Clemency for Williams.....

[manu1959]

will there be clemency for the convience store clerk as well?


http://www.comcast.net/news/national/index.jsp?cat=DOMESTIC&fn=/2005/11/25/271380.html


Schwarzenegger Mulls Clemency for Williams
By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer
2 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday he would consider granting clemency to convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams, the Crips gang founder who became an anti-gang activist while in prison and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The governor said he would meet Dec. 8 in a private hearing with Williams' lawyers, Los Angeles County prosecutors and others involved.

Schwarzenegger has the authority to commute a death sentence to life without parole, but he is not obligated to hold a hearing. In Schwarzenegger's case, he decides clemency requests on a "case-by-case basis," spokeswoman Margita Thompson said.

Two other clemency petitions have come before Schwarzenegger. Neither was granted.

Williams, 51, faces a lethal injection on Dec. 13 for the 1979 slayings of a Whittier convenience store clerk and three people at a Pico Rivera motel. He has maintained his innocence and has asked the California Supreme Court to reopen his case, alleging shoddy forensics wrongly connected him to three of the murders. The Supreme Court hasn't ruled on the petition.

Los Angeles County prosecutors and victims' relatives have demanded his execution.

Along with asking Schwarzenegger to commute Williams' death sentence, his lawyers submitted what they said were signatures of 32,000 people supporting his petition for clemency.

Supporters, including rapper Snoop Dogg and Ras Baraka, the deputy mayor of Newark, N.J., have urged Schwarzenegger to spare Williams' life so he can continue his work with young people as an anti-gang activist.

Williams founded the Crips with a childhood friend in 1971 in Los Angeles, where the gang battled rivals for territory and control of the drug trade.

In prison, however, Williams gained international acclaim for co-writing children's books about the dangers of gang life. An award-winning television movie starring Jamie Foxx, "Redemption," was based on his life.

Schwarzenegger, in dealing with the two previous clemency requests, denied a hearing last year for Kevin Cooper, whose execution was later stayed by a federal appeals court, and held a public hearing this year for Donald Beardslee but declined to spare him.

 

[Annie]

No.

 

[Avatar4321]

Is this really a religious topic?

Honestly, if this guy has seriously changed is ways and is now doing his part to prevent people from following his route, maybe Arnold should consider it. It's not like he is going to get off the hook, just life in prison rather than death. If he can do good being alive more than dead I would consider it. Not sure what I would do though since I know about no facts to the case. if the Crime was serious enough to charge death with I dont think it would be a decision made lightly. Because justice still needs to be served.

 

[manu1959]

Is this really a religious topic?

Honestly, if this guy has seriously changed is ways and is now doing his part to prevent people from following his route, maybe Arnold should consider it. It's not like he is going to get off the hook, just life in prison rather than death. If he can do good being alive more than dead I would consider it. Not sure what I would do though since I know about no facts to the case. if the Crime was serious enough to charge death with I dont think it would be a decision made lightly. Because justice still needs to be served.

ethics....he was convicted of killing 4 people

 

[Annie]

Is this really a religious topic?

Honestly, if this guy has seriously changed is ways and is now doing his part to prevent people from following his route, maybe Arnold should consider it. It's not like he is going to get off the hook, just life in prison rather than death. If he can do good being alive more than dead I would consider it. Not sure what I would do though since I know about no facts to the case. if the Crime was serious enough to charge death with I dont think it would be a decision made lightly. Because justice still needs to be served.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/06/EDGC3FII9H1.DTL

No clemency for 'Tookie'
- Debra J. Saunders
Sunday, November 6, 2005

THERE MUST be a guidebook in the country's death rows about how to dodge the lethal-injection needle: In Texas, you find God and plead mercy; in the Bay Area and other havens for people who think they are enlightened liberals, you find a publisher.

If you write books or poetry, all manner of journalists, authors and do-gooders will turn you into a saint who is doing some good for society. So, having been sent to San Quentin Prison's Death Row for the brutal slaying of four innocent people during two 1979 robberies, Stanley "Tookie" Williams has no shortage of champions who believe that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should grant him clemency and spare him his scheduled Dec. 13 execution. Why, the thug-huggers point out, Tookie has even been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Or as an Agence France Presse headline announced: "U.S. judge sets December date to execute Nobel Prize nominee."

Some background on this Nobel Prize wannabe: In 1979, Williams shot in the back, twice, Albert Owens, a 26-year-old, white, 7-Eleven clerk, during a robbery. Shortly after, he robbed a motel and slaughtered three members of an immigrant family, the Yangs.

Williams' lawyers presented an alibi defense that crumbled. Physical evidence supported the prosecution. A jury found Williams guilty and a court sentenced him to death. His crimes tend to be glossed over -- as happened in "Redemption," a Fox TV movie that bought into the reformed Tookie line. The biopic told the story of Williams' jailhouse conversion, which led him to co-author a line of children's books, "Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence."

