Do you want Stanley “Tookie” Williams to live or die on Tuesday? And why?
I’m also intensely curious to learn what you think about California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s options for granting clemency — not just ethically and morally, but also from a purely political standpoint. How will the Austrian Caesar’s “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” affect his chances for reelection? What would granting clemency do to his standing with the national and Californai state GOP party leadership? And how would it affect his political core? (Or does he have a political core?)
Aaron Barlow is the only diarist here to write about Tookie’s case: “Ignorance and Arrogance: Don Imus on Capital Punishment.” Aaron reports that Don Imus said he was all in favor of the execution because it “sends a message.”
We’re in suspended animation while we wait for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to announce his decision following the private clemency hearing on December 8.
The city of Los Angeles is bracing for riots if Williams is executed: “Fearing a repeat of the 1992 race riots in which 52 people died, police, schools and community groups have been told to prepare for violence if clemency is not granted.”
Robin Toma, executive director of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, said the organization had received “credible” threats of violence if Williams is put to death.
There are also fears that Williams’ execution could cause unrest in the prison system.
TalkLeft has done a great job following the case:
Waiting for Governor’s Decision on Tookie
Update: At HuffPo, Bianca Jagger writes about her meeting with Tookie Williams last week and why Gov. Schwarzenegger should give him clemency. No decision yet. … […]
Cheers for California Assemblyman Joe Nation (D-San Rafael) who urged Arnold to grant clemency […]
We will soon know if Gov. Schwarzenegger believes in redemption, compassion, grace and mercy.
There’ve been several diaries at Daily Kos about Tookie that didn’t garner much attention. But, the ‘winger bloggers have been all over Tookie and the clemency hearings:
Free Tookie; Gas Mike Farrell
I’ve been checking out the Tookie Williams thing. It always amazes me how many black people will support a vile, worthless criminal simply because he’s black. I wonder how many black people he victimized before he was finally caged. … […]
A sociopath will do whatever it takes to save his hide, and if that means writing children’s books or espousing nonviolence or eating dog crap with a fork or wearing a ballet tutu or finding a shrubbery for the Knights Who Say “Ni,” that’s no problem. A smart sociopath will find the path to his goal and take it, no matter what it is.
The odds that this is what Tookie Williams has done are overwhelming …. […]
Tookie man-crush sufferer Mike Farrell is a 40-watt bulb pretending to be the blazing light of reason; he’s not terribly bright, as his previous blatherings reveal, and he’s in over his head. He and his liberal pals are almost certainly being played. If he wants Tookie Williams to be released from prison, he should agree to let Tookie spend the first five years of his release on house arrest, in Farrell’s home. …
Read all at Hog On Ice blog
The ‘winger blog bashing of Tookie and his supporters goes on and on.
On November 30th, Amy Goodman interviewed Tookie Williams:
AMY GOODMAN: In a half-hour interview, death row prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams speaks from his cell in San Quentin about his case, his life and his redemption. He helped start the Crips street gang – his greatest regret – but behind bars he has become a leading advocate for the end of gang violence. He has written nine books and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is scheduled to die on Dec. 13 unless Governor Schwarzenegger grants him clemency. Actions are planned across the world today in what has been described as International Save Tookie Day. […]
While his court appeals have largely been exhausted, judges have publicly admitted there’s a strong case for clemency. In 2002, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his death sentence but in a rare move urged then-Governor Gray Davis to consider commuting the death sentence. The judges praised Tookie Williams for his, quote, “laudable efforts opposing gang violence” and his, quote, “good works and accomplishments since incarceration.”
I listened to the full interview on Nov. 30th, and I will freely admit that I found Willians — in the way he spoke and his attitude — to be unsympathetic, arrogant, and hardened. An example:
AMY GOODMAN: Why do you think the jury found you guilty?
STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: Oh, it was quite easy. It was a paradigm of racism. We are talking about prosecutorial misconduct. We are talking about exclusion of exculpatory evidence. We are talking about I.A.C., which is ineffective assistance of counsel. We are talking about biased jury selection, which results in an all-white jury. We’re talking about involuntary psychotherapic druggings, the misuse of jailhouse and government informants. And last, but not least – …– no — not a shred of tangible evidence, no fingerprints, no crime scenes of bloody boot prints. They didn’t match my boots, nor eyewitnesses. Even the shotgun shells found conveniently at each crime scene didn’t match the shotgun shells that I owned.
