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Renford Reese is an associate professor of political science at Cal Poly Pomona University, a really big admirer of Crips gang founder and murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams and the author of an essay entitled, "M.L. King Jr., Tookie Williams: kindred spirits?," in which he favorably compares Tookie to the Rev. King. Dr. Reese's paean, featured on the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin website, laments about the execution of this cold-blooded racist, because, "in his cell in San Quentin, Williams created a series of children's books titled ‘'Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence,'" written with former journalist and Tookie groupie, Barbara...

SAN FRANCISCO (Court TV) — The debate over the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams may have subsided, but for Californians a period of intense soul-searching over the death penalty may just be starting. A month after the Crips founder was executed by lethal injection, state lawmakers are scheduled to begin hearings Tuesday on a bill which would place a moratorium on all executions until Jan. 1, 2009. The debate comes on the heels of the New Jersey legislature's approval of a similar moratorium Monday. The legislation in California, Assembly Bill 1121, would give a newly created bipartisan body — the...

Stanley Tookie Williams was the convicted murderer and founder of the notorious Crips street gang. During his 26 years in prison, he transformed himself into a five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, a prolific author of children’s books, and an anti-gang-violence activist. The State of California executed him last week for a series of homicides he was convicted of committing in 1979. In signing off on the killing of Williams, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger violently silenced one of the world’s most outspoken supporters of nonviolence—all in the name of combating violence. Right up to his death by lethal injection, “Tookie” Williams...

Stop the presses, the Hollywood elite have just become the new death penalty advocates. As executions approach, it never surprises me that some will come out of the wood work to challenge the death penalty, fighting for the filth who is haunt death row for basically doing the worst that can be done to our fellow Americans. So, the "Tookie Award Ceremony" took things to new heights. They rallied against the death penalty. That it was inhumane, that it was wrong, that it does nothing to stop the murderers. I listened, carefully to their arguments. They feel that each person...

What is it about the fate of convicted killer Stanley "Tookie" Williams that so engrossed the Hollyleft and Euroleft? A founder of the Crips – a Los Angeles criminal gang whose record of murder, rape and robbery makes Al Capone's Cicero crowd look like the Lavender Hill Mob – Tookie was convicted in 1979 of the cold-blooded killing of four innocent people in a pair of robberies. Albert Owens, a 26-year-old Whittier, Calif., 7-Eleven employee, was shotgunned to death. Days later, an elderly Asian couple who ran a motel, Yen-I Yang and Thsai-Shai Yang, and their 43-year-old daughter, Yee Chen...

The recent spotlight on the impending execution of multiple-murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams has once again highlighted the flaws in California’s death penalty law. Williams was put to death at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, after he was denied clemency by Governor Schwarzenegger. Williams was convicted in 1981 of murdering four people and sentenced to death. Yet 26 years after his victims took their final breaths, the killer still lives. His lawyers have continued to maneuver to thwart the sentence duly handed down by a jury of his peers until the very end. Williams’s case demonstrates just how dysfunctional the death penalty...

VIENNA, Austria - The mayor of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Austrian hometown on Tuesday begged the California governor to reconsider his decision to end ties to the city after locals assailed him for his death penalty stance. Siegfried Nagl, mayor of the southern city of Graz, said he dashed off a letter to Schwarzenegger pleading with him not to return a ring of honor bestowed on him by officials in his birthplace in 1999 and reassuring him that most residents still admire him. "I hope that very soon we'll hear you say, 'I'll be back,'" Nagl told the actor-turned-politician, one of Austria's...

Shots heard after the Stanley "Tookie" Williams memorial service LOS ANGELES Just after the four-hour service for executed murderer, and Crips gang co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams, mourners dropped to the ground as gunshots went off about a block away. Security guards told the crowd things were under control. Groups from different gangs had begun taunting each other. No one was hurt. During the service, speakers ranged from Snoop Dogg and Bianca Jagger to the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Some told the crowd Williams had done good work in prison, writing children's books warning against joining gangs. Others denounced capital punishment. The...

US celebrities and rights activists have lamented the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams at his funeral. Hundreds of mourners came to the violence-wracked area of Los Angeles where Williams founded the murderous Crips gang three decades ago. Under heavy police presence, a long line of people entered the 1,500-seat Bethel AME Church. Vendors sold T-shirts with Williams' picture, and a large TV set up in the parking lot allowed the overflow crowd to watch the service. Williams was executed on December 13 despite clemency pleas from celebrities and others who said he had rededicated his life to peace. "It's nine-fifteen...

Twas the night before Tookie's execution ... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twas the night before Christmas and all through San Quentin, the crips were protesting, and liberals were ventin'. The cyanide hung by the chamber wth care, in hopes that the reaper soon would be there. The inmates were nestled all snug in their bed ; except for Old Tookie, who soon would be dead. And me with my beer mug, dressed warm in my flannell, had curled up to watch it, on the Fox News Channel. I set up my TIVO to record the news station, and thoroughly loved the momentous occasion....

