Posted on 12/07/2005 3:35:04 PM PST by SmithL
One victim was a young convenience store clerk and military veteran who moved back to California to fight for custody of his daughters. The other three were family members who owned a motel they were hoping to sell because the neighborhood had grown too rough.
For all four, plans to change their lives were cut short by the sawed-off shotgun of Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams during a pair of 1979 robberies in Los Angeles County that have put him on death row.
Their stories are part of the pitch prosecutors have made to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to deny clemency and let Williams die by lethal injection on Tuesday, but most of the news coverage has focused on the criminal, not the crime.
Family members say too much attention is being paid to Williams and too little is focused on their loved ones who got no second chances, no opportunities to turn their lives around.
With the help of prosecutors and victims' rights advocates, they plan to urge the governor Thursday to consider their loss — store clerk Albert Owens, 26 and motel owners Yen-I Yang, 76 and Tsai-Shai Yang, 63, and their daughter Ye-Chen Lin, 43, who left behind shattered families and changed lives.
Williams claims he's innocent and his supporters say he is more valuable alive than dead as he works behind bars to keep young people away from gangs. They want Schwarzenegger to reduce Williams' death sentence to life in prison without parole.
Williams, 51, co-founded the Crips gang in Los Angeles with a high school buddy when he was 17. He has since renounced his gangster past, spoken to community groups by phone from San Quentin State Prison and co-written a series of children's books warning them about the dangers of a criminal life.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
When do they smoke a tookie?
Exactly. The victims are always forgotten in these things.
Tookie es muerto.
That's the way the tookie crumbles.
"Families of Williams' victims urge governor not to forget them [Tookie]"
He should also not forget the actual victims. How do you stand at the foot of a grave and tell the occupant you've decided to let the person off who put them there?
"Their stories are part of the pitch prosecutors have made to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger"
Such a way with words when it comes to the victims
There is a court order currently in place that calls for Mr. Williams to be executed by the State of California on December 13, 2005, and Mr. Williams has, through his attorneys, expressed his desire for the Governor to grant him clemency in this matter.
Capital punishment is an issue about which many people hold strong and impassioned views, and Governor Schwarzenegger appreciates you taking the time to express yours with regard to Mr. Williams. Your correspondence will be given due consideration during the clemency process.
Thank you again for writing.
Sincerely,
ANDREA LYNN HOCH Legal Affairs Secretary
This was my response from the governor's office.
I've got a bad feeling that Arnold is going to let Tookie off. Why else bother to have clemency hearings except to give himself cover: "I listened carefully to both sides and weighed all conflicting views, and then I did what Maria wanted me to."
Tuck Fookie
Dec 13. Early - 12:01 am
If Tookie thinks execution is his biggest worry right now he needs to think again. Its after the execution. The drugs themselves will be painless....his afterlife....well...that is a different matter.
I was just reading about an infamous murder that took place 100 years ago this month in the Adirondacks. It was the basis of a famous book and movie. But the murderer was executed one year after his conviction!
Great idea!
OMG, what is that picture? (You should warn people!)
"...their loved ones who got no second chances, no opportunities to turn their lives around."
Somehow I suspect there was no "turning their lives around" required for the victims. And if there was, jail and a death sentence hanging over their heads wouldn't have been required.
Merriam-Websters gives the first definition of clemency as: disposition to be merciful and especially to moderate the severity of punishment due
Since Williams refuses to admit he committed these crimes, clemency is impossible. Clemency and mercy are both undeserved and unearned. But Willimas' supporters are saying, in effect, that Williams has earned clemency with his "good works".
If he does, he will have to change his party affiliation the next day because he will lose the support of most republicans.
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