Posted on 12/13/2005 9:46:20 AM PST by doug from upland
***scroll for rolling updates***
It's a zoo outside San Quentin prison, where convicted murderer/Crips gang co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams is scheduled to die by injection at San Quentin Prison at 12:01am Pacific time for murdering four people during two 1979 holdups. Live KPIX video feed outside San Quentin here. (Hat tip: Reader Dave.) Photos via readers and Yahoo!:
Jesse Jackson, the racial demagogue-turned-wannabe Death Row gawker, is desperately lobbying to be one of Tookie Williams' execution witnesses, according to cable news reports.
Reader Doug from Upland e-mails that the crusading Rev. Jackson did not know the names of Williams' victims when asked by KFI-AM radio talk show hosts John and Ken.
[Update: Reader Denise R. writes, "I was listening to [KFI host] John Zi[e]gler, he actually asked Jesse Jackson the names of the victims on a couple of occasions and his microphone was taken from him by Judge Mathis (the TV judge) and broken. He also was pushed by Jackson supporters, after that happened he was forced away from Jackson by Sheriff's Deputies.]
On MSNBC this evening, host Tucker Carlson told his "friend" Al Sharpton that he would spare him embarassment by not asking him the names of the victims.
Why would he do that? Guess he didn't want to ruin the freak show vibe.
***
As the execution hour approaches, keep the focus where it belongs.
THE NAMES OF THE VICTIMS:
ALBERT OWENS
TSAI-SHAI YANG
YEN-I YANG
YE-CHEN LIN
Patterico sums it up:
"Tonight should be about honoring their memory, and bringing justice for their deaths."
Amen.
***
12am EDT: Press conference with San Quentin prison official. There will be 39 people witnessing the execution--including 17 members of the media and 5 witnesses approved by Williams. Official will not reveal identity of Williams' five witnesses "for privacy reasons." If Jackson is one of the five, it won't be private for long.
***
Read these sober reflections from Captain's Quarters, The Anchoress, and Baldilocks.
The Los Angeles Times has news analysis of Schwarzenegger's decision not to grant clemency. An excerpt:
"Stanley Williams insists he is innocent, and that he will not and should not apologize or otherwise atone for the murders," Schwarzenegger wrote. "Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings there can be no redemption."
The evidence of guilt, the governor's statement said, included testimony from two of Williams' accomplices, ballistics evidence linking Williams' shotgun to the murders and testimony from four people that Williams had at different times confessed to one or both murders.
Moreover, he said, after Williams' arrest, he conspired to escape "by blowing up a jail transportation bus and killing the deputies guarding" it. Although the escape was never carried out, "there are detailed escape plans in Williams' own handwriting," the statement said, adding that an escape plan is "consistent with guilt, not innocence."
Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson said she thought that Williams' clemency bid was plagued from the start by his position that he would never acknowledge that he committed the four murders.
"I will never admit capital crimes that I did not commit — not even to save my life," Williams wrote in his 2004 autobiography "Blue Rage, Black Redemption." He repeated that position Monday afternoon in a conversation with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jackson told reporters.
"Tookie wanted to have it both ways — he wanted to maintain his actual innocence claim so that he would have something to argue in the courts, but he still wanted to claim that he had been redeemed," Levenson said. "In the end, he lost on both fronts."
Rick Moran has an good round-up and writes a note to Tookie: Shake hands with the devil for me.
Ward Churchill bloviates.
Bruce Armstrong will blog through the execution hour.
SFChron writer Kevin Fagan describes the execution protocol.
***
Question: Did Tookie supporter Jamie Foxx skip Terrell Owens' birthday party? Did Jesse Jackson get a rain check? (Hat tip: readers Andrew and Braun)
256am. One final, last-ditch appeal for delay by Williams' lawyers is rejected.
An estimated 2,000 gathered outside, shouting and obstructing a FOX News analyst doing a live shot.
The San Francisco Chronicle highlights the circus.
