Posted on 12/12/2005 12:58:46 PM PST by Born Conservative
SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, the founder of the murderous Crips gang who awaited execution early Tuesday in a case that stirred debate over capital punishment and the possibility of redemption on death row. Williams, 51, is set to die by injection at San Quentin State Prison after midnight for murdering four people in two 1979 holdups.
Hollywood stars and death penalty opponents mounted a campaign to save his life, making him one of the nation's biggest death-row cause celebres in decades. His supporters argued that the founder of the murderous Crips gang had made amends during more than two decades in prison by writing a memoir and children's books about the dangers of gangs.
Prosecutors and victims' advocates contended Williams was undeserving of clemency from the governor because he did not own up to his crimes and refused to inform on fellow gang members. They also argued that the Crips gang that Williams co-founded in Los Angeles in 1971 is responsible for hundreds of deaths, many of them in battles with the rival Bloods for turf and control of the drug trade.
Williams stands to become the 12th California condemned inmate executed since lawmakers reinstated the death penalty in 1977 after a brief hiatus.
Williams was condemned in 1981 for gunning down a clerk in a convenience store holdup and a mother, father and daughter in a motel robbery weeks later. Williams claimed he was innocent.
The last time a California governor granted clemency was in 1967, when Ronald Reagan spared a mentally infirm killer.Schwarzenegger _ a Republican who has come under fire from members of his own party as too accommodating to liberals _ rejected clemency twice before during his two years in office.
Less than 12 hours before the execution was set to take place, the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals said it would not intervene because, among other things, there was no "clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence."
In his last-ditch appeal, Williams claimed that he should have been allowed to argue at his trial that someone else killed one of the four victims, and that shoddy forensics connected him to the other killings.
Williams was convicted of killing Yen-I Yang, 76, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, and Yu-Chin Yang Lin, 43, at a Los Angeles motel the family owned, and Albert Owens, 26, a 7-Eleven clerk gunned down in Whittier.
Among the celebrities who took up Williams' cause were Jamie Foxx, who played the gang leader in a cable movie about Williams; rapper Snoop Dogg, himself a former Crip; Sister Helen Prejean, the nun depicted in "Dead Man Walking"; Bianca Jagger; and former "M A S H" star Mike Farrell. During Williams' 24 years on death row, a Swiss legislator, college professors and others nominated him for the Nobel Prizes in peace and literature.
"If Stanley Williams does not merit clemency," defense attorney Peter Fleming Jr. asked, "what meaning does clemency retain in this state?"
The impending execution resulted in feverish preparations over the weekend by those on both sides of the debate, with the California Highway Patrol planning to tighten security outside the prison, where hundreds of protesters were expected.
A group of about three dozen death penalty protesters were joined by the Rev. Jesse Jackson as they marched across the Golden Gate Bridge after dawn Monday en route to the gates of San Quentin, where they were expected to rally with hundreds of people.
At least publicly, the person apparently least occupied with his fate seemed to be Williams himself.
"Me fearing what I'm facing, what possible good is it going to do for me? How is that going to benefit me?" Williams said in a recent interview. "If it's my time to be executed, what's all the ranting and raving going to do?"
Tookie won't be able to order "extra crispy". AFAIK California only offers lethal injection or the gas chamber.
You're correct. Caryl Chessman's crimes: 17 counts of kidnapping, with bodily harm done to the victiim, robbery, various forms of sexual assault and forcible rape. He was executed in May 1960.
So...in view of how truly grotesque sex-related crimes have become in this sick society...anything wrong with rape still being a capital crime?
Tat's all we get? Just the new report?
I was expecting the Governator to come out to a really high podium in a big arena, and do the dramatic, suspesnful "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" like the Roman emperors used to do.
Give is some drama on a Monday afternoon for crying out loud.
Holy typos, Batman. I should not post in a rush anymore. (*sigh*)
Bye, Bye, Tookie, Goodbye !
No, V.I. Lenin called them "useful idiots."
"Toot, toot, Tookie, Goodbye!"
As long as we apply the death penalty to the innocent and good, we might as well avoid being hyprocritical and apply it to the guilty and bad.
People who oppose killing convicted murderers, but support the "woman's right to murder innocent unborn"....well, that's as good a definition of "evil" or "insane" as anyone can think of.
Oh wait...the unborn are not people...ah, think they are dogs, or was it cats? Whales? Give me time, I'll get it right...ah...I got it! "Subhumans"...no, wait that was Hitler describing Jews, Gypies, etc.
"Tookie williams has had man's justice, but that doesn't mean he is guilty."
The fact that he's arrested, tried, convicted, has used up all his appeals, and is denied clemency means that he's guilty.
Yea, how times have changed. Now "forcible rape" is considered "sexual expression" by certain "concerned" liberals.
"Or if anyone has a stone in his hand that could kill, and he strikes someone so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death."
Numbers 35:16-18
Just went to the website and saw the "Tookie Saves Lives" downloadable. I almost lost my lunch.
The guys from goldenpalace.com would buy it in a second.
Amen brother. The piece of filth that murdered my sister took the coward's way out and ran his car into a tree at more than 100 mph.
At least the filth saved the taxpayers on his upkeep.
Visualize whirled peas.
Thanks for your sentiments. As for too much government interference in our lives I heartily agree and can understand where you're coming from. I guess the difference between people is that some are willing to blindly give up their rights while others, like you and I, jealously guard them. Unfortunately, we were born when it's already decided that we give up our own concept of justice by being part of the greater society. I suppose we could go elsewhere if we don't like it but, in essance, that's a states rights perogitive...capitol punishment legal in California but not in other states.
One thing: If the penalty for rape with murder is the same as the penalty for rape without murder, then all rapes will end with the victim being murdered so as not to be able to testify.
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