Posted on 11/26/2005 10:26:25 AM PST by Pikamax
Gang founder's death row drama gains star support
LYNN ELBER
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Jamie Foxx stepped into the spotlight at his latest movie premiere with more than the usual publicity drill in mind.
Don't let it happen, the actor urged - don't let the state of California execute Stanley Tookie Williams, the convicted murderer and Crips gang co-founder who's been recast behind bars in the role of peacemaker.
Foxx is not alone. An unusually varied collection of Hollywood stars and other famous names is trying to persuade Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that Williams - who has become a celebrity in his own right - can do more for society alive than dead.
Williams' supporters range from the holy (Archbishop Desmond Tutu) to the streetwise (rapper Snoop Dogg, himself once a Crip).
Whether a movie star governor is more inclined to consider their pleas for clemency is debatable. But the chorus is only growing louder as Williams' Dec. 13 execution by lethal injection approaches.
His supporters cite Williams' efforts to curb youth gang violence, including nine children's books and an online project linking teenagers in America and abroad. A Swiss legislator, college professors and others repeatedly have submitted his name for Nobel peace and literature prizes.
Last weekend, Snoop Dogg told about 1,000 people rallying outside San Quentin State Prison that Williams' activism has touched him.
"His voice needs to be heard," said the musician, whose new song, "Real Soon," touts Williams' anti-gang efforts.
On Monday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Bianca Jagger, a death penalty opponent and former wife of rocker Mick Jagger, visited San Quentin. Jackson said he prayed with Williams, promising, "We are going to fight for you and we are going to win."
Foxx, who played Williams in "Redemption," a 2004 movie which brought the death row inmate's story to a wider audience, used the New York premiere of "Jarhead" to issue his plea.
In a jailhouse interview last week, Williams said he is unimpressed by his prominent supporters ("I'm blase about everything") and relies on his attorneys to evaluate the benefit of efforts on his behalf.
Hollywood's political and social activism has been known to provoke criticism. But Williams said he is unconcerned his famous boosters could create a backlash that might sway Schwarzenegger against him.
"In the position I'm in, I don't see how anybody can hurt," he said. "The truth is the truth no matter where it comes from."
Williams, 51, who saw the notorious gang he co-founded with a childhood friend spawn copycats worldwide, denies committing the 1979 murders that put him on death row. He was convicted of killing a convenience store worker and, days later, killing two motel owners and their daughter during a robbery.
The crimes Williams was accused of were "heinous," said former "M-A-S-H" star Mike Farrell, a longtime death penalty opponent. But Williams has made "an extraordinary transformation," said Farrell, who's lobbied for him for several years.
In apparent recognition of the power of the pro-Williams movement, the state Department of Corrections launched an unusual counterattack questioning the sincerity of his anti-gang conversion and alleging he remains involved with the Crips.
Lora Owens, stepmother of victim Albert Owens, opposes clemency and resents the celebrity involvement.
"I think most of them are abusing their popularity and their access to the media," she said. "It's an agenda. If they looked at the facts, then they'd realize Williams has not done anything to deserve clemency."
Williams' link to the entertainment world was cemented with the biographical movie shown on TV and at film festivals, including Robert Redford's Sundance. Several of those involved in "Redemption," including Foxx and co-star Lynn Whitfield, have become backers.
"If Stan Tookie Williams had been born in Connecticut in the same type of situation, and was a white man, he would have been running a company," Foxx told the AP when the film aired last year on FX. "But, born a black man who has the capability of having brute strength and the capability of being smart in the ways of the world, he's going to get into what he gets into."
Williams' support is particularly deep among blacks but extends much further, said Farrell. Working with Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Farrell gathered signatures from more than 100 religious leaders, lawmakers and others of prominence for a clemency request that went to the governor Monday. Among those whose names are attached: NAACP Chairman Julian Bond; U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Harry Belafonte; Bonnie Raitt and Russell Crowe.
Is there reason to think that Schwarzenegger's Hollywood ties might make him more receptive to celebrity pleas?
"No," Farrell said flatly. "One would hope that because he comes out of an industry beyond the political world that he's less subject to the pressures of politics but, unfortunately, his career hasn't demonstrated that."
So far, Schwarzenegger hasn't said much about the execution, other than that he views it as a complex subject.
"It's never a fun thing to do. You're dealing with someone's life," he told reporters.
Williams' lawyers have requested a meeting with Schwarzenegger but haven't gotten a commitment.