***
Previous:
The Tookie Files: Arnold's choice
12/11 Tookie Files: Tension builds
12/6 Tookie Files: Surprising dissents
11/30 Tookie Watch
11/26 The Tookie Files
11/22/00 Peace prize for a murderer?
"Judge Mathis's sponsors should be inundated with boycott threats. What an attack on the 1st Amendment."
That's a great idea. How can we find out who they are other than watching his show?
Ding-ding-ding...A winner!
Basically the problem I have with the media, especially concerning IED deaths of US soldiers, is that its so common on the news now and it has basically turned into a numbers game. "3 soldiers died today", and thats the end of it. People over time lose perspective and dont see the faces of these soldiers or their mangled truck or bodies and people just dont give as much thought to the loss. I often feel the American public cant stomach anything anymore and even during a time of war the images and recounts of it in the media are so washed clean that it does a huge disservice to the people actually over there. I hear "3 died today from an IED" and I see the collective image of all the pictures and viedo I have seen involving IED casulties and attacks and I understand how terrible it is and how we need to understand more of what the soldiers are actually experiencing over there.
Can anyone confirm that?
I'm afraid so. Tookie has one son who is already in the big house for murder and a second, a registered sex offender, is currently wanted for the rape of a 13 year old girl. I think there is a third son who is a law abiding citizen (by Williams family standards anyway).
All the unpleasant details on this thread:
'Tookie' Williams' Son Allegedly Rapes Girl At Gunpoint [WITH PHOTO]
I think it means he can't even take it into consideration. It doesn't mean he'd get out of his sentence if he did.
Thanks for being courageous and keeping on top of this issue for us, as well as reminding us about the four victims whose lives Stanley Williams stole when he got the $220. Your hard work is most appreciated!
Did anyone see the two folks smiling and preening for the camera last night standing behind the Fox newsman? The girl was very pretty, beautiful smile, rainbow colored hair - the guy got a cell call and obviously someone told him he was visible on the tv because he suddenly began to dance a bit and smile for the camera..... however, their hero was at that moment being injectisized...axed....given the big sleep........others around were somber but those two was hamming it up for the camera. You just couldn't help but laugh
Glenn Beck was running a fake news spot about it this morning that went "Recently deceased comic Richard Pryor had this to say: 'Why they executin' that motherf*BLEEP*in N*BLEEP*er?'"
Ah, good old Richard Pryor, it brought back such pleasant memories.
I heard the caller on Rush's show say that he worked at the prison where supposedly Tookie's son is incarcerated. It wouldn't surprise me. I don't know if you all remember Gary Graham from Texas a while back. He got the full court press to try to get a pardon, but he was also guilty as sin and he was also executed. His son is also imprisoned and (I think) also on death row.
Graham's execution demonstration was marked, for me, by the protestors trying to burn a fire resistant American Flag, which instead of burning just kind of melted and dripped hot polyester all over them. It was cool.
Good afternoon, Doug --- late night, but worth it.
What a night, my friend. And I got up at 5:30am for our Kiwanis Christmas breakfast.
My pleasure. It bothers me every time I see the photo of Albert Owens in uniform.
OMG! Tookie Toast. Is this your creation too? LOL
WOW, I am impressed. Seriously. I am still "tired." LOL
I know exactly who you're talking about. The chick with the braided clown wig and the rocket scientist next to her with the "510" cap on. What was even more entertaining was the woman off to the right of the picture. She changed signs during the report and was glaring at that clown in the hat. She looked like she just ate a lemon. She had to be from Berkeley or S.F., practically everyone in those two towns looks that way.
No. I told a friend about the Tookie toast a little while ago and said that I was ashamed of myself for not coming up with it. What was I thinking?
Wasn't that fun? I saw the exact moment the guy got the cell call and started dancing for the camera - the girl suddenly popped in, flashed a beautiful smile but it all was so unseemly considering the situation and all - I hope john stewart picks up on those two and makes fun of them - he's a lib but occasionally comes through with something normal
LOL!
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