Tookie is Dead
Posted on December 13, 2005
Hat tip: Michelle Malkin
LA Times
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not just reject Stanley Tookie Williams’ request for clemency, he aggressively attacked the central element of the former gang leader’s case: Williams, he said, had never really reformed.
Over the last decade, Williams had become famous based on his account of how he went from a gang leader to an anti-gang crusader who had written books aimed at steering young people away from crime. That life story was at the heart of Williams’ request for clemency.
Schwarzenegger rejected it entirely, suggesting Williams’ redemption claim was “hollow.”The governor laid out his case in a five-page statement that was unusual for the length, detail and blunt tone in which it dismissed Williams’ claims. Aides said the statement was largely drafted by Andrea Hoch, Schwarzenegger’s legal affairs secretary, and her predecessor, Peter Siggins. Schwarzenegger announced last week that he was appointing Siggins to a state appellate court.
Aides to the governor, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the governor’s deliberations, said Schwarzenegger was reviewing drafts of the statement as late as Monday morning. It was officially released shortly after noon. He reviewed as many as half a dozen drafts, asking detailed questions, the aides said.
In the days leading up to the deadline, Schwarzenegger had said that he was approaching the decision with “dread” and that deciding another man’s fate was a governor’s most difficult task.
But “there is nothing in the tone of the governor’s decision that suggests it was a close call or agonized over,” said USC law professor Jody Armour.
Instead, Schwarzenegger said there was no question that Williams had murdered four people in 1979. Williams’ repeated refusal to admit that became, to the governor, a powerful factor against clemency.
“Stanley Williams insists he is innocent, and that he will not and should not apologize or otherwise atone for the murders,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings there can be no redemption.”
The evidence of guilt, the governor’s statement said, included testimony from two of Williams’ accomplices, ballistics evidence linking Williams’ shotgun to the murders and testimony from four people that Williams had at different times confessed to one or both murders.
Moreover, he said, after Williams’ arrest, he conspired to escape “by blowing up a jail transportation bus and killing the deputies guarding” it. Although the escape was never carried out, “there are detailed escape plans in Williams’ own handwriting,” the statement said, adding that an escape plan is “consistent with guilt, not innocence.”
Captain’s Quarter’s who does not believe in the death penalty is not up in arms about this, because California decided they do want the death penality. Makes sense to me. I’m divided myself, as I’ve stated before on the death penalty, but in America, each State can decide for itself.
Rightwing Nuthouse says Note To Tookie, Shake Hands With The Devil For Me.
Kevin Fagan witnessed the execution and describes it in this podcast.
I was expecting to see riots. Its still a possibility. What do you think?
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7 Responses to “Tookie is Dead”
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Tookie is shaking hands with the devil right now.
Riot? For someone who has done only evil for the community he lived in? I hope not, but of course with haters and baiters like the so-called Rev Jackson stirring up trouble I suppose it’s possible. Somehow I just don’t see his victims all over LA being sad he’s gone. Hollywood will probably have a fit though, and secretly be relieved that Williams isn’t around to terrorize their neighborhoods.
Yes, and of course his followers claim that they will prove Tookie’s innocent, and that Arnie is a murderer. This is something that has not been proven in almost 30 years of court appeals but what do they know? Besides, such credible witnesses like the murder-glorifying rapper Snoop Dogg and the adulterious Rev. Jackson should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Tookie was a changed man.
I don’t know if I’m really for the death penalty but I do know I’m really for Tookie being dead.
I say again why did it take so long.
Justice for all?
Samuel Sheinbein:
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9910/24/sheinbein.01/index.html
You rejoice in a man’s death? America the great tells one to not kill or we’ll kill him? Makes sense…