Update [2005-12-12 16:3:38 by SallyCat]: Governer Schwarzenegger will not issue clemency to Mr. Williams. Execution will occur at 12:01am PST. Thanks to readers comments for the breaking news
Tonight the California Department of Corrections will execute a man at San Quentin Prison. San Quentin is located at the edge of San Francisco Bay in Marin County, CA. From the walkways of the prison the skyline of San Francisco and Oakland are both visible. Tonight life will probably end in a darkened room inside the prison.
At 11:30 p.m., Williams will be given a new pair of denim jeans and a new blue work shirt to wear.
At 11:45 p.m., the first group of witnesses will be led into the room where the death chamber is and positioned by guards on a set of risers or a railing along the thick glass windows of the chamber. These will be state officials, lawyers and people who have asked to watch the execution on behalf of Williams or his victims.
At 11:55 p.m., media witnesses will be escorted in and positioned on risers. Nobody may move after they have been placed. Fifty witnesses total are allowed, 17 of those from the press.
Precisely at midnight, prison officials will make one last call to the state Department of Justice and Department of Corrections headquarters to determine if any last-second stays have been issued. That process usually takes less than a minute, and at 12:01 a.m. Williams will be led by three guards into the lime-green execution chamber through its only door.
Space is tight in the 7.5-foot-wide, octagonal chamber, which was designed for two lethal gas chairs but has been nearly filled with a lethal injection gurney since William Bonin became the first California prisoner executed by injection on Feb. 24, 1996.
Williams is a bulky man, so there will undoubtedly be slight jostling as he is laid upon the cross-shaped gurney, and his arms and legs are strapped down.
read more in the San Francisco Chronicle
More – two sides to every story. This is from the anti-death penalty activists and some who know what the justice system means to them as family and friends that were victims of violent crimes.
Outside the entrance to San Quentin State Prison on Sunday afternoon, two teenagers sold copies of laminated poems dedicated to Williams. Pro-clemency signs and posters left by participants in vigils in recent weeks rested near the check-in for people visiting inmates.
“I e-mailed the governor saying we recycle plastic, we recycle glass, and we reform it and put it into something better and useful,” said Carma Helzer of Contra Costa County, who was visiting her son, an inmate convicted in 2004 with his brother in five homicides. “Why throw away a human life when it’s being useful?”
Two anti-clemency protesters, a mother and her daughter, stood in front of the prison holding signs that read: “No Mercy for his victims. No Mercy for him!” and “Remember his victims.”
“Those who support Williams have no idea what families go through when someone is murdered,” said Gloria Bucol-Bachrach of Fremont, who said her 19-year-old son was shot and killed by a gang member at a concert in Oakland 25 years ago.
“To be awakened at 3 a.m. by the coroner to find out my son was murdered — that was the worst moment of my life,” Bucol said.
read more of different perspectives in the San Francisco Chronicle – 2nd
I have had the opportunity to tour San Quentin with a group of law students and law enforcement officials. There is a security process that is intimidating just as visitor including being signed in through several gates. The inside is depressing and gloomy. The death penalty chamber is chilling and somber. There are no chairs and all witnesses stand on risers around the perimeter of the room. The death chamber is sterile and glass windowed with barely enough room for the gurney and doctors and guards. Visualize yourself as you can as a witness standing with your back to a cold prison wall, standing on risers, and watching someone die.
My friends and husband work in law enforcement and I have mixed emotions about the death penalty.
– There is, for me, the idea that there are crimes that are so heinous that the death penalty is appropriate.
– There is a concern that too often around this country innocent people are executed wrongly.
– There is a question of where do we make the distinction and decision.
We have had extended periods where the California Supreme Court modified death penalty sentences to life sentences. Was that the answer? It must not have been as we did not reelect that Supreme Court Justice.
My answer is that the will of the people should be answered through their elected officials and through changing the state law. Our state legislature is predominantly democrat. If we are to show compassion in our laws, we need compassion in our legislators.
Unless the governor issues a clemency today – a man will die tonight. So while you are sleeping the State of California will execute a man – less than 5 miles from my house. My friends in law enforcement will be out patrolling the roads around the prison. Tomorrow…maybe we can look at the laws again…or maybe we will just continue this path.
What do you all think about the death penalty?
