Posted on 12/11/2005 12:26:59 PM PST by doug from upland
CBSNEWS.COM Los Angeles Dec. 11, 2005
(AP) A lawyer for convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams asked the state Supreme Court to stay his execution, saying the Crips gang co-founder should have been allowed to argue that someone else killed one of his four alleged victims.
Attorney Verna Wefald filed a petition Saturday challenging the validity of the four convictions and death sentences given in 1981 to Williams, who is scheduled to die Tuesday at San Quentin State Prison. She also filed an emergency request seeking a stay, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Williams' lawyers also have asked Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency, saying Williams has redeemed himself as shown by his books urging children not to join gangs. Schwarzenegger's office said Saturday the governor had not made a decision.
Williams was convicted of killing a man during a robbery in February 1979 and of murdering a couple and their daughter at a South Los Angeles motel in March 1979.
Williams denies committing the murders but has apologized for co-founding the Crips, the gang blamed for numerous murders in Los Angeles and beyond.
From behind bars, Williams has been nominated five times for a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to quell gang violence and four times for a Nobel Prize in literature.
In August, Williams received a President's Call to Service Award for his good deeds on death row, complete with a letter from President Bush praising him for demonstrating "the outstanding character of America."
The money from the sale of his books is used to support at-risk youth programs and to continue his appeals, his lawyers said.
Wefald's petition argues that prosecutors failed to disclose at trial that witness Alfred Coward was not a U.S. citizen and had a violent criminal history, depriving Williams of the opportunity to argue Coward was the killer in the February 1979 robbery.
Coward is now in prison in Canada for killing 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.
"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 from Northwestern University Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions.
Wefald declined to comment Saturday night.
The California Supreme Court, a federal court judge in Los Angeles, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court have all upheld Williams' convictions
"Tookie Cutter" ? LOL !!
Yes, I think you are quite correct and the timing of the announcement is being carefully considered. I believe Tookie is scheduled to be put to death just a few minutes after midnight (Monday night). Do you think the Governor will wait until early tomorrow morning to announce his decision?
See #73.
Agreed. Only a moral idiot would consider mass-murderer Williams a "martyr".
Fox News Alert reporting the Governor will wait until tomorrow to announce his decision.
It's not the electric chair. We use lethal injection. It is THE JOURNEY ON THE GURNEY.
Decision delayed until Monday.
Fox is saying he'll wait until tomorrow to announce it.
I realize that (see my earlier post). But from the point of view of being "deserving," she was probably much more deserving, but you sure didn't see the left out there weeping over her and screaming for her release. In fact, they were all waiting for Bush to pardon her so they could jump on him for favoring Christians or some such thing.
You were right, BunnySlippers! :)
No decision from the Governor until tomorrow. Just reported.
So he wrote a couple of books; I don't believe they've sold very much.
He hasn't helped the police find out ANYTHING about the gangs -- and his "good work" certainly hasn't reduced the gang population by even one person; if anything, there are more gang members than before him came along.
Don't buy the Mike Farrell/Lou Grant propaganda.
I think you have your pronouns confused. You probably meant to say "I don't feel that ~I~ can dismiss..."
But as to ~me~, my friend, I ~can~ dismiss it.
Dismissed.
Are you really expecting trouble?
Kind of one of those 'here, sign this' moments, I guess
From the looks of it Tookie will be in tears by Tuesday if Arnold doesn't muck it up.
Try to get a grip; I highly doubt George W. Bush had anything at all to do with that; some paper pusher (and it could even be a LIBERAL who handles this stuff from past years) handled this debacle.
I believe at least one of the books was ghost-written. Tookie has been a favorite liberal cause of some years now.
Thanks for the update. Any conjecture on why the extended delay?
Well, that's a threat, isn't it? I hope the officers are armed to the gills.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.