Schwarzenegger Rejects Williams' Bid for Clemency
By Henry Weinstein and Michael Muskal, Times Staff Writers
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today rejected clemency for Stanley Tookie Williams, a convicted murderer and one of the founders of the Crips.
The decision was announced moments after a federal appeals court in San Francisco turned down Williams' request for a stay of execution. Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
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"Clemency cases are always difficult and this one is no exception," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
"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's statement noted all of the issues that had been litigated in the appeals process.
"Based on the cumulative weight of the evidence," he said, "there is no reason to second-guess the jury's decision of guilt or raise significant doubts or serious reservations about Williams' convictions and death sentence."
Today's double blow seems to ensure that Williams will be executed as scheduled. Williams' supporters will seek to have the U.S. Supreme Court intervene, but the governor was considered Williams' best possibility for clemency.
Williams supporters were angry and disappointed by the governor's action.
"I'm feeling a little drained right now," said Bonnie Williams Taylor, Stanley Williams former wife. They were separated in 1977 and divorced in 1984.
"I'm hoping everything goes peaceful. And I'm remaining optimistic about a last minute stay-like in the movies. I thought Arnold would have a heart. I don't know what swayed him. Politics? That's the system for you," she said.
In San Francisco, death penalty critics reacted angrily to the governor's denial of clemency. Speaking at a news conference sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, clemency advocates called for a moratorium on all executions until a commission looks into the fairness of the punishment.
"Rather than embrace this crucial commitment, Governor Schwarzenegger washed his hands, Pilate-like, and ordered the extermination of a man who had become a force for good in our society," said Mike Farrell, president of Death Penalty Focus.
ACLU of Northern California director Dorothy Ehrlich criticized the practice of carrying out executions on defendants who were convicted on evidence given by informants. She rued that two more executions are scheduled in the near future at San Quentin, one next month.
"With this decision, the governor has turned the beginning of the holiday season into the beginning of the execution season," Ehrlich said.
In a telephone news conference, Williams' attorney, Jonathan Harris, said he plans to ask Schwarzenegger to use his clemency powers to issue a stay so that attorneys can investigate what Harris described as new information from three witnesses.
"We will ask the governor to give us a stay so that we have time to look at these witnesses," Harris said.
"I refuse to accept that Stanley Williams' redemption is not genuine," he said.
The state Supreme Court rejected a last-minute plea Sunday night, and today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the stay at 11:30 a.m.
The governor's rejection of clemency was personally and politically difficult for Schwarzenegger, who has denied two pleas for clemency in other cases.
The last Californian to be given mercy was a mentally ill killer, spared in 1967 by then Gov. Ronald Reagan.
This governor, whose career has been based on his popularity, was soundly rebuffed by voters in the recent special election. Recently, the governor named a Democratic Party activist, Susan Kennedy, as his new chief of staff, sparking outrage from his Republican and conservative supporters.
Schwarzenegger met with Williams' lawyers and prosecutors last week to hear arguments for and against clemency. Williams, 51, sent a personal letter to the governor, seeking clemency.
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The campaign to save Williams has been the fiercest of any recent effort to halt an execution. Hollywood luminaries, including Jaime Foxx, and influential groups, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, campaigned on behalf of Williams.
In 1981, Williams was convicted of four murders during two robberies.
Albert Owens was killed during a robbery of a 7-Eleven store on Feb. 27, 1979, and motel owners Yen-I Yang and Thsai-Shaic Yang and their daughter, Yee Chen Lin, were killed at the Brookhaven Motel on South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles 12 days later.
Williams has maintained that he is innocent. His plea for clemency was based on his transformation while in prison for almost a quarter-century. He and his supporters argue that he has changed his life since his gang days, writing children's books and warning youths about the perils of the gangster life.
Law enforcement officials, including Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, strongly opposed clemency, calling Williams a coldblooded killer who has "left his mark forever on our society by co-founding one of the most vicious, brutal gangs in existence, the Crips."
On Oct. 11, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Williams' last appeal.
On Sunday night, the California Supreme Court voted 6-0 to deny Williams a stay of execution. His lawyer, Verna Wefald, then filed a 150-page habeas corpus petition and request for a stay with the 9th Circuit.
The federal petition raised a host of issues, including the assertion that Williams is "actually innocent" of the four 1979 murders for which he has been on death row at San Quentin for 24 years.
Under federal law, courts are required to dismiss what are known as "successor" habeas corpus petitions unless the defendant can demonstrate:
.That his claim relies on a new interpretation of constitutional law, made retroactive by the U.S. Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable;
.That the factual predicate for the claim could not have been discovered previously through the exercise of due diligence;
.That the facts underlying the claim, if proven and viewed in light of the evidence as a whole, would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that, but for constitutional error, no reasonable fact finder [jury or judge] would have found the petitioner guilty of the underlying crime.
