Tookie "I'm a changed man" Williams: DENIED

As much as I hate Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Governor, he got this one right. But it's not like there reallyw as another option...

Schwarzenegger Won't Spare Tookie's Life
Monday, December 12, 2005
Fox News

SAN FRANCISCO — Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to stop the execution Monday of Crips gang co-founder Stanley 'Tookie' Williams, who was set to die by lethal injection early Tuesday.

The death penalty of Williams, 51, will go ahead as planned at 3:01 a.m. EST (12:01 PST) at San Quentin State Prison. Williams will be executed for murdering four people in two 1979 holdups.

Williams has consistently denied committing the gruesome killings, but has apologized for forming the notoriously bloodthirsty gang.

Earlier, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to block the looming execution of Williams, the former gang leader who became an outspoken critic of gang violence. Late Sunday, the California Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution.

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.

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.

Williams' supporters 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.

His 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.

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.

Williams would be the 12th inmate executed by the state since California reinstated the death penalty in 1977.

On what appears to be his last day alive Monday, Williams spent the morning in the prison's special visiting room with his legal team, supporters and friends, San Quentin spokesman Vernell Crittendon told FOX News. Among his visitors were the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Crittendon said Williams has been quiet and cooperative and will be moved into a special holding cell adjacent to the execution chamber at 6 p.m. PST, where he will be served his last meal if he wants one at about 7:30 PST.

The 5,500 other inmates at the prison have been under modified lockdown since just after midnight PST Monday, according to Crittendon, and will go into full lockdown at 2 p.m. PST — meaning they must stay in their cells at all times. They'll remain that way until normal operations resume at San Quentin at approximately 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Now, I know how much Ruff Ryder and Mafia support Tookie Williams because he wrote a book saying gangs are bad and now he's a changed man. But what are other people's opinion on this? He started one of the most violent gangs and he directly murdered 4 people with a shut gun in a robbery. Like I said, I usually am against Gov. Arnold because I think he's a douchebag but I think he got this one right.

I think he deserves capital punishment, no matter how much he supposedly redeemed himself.

He should have known better before he commited those crimes, in complete lucidity.

damn you beat me

i think he should be killed after massive torture.

hm... at least life in a gay prison
wait.. thats every prison

Not executed, but he should be put in prison for life.

terminated, bitch. (pun very well intended)
if he had the audacity and reckless regard to just gun down people like that, thinking he's above everyone else, then rightfully so he deserves the same treatment. i understand he's a changed man now, and he's even written children books or whatever, but he's gotta pay for his actions. i know it's no one's place to judge whether someone should die or not, but in my opinion he still needs to go.

bye bye tookie.

Atleast imo execution would be much easier than serving out a life sentence. A lot of people who are protesting the execution are not necessarily asking for him to released from prison they just want him to live. Anyone who is an asset to society should not be put to death. Not too mention if you have researched his case you would know its full of holes and nothing is clear cut.

New evidence:

http://www.savetookie.org/documents/Affidavit.pdf

If he's really guilty of his crimes then I don't mind his consequences; even if he was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize several times... doesn't change his deeds... but from the little bit that I know... (I haven't followed TOO closely), it sounds like the case against him was a little bit shabby....



here's what I heard.. (but of course, I don't know for sure)....



-there was finger prints at the crime scene that did not match his

-there was bloody shoe prints at the crime scene that did not match his (or size)

-one eye witness that was supposedly beat up by the police, before he testified

-the only seemingly decent piece of evidence was a match between the bullet and tookie's shotgun... the first test came up inconclusive and the prosecutor told the forensics guy to "run the test again" which "suprisingly" came out positive after the retest...

-lastly, convicted by a "jury of his peers" (12 whites in the 80's, vs. the Crips founder)





go figure... it seems to me that they should at least ReTry him IF all the things I stated above are factual

If they decided to execture him 1-3 years after teh crime was comitted then, sure go ahead. But damn, 20 years later? He probably is a changed man, and killing him will be pointless right now.

