No clemency for Tookie
 

SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday refused 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.

Schwarzenegger was unswayed by pleas from Hollywood stars and petitions from more than 50,000 people who said that Williams had made amends during more than two decades in prison by writing a memoir and children's books about the dangers of gangs.

"After studying the evidence, searching the history, listening to the arguments and wrestling with the profound consequences, I could find no justification for granting clemency," Schwarzenegger said, less than 12 hours before the execution. "The facts do not justify overturning the jury's verdict or the decisions of the courts in this case."

Schwarzenegger could have commuted the death sentence to life in prison without parole.

With a reprieve from the federal courts considered unlikely, Williams, 51, was set to die by injection at San Quentin State Prison early Tuesday for murdering four people in two 1979 holdups.

Williams' fate became one of the nation's biggest death-row cause celebres in decades.

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 stood 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.

Just before the governor announced his decision on clemency, the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals denied Williams' request for a reprieve, saying among other things that 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?"

I don't know what the hell the whole deal is, the guy is a killer and they expect people to fee sorry for him because he became a new man. :rolleyes: ..

I think i would rather die than have life in prison anyways..Think about it, everyday just sitting in your cell for 22 hours a day for the rest of your life with maybe something to read and knowing that you will never be free again..damn that would suck, even more than being put to death IMO

yea..im w/ faststang....haha....i would feel lonely w/o my gf...and my stang....dunno wat i would do....id rather die than be cooped up the rest of my life

just thinking about what would happen if they went so far as to ever let him go... he would definately be shot up either by his own crips or the bloods...

Don't worry, you'd always have lady Bubby to keep you company at night... :eek: :eek: :eek: LoL!

But yeah I understand he feels like he's sry, but he killed an entire Family...and for what some money? No amount of self enlightenment is guna make them come back...

yeah, it's crazy about all the talk of people protesting this decision. It's like wtf, you kill people you deserve a harsh punishment in return, get over it.

For real, its all the liberals out there going "oh noes, but he wrote a kids book, he MUST be a changed man" Im just waiting to see the today show tommorrow to hear about the stupid riots that will probably occur now... :rolleyes:

The fact of the matter is he killed people. I believe he's a new man. People believe he is a new man. Hell he just might be but just for that one fact he killed people is enough to execute him. I have nothing against him its just law talking Arnold knows what he's doing is best to uphold law. If he granted clemency for Tookie then anyone else who said they are a new man and have been executed when be questionable. And therefore all hell would break out in court cases after a murderer is put up on death row. It's just common sense in law terms that this is what needs to be done. And its unfortunite :(

they should hang him by his balls. im glad this mooch on society is dying. writing a book doesnt do a damn thing to what youve done in the past. being affilated with a gang (or the creator of one) puts you at the top of the ****list because gangs dont plant flowers and help donate back to the community. they rob, steal, kill, deal drugs, amung other things that contribute to worthlessness.

i hope its painfull for him and they film it on tv so I can laugh for my entertainment.

Pay-Per-View :eek:

The news article said they had trouble finding the vein in his arm...lol dude was huge. Although, probably my favorite person attending, the reverend Jesse Jackson...wait, what church does he preach in? Oh, sorry, I forgot. *Jesse Jackson Rant off

ANY decision on this matter would cause controversy.
I would rather die than spend LIFE in jail.

Now its Gods decision to spare his soul....

you would think this guy would have lifted a little more weights being in jail so long..... :cool:
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Co..._12p.widec.jpg

Looks like he didn't come down to breakfast anymore.

hahaha shin ton wai, lin fon qu, chin chin chao....and albert