(Listen to, watch, or read the full interview by Amy Goodman of Tookie Williams.)
This part I found moving:
STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: Well, I can quite — I can easily demythologize the thought that, well, a person, when he goes to prison, of course, they’ll change. They’re locked up. That’s not so, because I was incorrigible from the moment I got here all the way up to 1988, so that debunks that theory. And once I was in solitary confinement, it provided me with the isolated moments to reflect on my past and to dwell upon something greater, something better than involving myself in thuggery and criminality. It had to be more to life than that. It had to be more than the madness that was disseminating throughout this entire prison.
But, it is irrelevant if I find Tookie Williams personally appealing or not. I am opposed to the death penalty. I hope that Ahnuld does the right thing.
Do I think that Williams should get out of prison? Only if it’s proven that he’s innocent…. I don’t know all the facts of the case, and that’d be nearly impossible. As Wiilliams himself told Amy Goodman, those who favor him dying “have not delved into every shred of evidence, all of the transcripts, all of the appeals.” That’s a tall order, and one I can’t fulfill, but there are a couple Web sites — “Tookie.com” and “Save Tookie” — that try to do just that.
What matters for me is that murdering Tookie solves nothing, makes the United States look barbaric to the rest of the world, and destroys Tookie’s future chances to influence more young people against the gang life. And his execution may cause terrible suffering in Los Angeles, which needs another race riot like it needs another earthquake.
Cross-posted at Daily Kos.
as immoral, so I’m with you Susan.
It’s difficult sometimes. Some crimes are so heinous that it’s impossible to wish the criminal to live.
So, I just stand for the abstract principle that execution is wrong.
….
Also: I’m very concerned about the alarming rate at which Americans are being imprisoned.
Imprisonment solves nothing either. In most cases. Cold ass murderers and rapists, of course, must be shut away from society.
But, having worked for a criminal defense attorney, I’ve seen the terrible effect of imprisonment on people who had screwed up, who had drug or alcohol problems, who made a bad mistake.
They get changed by prison in a way that makes it extremely difficult for them to reintegrate into society once they’re out…. and they often end up back in prison. Often for more serious crimes.
I don’t know the solution. I wish I did. Perhaps someone knows of some workarounds to prison time?
In my county, we have drug court, and that has helped a lot of addicts avoid significant jail time and to get help for their addictions. That makes a hell of a lot of sense. And the community feels that drug court has been a great project. Other counties are adopting a similar program now.
Years ago, I spent three days (not the nights) inside Green Haven Prison in New York State. I was participating in an Alternatives to Violence Project workshop meant to show violent prisoners how to deal with situations through avenues other than violence. Most of the prisoners involved in the workship were serving long stretches, many for murder (at least one for multiple murders).
Though few were going to get out at all, all of them wanted to learn to be other than what they had been.
The workshop was frustrating–but they tried and really, really kept at it. They wanted to better their lives, even if behind bars.
“Lock ’em up and throw away the key.” Maybe sometimes we have to. But that doesn’t mean their lives have to be over. Some people can live fulfilled lives in prison and others can even contribute to the greater society.
By killing, there can never be redemption… for anyone.
I agree, Steven. We’re one of the only developed country that still has executions. I can’t remember if Australia still has them or not.
To my mind proper law enforcement has nothing whatever to do with vengeance or punishment. It’s to do with making a better society.. and having state sanctioned executions speaks volumes to what kind of society you want to have.
But.. more on topic.. Tookie is just waay too articulate in a scholarly sort of way for me to picture him as a murderer… maybe that’s what he “wants us to think.” :p but something doesnt add up.
I am anti death penalty, so I think Arnold should grant clemency to Tookie and all the rest there, and give them life in prison. A pipe dream, I know (where did that saying come from anyway? Opium pipes or something?)
As for Tookie himself, I’m glad he is doing something with his time in prison that is helping others, including children who might get into gangs and all that – but man, the horror he and his friend unleashed on communities throughout the US, and even overseas, who have started copycat gangs and so on… gah. He can continue to be held up as a cautionary tale (and possibly inspirational one of lemons and lemonade) while he rots in prison. (Unless proof comes up that he didnt commit the crime he is there for and all that, of course).
Dunno about Arnold… he doesn’t have a core base, and he’s alienated independents and arnold democrats by his insane move to the far right this past year, and has alienated republicans and right wingers by his hiring of a Democrat to be his chief of staff… if he’s looking to regain Republican support, he’ll have Tookie killed, as … as Bush showed, both in Texas and the world, killing lots of people is one major key to gaining right wing support.
