Stanley "Tookie" Williams, Co-Founder of the Crips, Faces Execution In December

By Tim Molloy
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A judge has set a Dec. 13 execution date for Crips co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams, rejecting his attorneys' request for more time to prepare a clemency appeal for the convicted murderer and Nobel Prize nominee.

"This case has taken over 24 years to get to this point," said Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders, who signed Williams' death warrant Monday. "That is a long delay in itself and I would hate to add to that delay."

Williams, 51, was sentenced to death in 1981 for fatally shooting Albert Owens, a Whittier convenience store worker. He also was convicted of killing two Los Angeles motel owners and their daughter during a robbery.

Williams, who has maintained his innocence, has written a series of children's books disavowing gang violence during his years on Death Row. He has been nominated five times for a Nobel Prize for peace and four times for a Nobel Prize for literature.

His lawyers had requested that Pounders schedule his execution in San Quentin prison's death chamber for Dec. 22 to give them more time to craft their clemency request. The Dec. 13 execution date means they have until Nov. 8 to submit clemency papers to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Pounders said Williams' lawyers could ask the governor for more time to tell him about the good work Williams has done since renouncing his gang past.

In August, Williams received a President's Call to Service Award for his good deeds on Death Row, complete with a letter from President Bush praising him for demonstrating "the outstanding character of America."

Last year, Jamie Foxx played Williams in "Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story," a television movie that prompted thousands of e-mail messages to Williams from young gang members who said his story helped them turn their lives around.

Williams and a high school friend, Raymond Washington, organized the Crips street gang in Los Angeles in 1971.

Lora Owens, Albert Owens' stepmother, said Williams does not deserve clemency.

"I didn't convict the man and I didn't put a death sentence on him, but I want justice for Albert to be done. I will not let it go," she said in a recent telephone interview.

Dozens of death penalty opponents held a quiet demonstration Monday outside the courtroom. They held a banner praising Williams' work to prevent gang violence that read, "Keeping him alive saves lives!"

Among the demonstrators was actor Mike Farrell, who called the proceedings "disgusting."

"It's a simple, sterile, ministerial procedure in which a human life is scheduled to be expunged without consideration for his value, his change, his transformation," Farrell said.

Comments

[EUGENIA]

I wished that I had met tookie and had a real conversation with him. I feel that murderers rapist and pediphilles should be punished for a long time. But I feel that she shouldn't be put to death that is the same thing as killing all over again you solve your problem with violence. And like the good book says the bible. GOD CAN ONLY JUDGE YOU and if god can forgive this man we are no better than him. RIP TOOKIE

[Y Bird x]

I bought the book. I knew nothing about the bloke. I am dislexic & white. I have read his autobiography - Redemption, & all i a can say is 1) i wish i had met him, & held a conversation or had a night out with him, 2) I do believe within the begining of the Crips, a hell of a lot went on, but as for the three murders, he was convicted for, i think its TOTAL UTTER BULLSHIT! A major setup, for the police, just to get him behind bars! They couldnt control what they were doing, let alone anybody else. So they just tried to pin point anything & everything they could on Tookie, just to get him sent down! Because of the Crips & brotherhood which he had created. I totaly believe what he was set up for, e di dnot commit these these crimes!!!!! TOOKIE MAY YOU REST IN PEACE. Wish we could of met.Love Y Bird frm England x x x x x x x

[dillon]

you were my hero crip you no wat ma tag is ctid means crip till i die

[Mike C.]

All you idiots who think this jerkoff should have been spared are just as much of a jerkoff as Tookie was. I wish somone in your family was shot and killed by a guy like this, then and you wouldn't feel such remorse towards scum like this. You guys probably think that Saddam should have been spared, and they should have had more understanding towards Hitler and Stalin, and Charles Manson. What's wrong with you people? People get locked up because they act like animals, so they get treated like animals. If a dog bit a person, he get's put to sleep because he will do it again. It's the same thing with people. Tookie didn't kill once, or twice, but 4 times then he felt bad about it 4 bodies later. Think of all the lives he ruined? How many families he destroyed. Someone mentioned that he paid his dues to society by writing the crap that he wrote. Well guess what? There isn't one thing he can do to pay back society. Why would you let your kids read crap that a murderer like that wrote? Why don't you let your kids read the writings of Charles Manson and let him convince them that he didn't kill anyone. He didn't make his followers kill anyone, and that he didn't make anyone follow him. Try telling that to someone who will believe it. All i have to say is, Tookie, rot in hell!