The famous have long rallied to high-profile prisoners, including American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, convicted of killing two FBI agents, and Jack Henry Abbott, whose jailhouse letters to novelist Norman Mailer were published as "In the Belly of the Beast." Abbott's release, which Mailer supported largely because of the convict's writing talent, ended tragically when he fatally stabbed a young man six weeks after being released. Back in prison, Abbott committed suicide.
Such celebrity campaigns rankle victim advocates. Nancy Ruhe, executive director of the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children, argues that they glamorize a man like Williams and confer unwarranted role-model status.
"He becomes someone to look up to," Ruhe said. "There are so many people in our country you can look up to, but most certainly it should not be someone who has murdered several people."
If Schwarzenegger commutes Williams' sentence to life imprisonment, it would be the first time a California governor has done so since 1967. That's when Ronald Reagan - the last actor-turned-politico to govern California - spared the life of Calvin Thomas, a 27-year-old man convicted in a firebombing that killed his girlfriend's toddler son. His lawyers argued that Thomas was brain-damaged.
Comparing Schwarzenegger and Reagan, veteran political reporter and Reagan biographer Lou Cannon sees a key difference: The future U.S. president had quickly made the transition from actor to leader, while Schwarzenegger, as Cannon sees it, still is struggling with the metamorphosis.
"I don't think he's going to be dismissive of these (stars), because they're from his community, but ultimately that's not going to make his decision," said Cannon. "He'll decide it on the merits."
Whitfield, who came to know Williams while preparing to film "Redemption," said those merits are self-evident.
"I don't think of myself as speaking as a celebrity. I come with the advantage of having delved into his story," she said. "No one has said, 'Can you just open up the gates and let Stan be a free man in the world.' ... But he at least can continue to do the work he's doing."
Just think, she is someones everything now......ha ha ha
Snoop Dog is a former member of the Crips gang, the one that Tookie co-founded.
Hardly a ringing endorsement from someone "beyond arm's length".
Most of the young priviledged "actors" in Hollywood, especially the ones who are black have no first hand idea of the death and destruction the Crips and the Bloods have caused over the years.
Someone with some influence needs to take these uninformed followers of the colot of Tookies skin down to the morgue and show then up close and very personal the dead bodies and the evidence from the murders Tookie performed.
He is NOT repentant. He has more money in his prison bank account than anyone can account for the source thereof. He ONLY exercises in the prison yard with other Crips, which is segregated from the other inmates. Hardly qualifies as "no longer a gang member" to me. He has a history of trouble inside the prison, as recently as 2003, attacking staff, guards, and other prisoners.
He is evil scum and cannot die soon enough for most of us.
Jamie, you sure as hell don't pay my bills nor provide for my 24/7 safety. How dare you give voice to this person who has caused so much trouble??? Tookie has been in trouble since before you were born. Get your head on straight, Jamie Foxx.
Let Tookie move into Mike Farrell's home.
Let there be consequences for Mike Farrell if Tookie so much as spits on the sidewalk.
Then see how much Mike Farrell wants to keep spouting about how much "Tookie has changed".
The only thing that has changed since 1979 is that the taxpayers have taken care of his daily needs and Tookie has gotten older.
He needs to stop getting older, and Dec 2005 is fine with me.
He will cave......fear of riots by gang members will suck him in.""
One of these days, riots by the taxpayers will happen, and this is just one more nail in the coffin to have that happen, if they give this puke clemency.
Min. Farrakhan with Stanley 'Tookie' Williams.""
12 well-dressed black men in suits with bow ties, looking amazingly like the followers of "Louie" trashed 2 liqour stores in Oakland this past week. Store owners were Muslim, and there is no doubt in the local community that the hoodlums were Muslim, and most probably followers of Louie.
Louie endorsing Tookie puts this all in such perspective.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Aha! Now I know why he's a cause celebre!
Circumstantial is the best kind. Eyewitnesses can be very flawed. Besides, Tookie tended to eliminate the eyewitnesses.
OR from accomplices stooling on him,
They would know, wouldn't they? And more than one. What's the matter with you, newbie?
"Then once in prison Williams committed a series of assault on prison officers and a series of sexual assaults on male inmates.
----
AmishDude:Aha! Now I know why he's a cause celebre!"
That information came over the last couple of days from Fox from William's former death row guard - I'm trying to find it in print.
Oh, and Tookie's defense, the guard said it had been more than 10 years since Williams raped another inmate.
But seriously, I'm a Christian and I believe it is entirely possible that God has intervened in this man's life and that he allowed himself to come to the Lord and that God has forgiven him.
That does not diminish the need for man's justice.
What's the theorized motive?
Then, better to send him to God now, before he relapses.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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