Heavy crowd gathers in L.A. for funeral of executed former gang leader at 18:39 on December 20, 2005, EST. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Celebrities from hip-hop star Snoop Dogg to motivational speaker Tony Robbins lamented the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams at a funeral Tuesday that drew hundreds to the violence-wracked area where Williams founded the murderous Crips gang three decades ago. Mourners, including gang members flashing hand signs, waited in line to enter the 1,500-seat Bethel AME Church. Under heavy police presence, vendors sold T-shirts with Williams' picture, and a large TV set up in the parking lot allowed...

Posthumously yours, Stanley Williams* By David Howard December 20, 2005 NOTE: David Howard, of Ojai, is a peace activist and writer who held a candle for Williams at the Ventura County Government Center on the night of the execution. Dear Arnold Schwarzenegger, I've been dead for a few days now. You've probably already forgotten about me and moved on to more important matters like condemning gay marriage, helping the Minutemen keep Mexicans out of California, and preparing another diatribe to deny clemency to Clarence Allen, the 75-year-old blind Choctaw Indian you'll execute Jan. 17. Still, I beseech you -- once...

LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of people attended a star-studded funeral Tuesday for executed killer Stanley Tookie Williams in the violence-wracked South Los Angeles section where he founded the murderous Crips gang three decades ago. Under heavy police presence, mourners including gang members flashing hand signs waited in line to enter the 1,500-seat Bethel AME Church. A big TV screen was set up in a parking lot for an overflow crowd. Vendors sold T-shirts with Williams’ picture.

Twas the night before Tookie's Execution and all through San Quentin, the crips were protesting, and liberals were ventin'. The needles were hung by the chamber with care, in hopes that the reaper soon would be there. The inmates were nestled all snug in their bed ; except for Old Tookie, who soon would be dead. And me with my beer mug, dressed warm in my flannell, had curled up to watch it, on the Fox News Channel. I set up my TIVO to record the news station, and thoroughly loved the momentous occasion. It seemed lady justice had gotten...

Mourners overflowed a church Tuesday for the funeral of executed murderer and Crips gang co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams, listening to eulogies by hip-hop star Snoop Dogg and Rev. Jesse Jackson and a recording of Williams urging peace. As police watched, mourners including gang members flashing hand signs gathered at the 1,500-seat Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles and in a parking lot where a TV showed the funeral for Williams, who was executed Dec. 13 despite a celebrity-studded campaign for clemency. Snoop Dogg recited a poem, "Until We Meet Again," in which he referred to the execution. "It's nine-fifteen...

Large crowd expected at Tookie's funeral 20/12/2005 - 14:02:42 Few condemned inmates have generated as much public support as Stanley Tookie Williams, and so much post-execution attention. The final send-off for the former gang leader executed last week promises to be no different. A funeral normally reserved for a dignitary or religious leader was scheduled for today, almost exactly a week after Williams was executed by lethal injection for murdering four people during a pair of 1979 robberies. Among those expected to attend the funeral in Los Angeles were the US civil rights leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who visited...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - In the kind of funeral normally reserved for a dignitary, religious leaders and celebrities traveled to violence-wracked South Los Angeles to pay respects to the man who helped found a deadly street gang, then spent the years before his execution denouncing the gangster life. Stanley Tookie Williams' funeral was scheduled for noon Tuesday, almost exactly a week after he was put to death for murdering four people during a pair of 1979 robberies. Williams, who in the 1970s co-founded the Crips gang not far from the church hosting his funeral, wrote from Death Row children's books...

About 2,000 people turn out to view the body of the killer and writer executed last week despite a high-profile campaign to save his life. For many of the mourners filing past the casket Monday, the gray-bearded gentleman in the tailored gray suit and silk tie bore little resemblance to the man they remembered as the muscle-bound, fearsome Crips co-founder, Stanley Tookie Williams. "When I was a kid, Tookie was the most dangerous man in South-Central Los Angeles," recalled Najee Ali, 42, director of Project Islamic Hope, a Los Angeles-based civil rights group. "Looking at him today, I'm reminded that...

Let me begin by stating that I am in favor of capital punishment. I don’t view it as a deterrent, understand, I consider it the only appropriate punishment for cold-blooded murder. Actually, I have only two objections to it. The first is that the killer with more than one murder to his credit can only be executed the one time. Next, I resent the fact that no matter how much he may have tortured his victims, society has seen fit to send him off as painlessly as possible. I find it bizarre that in a country where mercy killings are...

Celebrated author of children's books (and alleged quadruple murderer and co-founder of the Crips gang) Stanley "Tookie" Williams, was executed last week. Many Hollywood activists wept as the Shel Silverstein of San Quentin was denied clemency and given a lethal injection. There's no getting around it – the Hollywood Left is losing what's left of their whiffle-brained sanity. Virtually every single one of Hollywood's recent pet causes, from political candidates to environmental issues to unjust convictions, have had the same effect on public opinion that "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" had on theater popcorn sales. Couple this with falling box...