Not all CA independents or Democrats are anti state killings, and probably many who are not are certainly not anti the killing of Tookie, so I am not sure that he would pay a price from that direction much either.
What just might influence him is all this sudden talk of violence if Tookie is killed… dunno how credible the threat of that is, it seems unlikely to me, but the possibility of it might cause arnold to lean towards clemency.
All the talk about violence just plays on racist stereotypes (the Darkies are coming!)and is likely intended to influence the Gov to deny — afterall, we don’t want to give in to that sort do we?
And Williams would be one of them. Twelve bodies. Count ’em. And how many more did he instigate that we can’t prove?
Redemption? Not a chance. Hollywood PR game.
Redemption? Look, you don’t get a body like that without steroids and they are illiegal in prison. And where did he get the money for the steroids. He is not on the straight and narrow any more than Karl Rove. Crooked to the core, a psychopath engaged in a mass manipulation. See through it, don’t get sucked in to it. Administer the medication.
Like the rest of you, I oppose the death penalty under any circumstances. Even if that were not my absolute position, I would urge clemency for Tookie because he has turned his life around. He has been nominated five times for the Noble Peace Prize; he has written numerous children’s books discouraging them from gangs and violence. He even got a metal from Bush for his work with children. As for Arnold? I understand that he plans on running for re-election. He is governor of a blue state. However, it seems as through the death penalty is not a cut and dried Democrat/Republican issue. I read the Daily Kos diaries you linked to, as well as wrote two of my own. I was amazed how many very liberal Democrats approve of the death penalty. My died in the wool life long repug friend does not support the death penalty any circumstances. I think that Tookie will be granted clemency, if for no other reason to avoid a possible rerun of the Watts riots.
Thank you, Susan!
To repeat an earlier comment from Nov 30:
Few issues other than abortion raise such violent emotions as the death penalty. It’s hard to see Warner doing this for political gain, but maybe, just maybe, it’s another little crack in turning the tide of opinion in the US & there’s capital to be had. We might even catch up on this issue with the rest of the civilized world in a few more decades. Last night’s TV show, Commander in Chief, presented a presidential (!) sentence commutation as an act of moral & political courage. Gov. Ryan (who pardoned everyone on Illinois’ death row) seems viewed in a similar light by all but the most blood hungry. The Supreme Court has slowly made some inroads regarding the execution of minors & the mentally retarded. In case it’s not explicit, my knee jerked on this issue years ago & is firmly stuck in rigor mortis against state sanctioned murder.
When I finally registered on this site, it was with the intent to write a piece on The Politics of the Death Penalty, focusing on the upcoming execution here in California of Stanley Williams and the so-called “habeas reforms” known as the Streamlined Procedures Act currently wending its way through congress. Sorry to say I haven’t had the fortitude.
Most Americans don’t realize how badly our habeas rights have been eroded over the last decade. Issues arising from the last attempt in 1996, under the Anti-Terrorism & Effective Death Penalty Act, are still being litigated. Habeas is the byzantine bedrock of death penalty appeals. It is the primary vehicle for to present newly discovered evidence in court.
This new legislation (Streamlined Procedures Act) would all but strip the federal courts of jurisdiction over constitututional claims regarding imposition of the death penalty, unless the state court found no error at all, OR the error has already been deemed “structural” by the US Supreme Court. Structural errors are ones that are so bad that they are reversible “per se”, i.e, without any showing of prejudice. They are few and far between: denial of counsel altogether, denial of a jury trial, denial of defendant’s right to testify, and a handful of others.
I have mixed feelings over celebrity cases; they bring attention to the issue (good & bad) but also further obscure the deadly grinding of justice in other cases. Stanley Williams is an international figure & Gov. Terminator has recently announced that he will actually hold a clemency hearing. My inner optimist is trying hard to shout down my cynic & assert that Arnie may just believe this is a way to boost his sagging polls and demonstrate what an ‘independent’ guy he is. He’d be the first CA governor to grant clemency since Reagan in ’67; what a great name to pair up with for a Republican in trouble. Schwarzenegger has reversed years of state correctional policy to reintroduce “Rehabilitation” to the DOC’s mission; it had been earlier removed. Williams’ “redemption” could play well into the Gov’s theme. Nine judges on the Ninth Circuit urged a gubernatorial pardon after denying his appeals, which is extraordinary even for this so-called liberal circuit. We’ll see . . .
