Posted on 12/08/2005 3:48:02 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
Days ahead of his scheduled execution, supporters of Stanley "Tookie" Williams are hoping he will be offered clemency.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is hearing evidence today on why the founder of the notorious "Crips" gang, who was convicted of murdering four people in 1979, deserves to live.
Williams, 51, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison next Tuesday. His supporters say that he has turned his life around and has done good work in prison, including acting as a peacemaker among inmates and writing nine anti-gang books aimed at young people.
He's been nominated for a Nobel Peace Price six times and his "Protocol for Street Peace," has been used by rival gangs to broker gang truces.
Prosecutors, and some of the families of Williams' victims, say nothing he does now changes the fact that Williams fatally shot four people.
Williams was convicted of killing a convenience store worker and, days later, killing two motel owners and their daughter during a robbery.
But the Crips co-founder denies committing the murders.
In recent weeks, a number of high-profile supporters have rallied behind the cause of letting Tookie live, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, rapper Snoop Dogg, who himself was once a Crip, and Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx, who played Williams in the 2004 film "Redemption".
Toronto hip-hop artist Wes Williams, known as "Maestro" also appeared in Redemption and told CTV's Canada AM that he supports Tookie's clemency hearing.
"He saves thousands and thousands of lives," he said. "He's worth more alive than dead."
In an unusual move, the California Department of Corrections has launched its own public campaign, questioning the sincerity of Williams' anti-gang conversion and alleging he remains involved with the Crips.
Last week, the California Supreme Court declined to reopen the case on whether Williams is innocent. The federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have also ruled against him.
Today, as both sides meet with Schwarzenegger, they will have 30 minutes each to make their case. Williams' attorney Jan Handzling says his job in today's meeting is not to re-try the case. Rather, he says his team needs to convince Schwarzenegger to spare Williams and commute his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"Our petition is not based on innocence," said Peter Fleming, one of Williams' attorneys. "Our petition is based upon rehabilitation of Stanley personally, but it is at least as importantly based on the value of Stanley Williams to the at-risk children in this country."
Schwarzenegger has not indicated when he will decide Williams' fate.
A California governor has not granted clemency since 1967, when Ronald Reagan spared the life of a brain-damaged killer.
Some analysts say Schwarzenegger, whose popularity as governor is slumping badly, risks further alienating his party base if he grants clemency.
"If he granted clemency, based on the evidence that has been presented, it would be a disaster," Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly, told Reuters.
But Williams' supporters -- such as Barbara Becnel, who edited his anti-gang books -- say Schwarzenegger could win new voters by sparing Williams' life.
"I think the political results will be positive because he, Schwarzenegger, will be seen as a hero in urban communities throughout the state of California," she told Reuters.
Stanley 'Tookie' Williams
'Tookie' supporter Wes
'Maestro' Williams
appearing on Canada AM
Thursday.
In this photo provided by
the Williams' family,
Stanley Tookie Williams
poses in an undated file
photo, at age 29 in the
exercise yard at
San Quentin, Calif.
(AP Photo/Courtesty
of Williams Family)
Word!
Tookie is the shizzle!
If he really has turned his life around, that's good, and deserving of respect. However, he still murdered four people. You don't escape consequences by being sorry and acting different. Let his death serve as a warning.
Shazam time!
Dear "Tookie"
Confess
Repent
Expire
Then "Tookie" we will celebrate, not your life, just your departure. Your "Props" await you.
TT
I saw a photo of Snoop Dogg holding a sign that said pardon
Tookie, or else!
or else what? More Riots? The main reason for Black on Black crime is Gangbangers. and Yet Black America Glorifies
the "Gansta" life. Tookie will never escape God's Justice.
Saw another with the sign: "No justice, no peace." So subtle.
It should be noted here that only 330, that's "Three-hundred and Thirty", a 3, a 3 and a 0, 330 of the so-called childrens books have ever been sold.
One copy in a LA library had only been checked out two times, despite being on the shelf for three years.
I seem to remember reading somewhere, I can't recall the source, so I won't present it as the gospel, but something to the effect that his lawyer ghostwrote the books, as part of a scheme to make Tookie-Pookie look better.
Rest in hell, you murdering POS.
And if Californicate still had the electric chair, he'd be the sizzle!
Fry, Tookie, fry!
Tookie must die, hear him fry!
Snoop dog said "this man is equivelant to Martin Luther King" in LA.
or else they'll burn down their neighborhood's again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Artnold has denied clemency twice ... does anyone know how close to execution he made his announcement of denial?
Snoop dog should be put on the next table and offed along with his hero. These slimes make me sick!!
"Tookie will never escape God's Justice."
This is about California's justice. God can decide His own justice, and it would be dangerous to assume what God's justice will be.
And this time let them remain in ashes
I take it differently from the signbearer. Without justice, society is lawless and there is no peace.
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