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.
"Tookie won't be down for breakfast tomorrow! Crispy "crip"!"
Ewwww yuck LOL
No rioting spotted yet.
Reverend Jesse Jackson speaks to the media in front of the San Quentin prison, California, December 12, 2005. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency to former Crips gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams, who is slated to be executed early on Tuesday for murdering four people in 1979. REUTERS/Kimberly White
Race hustler Jessie Jackass never met a Crip he didn't admire.
Digger uses the right word. Williams is just a coward. He was able to dish it out, but when it comes taking the punishment, he is just a sniveling liar. The world will be a little better when he has left it.
Ha! I was watching a news show yesterday with Bianca Jagger as the pro-Williams guest. One of her main points was that the 9th Circus wasn't on board with juicing this loser.
On a related note: how does sleeping with a rock star make you an expert on anything (besides STDs)?
Boy oh boy, those bags under ol' Jesse's eyes are gettin' kinda big. Chasing those ladies is taking it out of him.
OH WOW! Thank you thank you for that gif
Lol, is Snoopy dancing for joy or just has cold piggies?
Wow, Jesse's really been working on his Bill Clinton lip bite and squint.
I wonder if Jessie stopped by and saw his "Love Child" while he was here in California.....
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