Williams Execution Set for Tuesday Morning as Calif. Gov. Considers Clemency
Former gang member and Crips co-founder Stanley ''Tookie'' Williams is awaiting a decision by Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger, who will decide if the convicted killer will receive clemency.
Former gang member and Crips co-founder Stanley “Tookie” Williams is awaiting a decision by Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will decide if the convicted killer will receive clemency, following failed legal pleas at the last moment to postpone his execution.
On Sunday night, the state Supreme Court rejected a request by Williams’ lawyers to reopen his case. Reports say that prosecutors also expect appeals before the scheduled execution by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison.
Gov. Schwarzenegger, who held a clemency hearing involving Williams’ lawyers and state prosecutors in Sacramento on Thursday, would announce his decision by Monday, according to his office.
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Williams' attorneys had asked the State Supreme court to block his execution on the grounds that Williams should have been allowed to argue that someone else had committed the murders of four people that he was convicted of in 1981, according to the Associated Press. State prosecutors had argued that the claim was without merit and was a delay tactic.
Since his conviction, Williams has maintained his innocence regarding the murders. During his time in prison, he has apologized for his former lifestyle as a gang leader and has gone on to write books encouraging young people to do the same.
In a clemency petition issued to the governor last month, one of Williams’ attorneys, Jonathan Harris had issued a clemency petition arguing for an "act of grace.”
"We are asking for clemency on the basis of his good works and his impact on thousands of people," wrote Harris.
Last week, however prior to the one-hour hearing, Los Angeles district attorney Steve Cooley issued opposition papers indicating that Williams had "steadfastly refused to take any responsibility for brutal, destructive and murderous acts he committed."
"Without such responsibility," wrote D.A. Steve Cooley, "there can be no redemption, there can be no atonement and there should be no mercy," according to Bay City News Service.
In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s scheduled midnight execution, various leaders from some of the largest Christian denominations have been vocal in their opposition to the death penalty and some, have called on the state to have mercy on Williams.
Among the denominations opposing Tuesday’s execution or those who generally oppose the death penalty are the Roman Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church, the Church of God in Christ, the National Baptist Convention USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the National Baptist Convention in America, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A).
The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, resolved in 2000 to support capital punishment. Among the considerations in applying the death penalty are situations where the evidence is overwhelmingly against the accused, and a view to have the death penalty applied “as justly and as fairly as possible without undue delay, without reference to the race, class or status of the guilty.”
The Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination, has not stated a view either way.
Many death penalty abolitionists express a desire to see that mercy be granted even in the face of the most heinous crimes. One of the Roman Catholic Church’s arguments against capital punishment is that in contemporary society, incarcerated criminals no longer pose a threat to society and therefore should not be executed. The church says the act is not evil in itself and would allow for capital punishment in cases where society could not protect itself.
The SBC on the other hand argues from the Bible that the civil government has been given authority to carry out punishment, and also that God has allowed the killing of those that kill.