The 9th Circuit panel ruled today that Williams did not assert a "new rule of constitutional law."
The court also said that to the extent that Williams' claims are not subject to mandatory dismissal because they were previously presented, he "has not made a prima facie showing that his claims, whether viewed individually or in the aggregate, could meet the statutory requirements of both due diligence and clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence."
Consequently, the judges denied his request to have the petition considered in full and denied the stay of execution.
The order was issued in the names of Judges Proctor Hug, T.G. Nelson and Ronald Gould, the same panel that in 2002 rejected Williams' request to have his conviction and death sentence overturned. That panel, in a rare move, suggested that Williams might be a worthy candidate for clemency because of his anti-gang activities while on death row.
Earlier today, the Compton NAACP and other community activists said they had new evidence offered by a man who shared a cell with an informant in the Williams case in Men's Central Jail. They also called for investigations into all death row cases where jailhouse informants had been used.
Gordon Bradbury Von Ellerman, 46, said he saw officers deliver police reports about Williams' case to George Oglesby, an inmate who later testified against him. Von Ellerman said he came forward now because he did not learn until last week that Oglesby had been a witness at Williams' murder trial.
It would have been "unfathomable" for Williams to confess to Oglesby, Von Ellerman said, not only because Oglesby was widely regarded as a snitch but also because the two men were housed in different units and had only the barest interaction.
Staff writers Lisa Richardson and Louis Sahagun contributed to this report. Staff writer John M. Glionna contributed from San Francisco.
Hello to everyone. I am new here so I do not know what am I doing.
Well anyways, I grew up/still living what is consider the bad ghetto part of L.A. so I am sort of glad the pled was denied. A lot of death of innocents were caused because of his foundation of the Crips. Also, being a witness of a lot of violence and gang fights in my area. The citizens should not even plead for this man because he is partially responsible for the insecurity many people have.
I am also worried that a riot might occur. I am tire of riots.
Another LA boy here chiming in. Personally, I support the death penalty pretty strongly, but in this case I think it was a mistake. Tookie Williams'influence on the gang world, and on the stability and (hopefully) progress in that world, were just too valuable to kill. To me, it is a matter of priorities. He may have deserved death, but on a political level, life without parole would have been smarter, and quite possibly have saved lives.
I have to agree with most of the posts but everything I am reading from this board to articles talks about Tookie and this isnt fair because he is "reformed". Fair? What about the people he was convicted of killing? Ask their families about fair........
I support the decision to deny clemency to Williams. Believing the death penalty is right or wrong is not the issue here. The issue is Tookie was convicted of murdering 4 people during 2 armed robberies. The claims that clemency should be granted because he is reformed is bullshit. He is not reformed because he has not admitted to these killings and claims his innocence when the overwhelming evidence says that he did committ them.
How can you consider yourself redeamed if you feel you didnt do anything wrong to begin with.
Clemency might be considered justice to his cause, but it would be an injustice to the 4 innocent lives he took and the families that he devestaded in the process.
Here is the 5 page clemency denial transcript released today from our governor:
http://www.governor.ca.gov/govsite/p..._Statement.pdf
I'm with Steve....i know a little bit about this case from the book he put out. We dont have the death penalty in Oz bt there was a big media frenzy cos an Australian was hanged in Singapore for trafficking last week and there was a bunch of ifs and bts around that...can't be bothered explaining but if ya wanna know then ask.
While its not the same thing, pedophiles for instance can say "I'm reformed" and offend again. This guy has warned about joining gangs etc and theres no better example of deterring people from doing so by showing what one of the eventual consequences can be. Maybe dying for his cause is the way to go....
<font size="2" face="verdana, arial">Seperation of church and state.Originally posted by Jonny_0110:
Even though I have no religion, I think it is stupid that a country that professes to be Christian (thou shalt not kill, turn the other cheek, etc) can't wait to kill anyone who does something wrong. Yes, what he did was horrible, and he should never be let out of prison, but how does lowering yourself to his level help?
About the appeal for clemency I don't know. If I had my way there would be no death penalty anywhere.
ok now im far from LA or california at all, but i would like to say i believe strongly in the death penalty (too bad we dont have it in michigan)but esn212 you said "He may have deserved death, but on a political level, life without parole would have been smarter, and quite possibly have saved lives." and you live in California right? so would you like to give tax dollars to keep a killer living for another how many years?
Even though I have no religion, I think it is stupid that a country that professes to be Christian (thou shalt not kill, turn the other cheek, etc) can't wait to kill anyone who does something wrong. Yes, what he did was horrible, and he should never be let out of prison, but how does lowering yourself to his level help?
About the appeal for clemency I don't know. If I had my way there would be no death penalty anywhere.
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