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?"
mfocontact@gmail.com
don't get hit by Jesse being chased by news trucks
He will get a stay. Bank on it.
Man I really didn't think that Arnie had the GUTS to stand up to a murderous CRIP!
Well Arnie's stock has risen in my portfolio!
It might mean that clemency is restricted to criminals who admit their responsibility and apologize to their victims' loved ones.
I was sweating this one out - really doubting him amidst all the political pressures.
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Alot of my faith in the man has been restored. Let the murderer-supporting loons of the left choke on it.
Here's a link
http://www.corr.ca.gov/CommunicationsOffice/CapitalPunishment/PDF/StanleyWilliams.pdf
Sweet... nice knowing you tookie... be sure to write us from hell.
Mississippi's was called "Big Yellow Ma Ma."
Excellent point! I've argued with folks like this and I usually establish that they are just outraged if someone kills a dog roaming on someone's property but beat the drum to have girls taken out of school for abortions. I'll bring up the pointws about dogs, LEGAL hunting, etc. first, then spring the abortion angle--plenty of fireworks!!
And the chorus sings. . .
"All we are saying. . . .give punks a dirt nap!!! "
The step-mother of one of Tookie's victims was on Fox yesterday. She said that they should follow through with the execution. If people felt strongly against the death penalty, now was not the appropriate venue to change it; they should lobby their legislators to change the law.
Now...where is that founder of the Bloods....
Fo Sizzle!
We don't know this for sure.If he *sincerely* repents to his Creator then I don't think he'll need an asbestos suit.
FIVE PAGES ?!
One page with a big "NO" would have sufficed.
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