of revelations about DNA tests freeing innocent inmates from death rows in other states, and Illinois Gov. George Ryan calling a moratorium on executions in his state. That result followed a trend of declining support for capital punishment from the peak of 83 percent in the mid-1980s.
"Opinion has stabilized to about seven in 10,'' said poll director Mark DiCamillo. "The public is instinctively in favor of the death penalty, but there are times when they waver a bit. ...Now that the news (about the Illinois governor) has gotten off the front page, it's settling back to an average of a little higher level of support.''
Schwarzenegger's a failure no matter whether he grants this clemency or not. If he does grant it, he's just a bigger failure. He won't have a second term no matter what.
The only reason I can see for him not having denied it already is a tactical one. Both a denial and the execution will most likely result in riots in L.A. so he needs to have the National Guard in place and ready to put a stop to it. It would be better to have both events happen pretty much at the same time so that he doesn't have to keep the Guard on duty any longer than necessary.
It's interesting that all of these people line up to beg for "Tookie's" life. Who represents those whose lives "Tookie" took that landed him on death row in the first place?
When the budget comes out of the legislature next summer, he could blue pencil a lot of expenditures, but he will not. He showed that last year when he had the opportunity.
Can't think of why I'd vote for a Dem lite.
Good job, Norm...that poll backs a CA pal of mine who said the majority of Commiefornians back the death penalty...something I thought they did all along. In fact..if the CA legislature (mostly rats anyway save for Arnold) wanted change, they'd have already done so.
Here's another twisted irony in this sick tale - How many of those children for whom "Tookie" writes books were left without a parent by good ole "Tookie"?
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