All of which was considered to be “harmless error” by the courts. As with Lovitt, under the proposed SPA provisions, these claims wouldn’t even be heard in court & the states could get on with the business of killing the defendants.
Amy Goodman interviewed Williams this morning (Nov 30) on Democracy Now. The case is being discussed all over the print & cable media. Apologies for the overly long comment.
False flag! Under CA law, this is NOT an option. Were his sentence to be commuted, he would spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Someone recently passed me a statement written by Omar Dent, who met Tookie on Death Row in 1991 and is currently awaiting a new trial in LA. He asks:
One can argue endlessly about the possibility of “redemption” for murder, but at this point in time, Schwarzenegger’s decision will carry as much symbolic weight in this state as its legal import.
False flag! Under CA law, this is NOT an option …
You’re right. I should have made that more clear in what I wrote.
I was imagining the possibility.
If Mr. Williams is executed then redemption is not an option and what is the use of changing? That’s the question that will be on the minds of all those wayward youth and adults I spoke of previously.
This is also a strong argument against life without parole. If prisoners have a hope for parole, they might be more interested in working on their own heads and educating themselves.
I hear ya! That’s what makes the notion of “redemption” rather odd in this case.
But his turn around took place in solitary confinement . . . with no hope … of anything … but of something personal. What’s compelling to me in the argument, isn’t about him per se, but of what he has come to represent to many outside of prison.
LWOP is essential though, if we ever want to eliminate the Death penalty in this country.
Some facts about the case from the CEDP’s site:
All of which has been determined to be “A OK” by the courts.
From a SF Chronicle article last month:
I oppose the death penalty, period. There is too much danger of killing an innocent person, and no reason why life in prison should not be sufficient punishment.
I don’t have enough info on this to be able to form a fact-based judgment on Williams’ plight, but I do have a sense of things, and rather than just say I oppose the death penalty, I’d like to give an affirmative argument as to why I think Williams death sentence should be commuted.
My understanding is that the positive work Williams has done over the last decade or more in communicating with youth and helpng discourage them from pursuing the gang lifestyle has probably been responsible for helping to save and otherwise improve the opportunities for far more lives in general than his previous acts did to destroy lives. This is not to say that one cancels out the other; certainly, if he did kill these other people I believe it is just that he reamain in prison until the end of his days.
But, I think it’s an important thing for our society to be seen to recognize that a person, even if convicted of the most heinous of crimes, is still able to perform acts that are redemptive in nature. And, if we want to send a meaningful message to others, sending a message that we acknowledge the benefits of redemptive behavior is a far more effective, far more constructive, and far more powerful message, is much better than sending the message that says, whatever you do afterwards has absolutely no effect on how we, the state, will treat you.
A message that denies the value of redemtive acts is an expression of intransigent, deliberate barbarity, not one of enlightment. It’s an expression of complete contempt for the very idea of redemption, something so many supposed Christians claim to have a reverence for within their doctrine.
But wherever redemption is encouraged, hope is encouraged, and where hope is encouraged, it increases the liklihood that tragedies born of desperation can be averted.
And of course, from a coldly pragmatic perspective, ultimately there’s nothing at all to be gained from William’s execution now, unless it is for the benefit of the survivors of those he’s accused of murdering who may require such a public display of barbarism to bring them satisfaction or closure.
Note; I had a very close friend who was murdered in San Francisco a long long time ago, and while I wouldn’t have minded if the killer met an untimely death, whether he got the death penalty or not never concerned me in the least. getting him off the street so he couldn’t murder someone else was the main thing.
If Williams survives to write one more book and that book saves one more life from an early demise in the tragedy of gang violence, his commuted sentence will have real value for our society. Killing him now provides no such value either now or in the future.
I think you meant “only if there is a reasonable doubt of his guilt”. He’s not required to prove his innocence in order to win release – not that that is the issue here.
You know the US wouldn’t be eligible for entry to the European Union purely on the grounds that it has the death sentence? We don’t consider you civilised enough to join.
What good can it do us to kill him? He’s locked up and under the state’s control for now. I’m afraid that if the governor condemns Williams to death now, he will condemn many others as well.
If we stopped trying to jail every pot smoker, we’d have room to incarcerate people like Tookie for life.
What kind of people do not believe in redemption?