Hasta la vista, Tookie
Posted on 12/12/2005 12:13:42 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court has rejected a stay of execution for Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams, who is scheduled to die after midnight.
The court's decision comes a day after the California Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution for the convicted killer meaning the former gang leader who became an outspoken critic of gang violence will be executed early Tuesday unless the governor grants clemency.
Williams' supporters also made another pitch directly to the governor Sunday to spare his life, telling Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a letter that they had a new witness who could help prove Williams' innocence.
"All we need now is time to investigate to make sure this story is real," said NAACP California President Alice Huffman. "We're hoping and praying for clemency, but we're not going to leave any stone unturned."
Schwarzenegger said last week that he was agonizing over Williams' request for clemency.
Prosecutors and family members of the victims have urged him to deny the request, in part because Williams continues to deny guilt in the slayings. No clemency request has been granted in California since 1967, when Ronald Reagan spared a mentally ill killer.
Following the state Supreme Court ruling, lawyers for Williams immediately asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here to block his looming execution. A decision was expected Monday.
Williams' supporters, an outspoken group ranging from community leaders to actors and rappers, have held rallies in his support and argue that executing Williams would send the wrong message.
They say he has redeemed himself by speaking out against violence and writing children's books on the evils of gang life. During his 24 years at San Quentin, the Crips street gang founder turned his life around to the point that a Swiss legislator, college professors and others repeatedly submitted his name for Nobel peace and literature prizes.
Williams, 51, was condemned for the slaying of a man during a robbery in February 1979 and the deaths of a couple and their daughter at a South Los Angeles motel the following month.
He denies committing the murders but has apologized for founding the Crips, a gang prosecutors blamed for thousands of murders in Los Angeles and beyond.
Williams is scheduled for lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. He would be the 12th inmate executed by the state since California reinstated the death penalty in 1977.
The state Supreme Court ruled 6-0 against staying his execution, saying Williams' last-minute appeal lacked merit and was untimely. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Brault had implored the justices early Sunday to dismiss the petition, writing that it "is without merit and is manifestly designed for delay."
The justices earlier had denied a defense request to reopen the case over allegations that shoddy forensics linked a weapon used in three of the murders to a shotgun registered to Williams.
In the defense request for a stay of execution, attorney Verna Wefald had argued that Los Angeles County prosecutors failed to disclose at trial that witness Alfred Coward was not a U.S. citizen and that he had a violent criminal history. Coward is now in prison in Canada for the murder of a man during a robbery.
"All of the witnesses who implicated Williams were criminals who were given significant incentives to testify against him and ongoing benefits for their testimony," Wefald wrote.
The California Supreme Court, a federal district court judge in Los Angeles, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court have all upheld his convictions.
Answers are: Yes | NO
Plus a "Discussion List" type forum on same page.
What, Arnold announced already?!
What's that sound? Somebodies singing in Tookies voice--
"I'm gettin nuttin for Christmas"
Just out, Governor Arnold has denied clemency. Tookie sleeps with the fishes...
Not so, according to the Prosecutors brief to the Governor. As well, the jury was made aware of anyone that was a criminal, as well as whether or not there was a deal for testimony.
Let the LA riots begin. (I hope not) Lookout!
But what about the coverage in general?
If anyone (still!) needs proof of how journalism is well beyond the pay grade of most of today's employees of the MSM this is it.
How often has MSM employees reported this as a case of an "author and Nobel prize nominee" faces execution?
OK, so he had a ghost writer, many do. But how many books were purchased? Real reporters would ask and report. Sources outside of MSM employees say the number is in the low hundreds. The books helped kids? Name one. And while they're at it name who did the Nobel nomination(s) and why. Real reporters in the old days reported. Anyone can type and talk.
Oh, yeah. There's those pesky facts of the murders, the conviction, the twenty-five years of appeals rejections, the current 6-0 rejection by the California Supreme Court, the not so subtle threats of let him live or else. . . .
Arnold just gave the green light
I just heard AAAAAAAArnold said fry baby fry, apparently he just made the announcement saying it was a "difficult decision" what the hell is so difficult?
I believe that "taking luncheon with Polonius" is more polite.
THey always say its difficult
Hasta la vista, Tookie
Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip, Drop Dead.
Tookie won't be down for breakfast tomorrow! Crispy "crip"!
LOL, tick tick tick tick it's just a matter of hours!
Governor Declines To Stop Williams Execution
Governor Announces His Decision Monday
POSTED: 7:52 am PST December 11, 2005
UPDATED: 12:35 pm PST December 12, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused Monday to spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, the founder of the murderous Crips gang who awaited execution after midnight in a case that stirred debate over capital punishment and the possibility of redemption on death row.
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Good! This has only taken, what, 24 years? Let him fry.
Just on yahoo news - clemency denied.
ARNOLD: SIE SIND AUF DER METHODE ZUR ZERSTÖRUNG.
ARNOLD: SIE HABEN KEINE WAHRSCHEINLICHKEIT ZU ÜBERLEBEN BILDEN IHRE ZEIT.
ARNOLD: HA HA HA HA....
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