As proof, supporters point to what Williams calls "The Apology," posted on a Tookie Web site. The problem is, the apology is not for killing four innocent people -- one white and three Asian -- but for being a co-founder of the violent Crips gang, which has ruined "the lives of so many young people, especially young black men who have hurt other young black men."

There are some problems with the Tookie hagiography. After Williams ostensibly quit the Crips, he was stabbed by another inmate in what prison officials believed was a fight over who would lead the Crips.

And this is interesting: Williams' lawyers have argued that he had suffered from organic brain damage, either when he killed Owens and the Yangs or during his trial, which made him unable to defend himself. It's hard to understand how a brain-damaged man could co-write all those books.

The whole "redemption" line is a joke. As Williams' former prosecutor Robert Martin once told me, redemption requires an admission of guilt, facing up to what you did and expressing remorse. Williams has done none of the above, yet newspaper editorial pages (including The Chronicle's) and various do-gooders (including some Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals judges) have been pushing for the governor to grant Tookie clemency.

That would turn the whole concept of clemency on its ear.

Let me stipulate: While I support the death penalty, I can respect those who oppose it. But I can't respect those who lionize the most violent thugs as if they are prize sages. My advice to the anti-execution crowd -- and I have no doubt it will be ignored -- is to find some poor schlub who killed in a panic and doesn't belong on death row, and seek clemency for that person.

Don't put a cold-blooded killer on a pedestal. Don't denounce a government killing as barbaric while you laud a cold-blooded thug. And don't ask for clemency for a killer who won't fess up to his crimes.

Williams' co-author, Barbara Becnel, told the Los Angeles Times, "What Stan presents is hope that they, too, can change. He is worth far more to society alive than dead."

Wrong. He is worth more to society dead. The message from the Tookie-philes is that you can kill innocent people and be a star. An execution says you can kill innocent people and pay the price.

Michelle Malkin has more, including a letter from one of the victim's stepmom, plenty of links about what he's been doing and not:

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003984.htm

Lora Owens, Albert's stepmother, writes:

My name is Lora Owens. I am the stepmother of Albert Lewis Owens. My husband, Albert's father, has died so I also speak for him since we discussed this letter frequently over the years. I am writing you concerning clemency for Stanley "Tookie" Williams who murdered Albert in 1979 by shooting him twice in the back. Within seconds, though Albert pleaded for his life, Williams chose to become the judge, jury and executioner of Albert, then laughed as he lay dying. In 1981, Williams was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the murders he committed in cold blood. Now the many, many years of appeals have also been denied and the facts remain steadfast and the verdict remains firm.

Now that the appeals have been denied, Williams has decided on a new tactic. A female friend has entered his life who happens to be a journalist who wants to write children's books against gangs. Since the defense of brain damage in his appeals did not gain him anything, Williams decided to become an articulate author denouncing gang activity. He doesn't assist the authorities in stopping gang activity by "debriefing" however, but concentrates on teaching primary school age children the "walk and talk" of gang life. This he claims will deter them from joining a gang.

The Nobel Peace Prize nominations, from the first to the last, have been made by activists who see an opportunity to further their personal cause.The first was quoted to have made the nomination to "raise the awareness of the death penalty to a higher degree". Totally nothing to do with Williams and whether he deserved the recognition but for a political agenda.

This has been true of each nomination since.

They have quoted that it doesn't matter what he has done in the past but what he is doing now.

I contend that he is not doing anything now to warrant any type of award and it definitely does matter what he has done in the past. It would matter to anyone whose child is dying in a pool of blood because Williams had the loaded gun and chose to shoot- not in self defense-but shot innocent, unarmed victims simply bcause he could.

 

[Hobbit]

So Yassur Arafat and this guy both get nominated for Nobel Peace prizes (and one wins) for killing a bunch of people and then demanding 'tolerance' for themselves and other murderers, yet Bush is labeled as "worse than Hitler" for bringing freedom and democracy to two of the most oppressed nations on the planet. What the hell?

 

[William Joyce]

Supporters, including rapper Snoop Dogg and Ras Baraka, the deputy mayor of Newark, N.J., have urged Schwarzenegger to spare Williams' life so he can continue his work with young people as an anti-gang activist.

You know, I was thinking to myself, "Let this punk fry." But now that Snoop Doggy Dogg has spoken, I think we all need to look inside our hearts. Think of the children.

 

[dilloduck]

You know, I was thinking to myself, "Let this punk fry." But now that Snoop Doggy Dogg has spoken, I think we all need to look inside our hearts. Think of the children.

Agreed--Mr. Snoop is an educated, moral man whose opinion should be respected while we all watch him encourage female teenagers to strip for the TV.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

Agreed--Mr. Snoop is an educated, moral man whose opinion should be respected while we all watch him encourage female teenagers to strip for the TV.

:blah2: And Britney Spears supports the president :blah2: