Posted on 12/12/2005 12:58:46 PM PST by Born Conservative
SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, the founder of the murderous Crips gang who awaited execution early Tuesday in a case that stirred debate over capital punishment and the possibility of redemption on death row. Williams, 51, is set to die by injection at San Quentin State Prison after midnight for murdering four people in two 1979 holdups.
Hollywood stars and death penalty opponents mounted a campaign to save his life, making him one of the nation's biggest death-row cause celebres in decades. His supporters argued that the founder of the murderous Crips gang had made amends during more than two decades in prison by writing a memoir and children's books about the dangers of gangs.
Prosecutors and victims' advocates contended Williams was undeserving of clemency from the governor because he did not own up to his crimes and refused to inform on fellow gang members. They also argued that the Crips gang that Williams co-founded in Los Angeles in 1971 is responsible for hundreds of deaths, many of them in battles with the rival Bloods for turf and control of the drug trade.
Williams stands to become the 12th California condemned inmate executed since lawmakers reinstated the death penalty in 1977 after a brief hiatus.
Williams was condemned in 1981 for gunning down a clerk in a convenience store holdup and a mother, father and daughter in a motel robbery weeks later. Williams claimed he was innocent.
The last time a California governor granted clemency was in 1967, when Ronald Reagan spared a mentally infirm killer.Schwarzenegger _ a Republican who has come under fire from members of his own party as too accommodating to liberals _ rejected clemency twice before during his two years in office.
Less than 12 hours before the execution was set to take place, the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals said it would not intervene because, among other things, there was no "clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence."
In his last-ditch appeal, Williams claimed that he should have been allowed to argue at his trial that someone else killed one of the four victims, and that shoddy forensics connected him to the other killings.
Williams was convicted of killing Yen-I Yang, 76, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, and Yu-Chin Yang Lin, 43, at a Los Angeles motel the family owned, and Albert Owens, 26, a 7-Eleven clerk gunned down in Whittier.
Among the celebrities who took up Williams' cause were Jamie Foxx, who played the gang leader in a cable movie about Williams; rapper Snoop Dogg, himself a former Crip; Sister Helen Prejean, the nun depicted in "Dead Man Walking"; Bianca Jagger; and former "M A S H" star Mike Farrell. During Williams' 24 years on death row, a Swiss legislator, college professors and others nominated him for the Nobel Prizes in peace and literature.
"If Stanley Williams does not merit clemency," defense attorney Peter Fleming Jr. asked, "what meaning does clemency retain in this state?"
The impending execution resulted in feverish preparations over the weekend by those on both sides of the debate, with the California Highway Patrol planning to tighten security outside the prison, where hundreds of protesters were expected.
A group of about three dozen death penalty protesters were joined by the Rev. Jesse Jackson as they marched across the Golden Gate Bridge after dawn Monday en route to the gates of San Quentin, where they were expected to rally with hundreds of people.
At least publicly, the person apparently least occupied with his fate seemed to be Williams himself.
"Me fearing what I'm facing, what possible good is it going to do for me? How is that going to benefit me?" Williams said in a recent interview. "If it's my time to be executed, what's all the ranting and raving going to do?"
I heard he chose execution by electrocution... a strange choice, but works for me !! Fry him - he did the crime, he pays the price....will be fun to watch all the liberals protesting justice tonight.
Anyone know the last time someone was executed in California? Certainly can't beat Texas !!
---Snoop,Mike,Jesse,Louis,Russell,Bianca etc. your names aren't worth as much as you thought they were. No one cared.
He has already lived 24 years too many.
Jerry Brown was governor of California from 1974-1982.
When Brown took office in 1974 the death penalty was just being given again - due to the long appeals process no one was executed in California until 1991.
Funny thing. Hannity asked him if he was, and he said he was pro-life, but then he talked about a nun getting raped and said he was pro-choice. Those quazy libs. Sean gave him a funny look, though.
Actually, yes it does mean he is guilty. That's what "being found guilty" means in the part about reaching a "verdict".
That just makes you a sick and twisted freak. Disgusting.
"My main problem with the death penalty is basically we're letting the government decide who lives and who dies. This is the ultimate government interference."
Hi. I hear your the sentiment, but...I'm afraid not. First, in this country, one is convicted by a jury made up of fellow citizens, not "the government" acting alone, on a whim. Second, I'll quote the Apostle Paul from the book of Romans:
"He who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." Romans 13:2-4.
Paul is not talking about politics, or about obeying just any government, like Nazi Germany, which would cause us to violate the laws of God. He is talking about government being instituted by God to provide laws and order - and punishment when they are broken, which is the teeth behind all laws. And capital punishment? "...for he does not BEAR THE SWORD for nothing."
In fact, Jerry Brown's dad, Governor Pat Brown, let a man go to the chamber who had only been convicted of forcible rape. (that used to be a capital offense in Cal.). I believe the criminal's name was Caryl Chessman.
"I'll bet Mike Farrell thinks abortion is a good thing. Betcha"
...
I bet Farrell and his dimbulb ilk NEVER think about the victims! We CERTAINLY never HEAR OR READ about any sympathy from them for murder victims and their surviving families.
Out with the trash! Victims rights Now!
Hah! Now ~that~ is pretty funny. You think people shouldn't be judgmental for someone *convicted* of murder, yet it is OK for *you* to issue judgement when someone merely agrees with a jury?
Hehe... pretty funny.
The one moonbat anti-Death Penalty celebrity that at least is also pro-life is Martin Sheen.
Not a student of Aristotle, I gather.
Dittos to that, every bit.
And don't worry about the so-called mob. All Tookie's supporters like to talk a tough game, but they're a bunch of candy a$$es, who will roll over and do nothing when the time comes.
"She hasn't started yet. She'll take the position in January. I wonder if she decides to resign..."
Early Christmas Present!!!
"That just makes you a sick and twisted freak."
LOL
I've been called worse.
I'll drink a beer for the both of us when that KClO4 goes coarsing thru Tookie's veins tonight. 25 yrs is way too long for the victim's families to wait for this sob to get his.
If Arnold needs a place to crash after Maria tosses him out of the house, he can have my couch for a few days.
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