They shouldn't execute him because it's just awy too late. 20 years is too long.

Execution might seem like petty revenge at this point but it would seem the courts/law/Governator has spoken. In any case I don't think he should be freed, the same as Charles Manson doesn't deserve a pardon nor anyone else involved in a henious crime.

If they decided to execture him 1-3 years after teh crime was comitted then, sure go ahead. But damn, 20 years later? He probably is a changed man, and killing him will be pointless right now.

They shouldn't execute him because it's just awy too late. 20 years is too long.

He is a changed man. I know you can't forget about the past but in a way it is the right thing to do.

If they decided to execture him 1-3 years after teh crime was comitted then, sure go ahead. But damn, 20 years later? He probably is a changed man, and killing him will be pointless right now.

They shouldn't execute him because it's just awy too late. 20 years is too long.

20 years is too short.he fucking killed another person.you do the crime you do the time.i dont think you would say 20 years is too long if it were jeffery dawmer.the law goes for everyone.if it were me though for every crime you get a limb cut off.

There's alot of idiots running around over here saying "let my nigga Tookie go" when they don't even know what he did. But as for him being killed, I'm not too sure. I don't believe that a man who breathes the same air as another can say whether the next man deserves to die. BUT if he killed someone in my family I'd probably feel like he should be killed. He also created the crips which have killed so many people, a couple of books doesn't change that.

If they decided to execture him 1-3 years after teh crime was comitted then, sure go ahead. But damn, 20 years later? He probably is a changed man, and killing him will be pointless right now.

They shouldn't execute him because it's just awy too late. 20 years is too long.

20 years is too short.he fucking killed another person.you do the crime you do the time.

Yeah, you do the time, not the electric chair. I'm against the death penalty period, I mean you're punishing one person for killing by killing them. It seems like one of the most retarded ideas ever to me.

Tookie going to better place than this hell hole anyway. Please dont judge, We have the biggest criminals within this gov. and cost million of lives in history and up today. I wish some you guys on this site was able to walk in my shoes and others and remember only god know one of our heart so please stop your hate speech.

Tookie going to better place than this hell hole anyway. Please dont judge, We have the biggest criminals within this gov. and cost million of lives in history and up today. I wish some you guys on this site was able to walk in my shoes and others and remember only god know one of our heart so please stop your hate speech.

Ok Martin Luther King.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa-alert.htm hey check out what our govt up too. Anyway very funny dude, I wont go there buddy, stop your hate.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa-alert.htm hey check out what our govt up too. Anyway very funny dude, I wont go there buddy, stop your hate.

What are you even talking about? Do you even know what you are talking about? What does this have anything to do with Tookie Williams?

funny if he walks into the execution room with 2 huge guns on his shoulder and blasts him away... lol

williams wont be back...

Arnold to Tookie: Hasta La Vista, Tookie

I think they should have put him to death alot sooner. The worse thing he had to go through was 25 years not knowing when he would be drug into a room to be executed.

If you watch the movie starring jamie foxx you will feel some simpathy.

You don't know for sure that he killed the people.

But, If thier gonna convict you an sentance you to death they need to get on with it.

I'd rather had killed myself then stayed in there counting secounds.

T-minus 2 hours and 15 minutes

damn 2 hour left

he should be innocent,now he is agaisnt hte crip gang,he wrote book about it...
he said that he was sorry for making the crip gang,and that he was innocent for the killing

Fuck Schwarzenegger
RIP tookie

damn 2 hour left

he should be innocent,now he is agaisnt hte crip gang,he wrote book about it...
he said that he was sorry for making the crip gang,and that he was innocent for the killing

Fuck Schwarzenegger
RIP tookie

I don't think the issue was ever to free him. Only to change it to life sentence. Which should have been done. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, as Gahndi says, and by killing him, we aren't doing anything worse than him killing others. Nobody deserves to be executed. And if you want revenge, knowing that someone will suffer in jail should be better revenge.