Posted on 12/11/2005 9:56:28 AM PST by calcowgirl
An attorney for four-time convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams, who is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday at San Quentin State Prison, filed an emergency request Saturday night with the state Supreme Court for a stay of execution.
(snip)
Williams has consistently denied he committed the murders, although he has apologized for his role as a co-founder of the Crips, a gang considered responsible for numerous murders in Los Angeles and beyond.
Williams' convictions have been upheld by the California Supreme Court, a federal district court judge in Los Angeles, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.
California's highest court has rejected four previous habeas corpus petitions — the traditional method to challenge unconstitutional confinement — filed on Williams' behalf.
The petition filed Saturday night alleges that an "error of constitutional magnitude led to a trial that was so fundamentally unfair absent the error no reasonable judge or jury would have convicted" him.
Wefald asserted that the prosecution failed to disclose that trial witness Alfred Coward was not a U.S. citizen and that he had a violent criminal history.
The failure, she said, had the effect of "depriving Williams of the opportunity to mount a defense" that Coward "was the true killer of Albert Owens and that he falsely accused [Williams] in order to deflect suspicion away from himself." Coward is now in prison in Canada for the murder of a man during a robbery.
"All of the witnesses who implicated … Williams were criminals who were given significant incentives to testify against him and ongoing benefits for their testimony," Wefald wrote in the stay petition.
"This type of testimony is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in murder and capital cases in the United States," she wrote, citing a study ...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Ping--Are you psychic, or what?
Yet another example of these Libs saying anything and rewriting history in the pursuit of their agenda of chaos and anarchy.
Amazing. Attorneys will do ANYTHING for money. If there was any sane and honest reason why this degenerate should not be executed, WHY WASN'T IT PRESENTED 26 FREAKIN' YEARS AGO???
Just follow the money.
We have 4 deaths, and Tookie has been convicted of all 4. Are they trying to tell us that it was 3 deaths by natural causes and a suicide?
The Ninth F'n Circuit!!!
This is OVER, BYE BYE!
I say if they are successful in the appeal to the Supremes of Cal or to the governor, turn tookie loose. This is justice denied, so be it. Maybe one of the hollywood libruls could put him up for a few years in their house.
I would bet the citizens of california are tired of housing this loon and would hope that some gang banger on the outside would take him out.
Agree. There ought to be some statute of limitation introduced into the appeals process. Things like inadequate representation, judicial bias/misconduct and the generic 'Racism' appeal, among others, should be barred after, say, three years. This would limit the gush of last minute motions to a trickle and then only to substantive grounds.
They also say that there were no blacks on the jury. Not true. One Philipino, one Latino and one black.
When I read Tookie's interview with Time magazine the other day I knew it was over. Once again, in the interview, he claimed he should not have to inform on the Crips. Now, how much has he reformed?
Just pull the plug Arnold. Once a murdering thug, always a murdering thug.
We talking Tookie or Uncle Teddy? Description fits both.
From what I heard in that interview with Rita Cosby, he sounded like almost every sociopathic, convicted killer with whom I ever had the "privilege" of attending a conference. Ask them about their crime and they repeat Tookie's take on it almost everytime. There must be a master script they circulate among themselves.
They're scared. AAAAnld is running out the clock.
Once back in Los Angeles, Sims asked Williams why he shot Owens. Williams said that he “didn’t want to leave any witnesses.” Williams also said he killed Owens “because he was white and he was killing all white people.” Coward claims that Williams bragged about killing Owens. Williams said, “You should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him.” Williams then made gurgling or growling noises and laughed about Owens’ death.
According to the forensic pathologist, Yen-I Yang suffered two shotgun wounds. One shotgun wound was to his left arm and abdomen. This wound shredded Yen-I’s left arm, fractured his ribs, and shattered his spleen, right kidney, bowel and large vessels. The other shotgun wound was to the lower left chest. This wound also fractured ribs and shattered the spleen, right kidney, bowel and large vessels. Moreover, a plastic shotgun shot container and associated wadding were recovered from the base of Yen-I’s liver. The pathologist further explained that both of the Yen-I Yang’s wounds were inflicted when the end of the muzzle was only feet from Yen-I’s body.
Yee-Chen Lin was shot once in the upper left face area at a distance of a few feet. She was transported from the scene by paramedics to Centinela Hospital where she died at 7:36 am.
Tsai-Shai was shot twice at close range. The pathologist explained that one shotgun wound was to the coccyx or tail bone. Based on the physical characteristics of the wound and the fact that wadding, along with the plastic shot container, were recovered just beneath the skin of this wound, the muzzle of the gun must have been just inches from her body when she was shot and killed. The other shotgun wound was to the anterior abdomen with the charge entering at the navel. At trial, the pathologist testified that the muzzle of the gun was a few feet from Tsai-Shai’s body when the shot that caused this wound was fired. Williams referred to the victims in conversations with friends as "Buddha-heads", although there was no evidence that the murders were religiously motivated."
26 years on Death Row. 26 minutes would have beeen too long for this scumbag.
Guess those ANSWER folks are going to be ripping up their 'People Aren't Illegal' banners, right? Right?
Wow, those crickets are chirping awfully loudly...
I guess there's no money in it, but wouldn't it be refreshing to see this much effort put into keeping black kids from going down the wrong path in the first place?
Imagine how many people would be championing the cause of a white man that uttered the epiteth "the N-Word", while killing blacks. In this case the utterance of "Buddah heads" while killing Asians seems to be another ho-hum fact that isn't worthy of consideration.
Any indications on how Arnold will go on this issue? Clemency or not?
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