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?"
Coming soon to a theater near you:
"My Time on the Cross: the Tookie Williams story"
See how an African American growing up under the thumb of evil white racist system strikes back and is punished for it. See how the young Tookie (despite years of oppression) tries to help out his community by forming a group of innocent youths into a charity organization. Watch as a corrupt police system ruthlessly smashes his dreams. See how his victims badgered him in to killing them.
So go see this open minded, accepting and tolerant film. For once look at someone else's point of view white America.
Starring starring the first black president, Bill Clinton as "Tookie" Williams. Cindy Sheehan as Snoop Dawg and a meat grinder as Governor Arnold. Also featuring a guest appearance by The People's Dancers.
"My Time on the Cross: the Tookie Williams story" coming soon to an unbiased mainstream news channel near you. Rated "B" for Bleeding heart.
I'm pleased to see that Arnold didn't go wobbly. It's sad for California to take Williams's life, but justice must be served.
Remember the innocent victims, who lost their most precious possession: their one chance at life on Earth.
Murder is a heinous crime, and a price must be paid.
I can hear it now:
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
"No justice, no peace."
(memories from 1992)
I'll bet Arnold's new lesbian, Democratic chief of staff is not very happy with this....
Tookie... You vill be... TERMINATED!
I think I'll celebrate by watching The Terminator and Terminator 2! My respect for the Governator has increased quite a bit. Many thanks to Arnold for upholding the convictions from the trial jury and the California Supreme Court.
Don't take so much joy in the death of another human being, please. Tookie williams has had man's justice, but that doesn't mean he is guilty. The courts have decided that he committed the crimes attributed to him. I pray that they are right.
God rest Tookie William's soul and God have mercy on him as I hope He will on me.
Fyy him. It is afterall an object lesson for the children.
Come On! AS had no other choice. This was such an easy call - and I stated such here days ago. BTW this does not change anything about my feelings of this RINO.
"Tookie's" son is serving 16 years for second degree murder".
I agree with you...I am opposed to the death penalty as well...the ultimate power of the State over the individual. Not that some people do not 'deserve' to die, I just think the Death Penalty is wrong on multiple levels.
That being said, since it is the law in California, Williams easily meets the criteria set for execution and the Governor is correct in this decision.
Oh, Arnold could have stayed the execution. He did have a choice. Jerry Brown would have chosen differently.
Terminated!
One should never be ashamed to celebrate justice.
Bull. The obvious right decision should never take this long to get to.
In the beginning of this I had misgivings. Forgetting any clemency towards the man, what use to society is it to kill someone who is working to stop gang violence?
But back then I also said I'd respect the governor's decision. Thanks to you I've read it, and it's a good decision. Let the will of the people be done.
I pray your philosophical exercise of rejecting the death penalty is never put to the test by personal, first hand tragedy as happend to my family and I. Darrell Rich, the last inmate to be executed at San Quentin was the killer of my sister and others. It's been a psychological lift to us ever since knowing that all was done to correct a wrong that could be done. I look at it like this...when man gives up his right to protect himself to the state and the state fails to protect him it's the duty of the state to say that there are some crimes so heineous that the perpetrator surrenders his own right to life and the state, and only the state, has the right to consciously take that life to make amends for not being there to protect the victim in the first place. Tookie's multiple murders certainly qualify him for the death penalty and no matter what he's done to change himself in the last 25 years on death row doesn't change the fact that he's a mass murderer sent to prison to die by the judge and jury. Not even the most liberal court in the country, the Ninth District Court, could find reason to stay the execution. And, if you follow the thin logic of his followers then all that a person on Death Row need do is "find salvation" to beat the needle. No, Tookie is toast.
Dear God! That man looks 40 or 45 years old. Not 25!?!
Indeed, we may not know what is written on another man's heart. Sadly, we are all too aware of what was written on the walls and floors of his crime scenes.
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