[kevus harris]

Tookie was my role model I dont think he killed those people. Im a Crip but im doing positive thing I wish I could have met him. Every one messes up sometimes. R.I.P Stanly TOOKIE WILLIAMS

[michelle]

wat da fuck kind of bullshit is diz tookie williams WANTED TO DO RIGHT TO DA COMMUNITY U MADE PEACE BEFORE YALL KILLED HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stanastasia otey]

I AM A CRIP & I JUST WANNA SAY YALL SHOULD BE A SHAMED YOU PEOPLE ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT US YOUNG KIDS BUT BY WAT YALL SAYN YALL ANIT TEACHING US NUTHING YALL SUPOSE TO TEACH US TO FORGIVE & FORGET BUT YALL NOT INSTED YALL TEACHING US THAT WHEN WE DO RONG THERE IS NO TURNING BACK LIKE SNOOP SAID YALL KILLED THE TEACHER NOW WHO GONE TEACH YOU PEOPLE LOOKING IN THE PAST AT WAT HE DID & NOT AT WHAT HE FIXED I NEVER GOT THE PREVLGDE TO MEET HEM BUT ITS OK ME & STANLEY WILL MEET ONE DAY. I GO TO CHURCH & WHEN WE GO FOR BIBLE STUDY THERS ALWAYS ONE PERSON TALKING ABOUT HOW THE GOT TALKED ABOUT IN SCHOOL OR IN THERE NABORHOOD BUT OUR TEACHER ALWAYS TELLS US THAT IT DOSNT MATTER WHAT EVEYONE ELS THINK OLNY CARE WHAT GOD THINKS BECUSE HE IS THE OLNY PERSON CAN JUDGE ANYONE SO I SAY AGAIN U KILLED THE TEACHER NOW WHO'S GONE TEACH? ~R.I.P~STANLEY"TOOKIE"WILLAMS~ ALWAYS & FOREVER MISSED THE CO-FOUNDER OF THE BIGGEST THUG GANG "THE CRIPS"

[Brittany Smith]

i think stanley tookie willams was a great man and still is to this very day. he started the crips to protect himself from others to protect his neigbhoorhood. and long may his legacy live and go on.]

REST IN PEACE TOOKIE

[jorge rodrigues]

stanley «tookie» williams was(or will be) executed by the four homicides that he had commited,but his fight still remains everyone has to remember that the poverty and marginalisation and others issues are causes of street violence and «gangs» and arm of law cannot do nothing about it so therefore we need efforts like this man to solve problems of the comunity.

[yeah]

Tookie Williams was a whore of a human being. He co-founded the cowardly Crips (Yeah, the cowardly Crips, fuck you pussy gangbangers) and murdered people on the basis of their skin color.

[kenisha]

I wouldn't have changed my mind on this issue, even if he was a white man who murdered several black people. I feel that killing is wrong there is no legal way to kill. ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE....

[J Scott]

No one is happy that Stanley Williams died. I was unhappy that Karla Fay Tucker died.
I prefer life in solitary (no tv or radio) for all murderers with no possibility of parole until death by natural causes. However, we must remember that we do not know if God has forgiven him; he never asked for forgiveness, never admitted any wrongdoing, and never did anything for the families of the four he personally, sadistically slaughtered. His gang legacy destroyed and is destroying hundreds of thousands of lives. The books ghost-written for him have helped dozens or hundreds at most. I pray they will help many more. I would infinitely prefer, with all my heart, to personally execute with my own hands the hundreds of white serial killers that were given prison sentences, and spared Tookie. I could do that and sleep well at night. The Bible says Thou Shalt Not Murder, not Thou Shalt Not Kill. (You have to know the Hebrew). Liquidating serial killers is not forbidden by anything in scripture, and the celebrities protesting for Tookie have a twisted world view that depreciates human life, especially the lives that count the most, those four innocents who were murdered. Destroying murderers is not murder. It is right for anyone with God's eyes to see truth. Even so, I personally wish we had a life in solitary option. Unfortunately, there is the truly twisted crowd who protests against "throwing away the key." They are the truest haters of mankind.

You ask what makes people kill? It is not poverty. We could have economic utopia tomorrow with total equality for all, and our murder rate could easily skyrocket. Murderers are not driven by circumstances. It does not matter what the stresses or chemicals a person is under. All murderers are 100% SELF-CREATED. Most have known an abundance of Christian compassion and manipulate it to murder more. From Cain to Stanley all murder is 100% ego. It is absoutely and forever nothing else but ego, the self twisted, self glorification of self at all costs. The self-assumed power to destroy. Ego. Thats all. Nothing else.

[Dulce Mendoza]

I really wish tha Tookie will rest in peace because I truly belive that he was not guilty and hopefuly all of you stupid people that belive he should be killed will stop being stupid and see that killing him will not bring the other people back how hard is it to get that through your stupid little head.And to all of you that love Tookie as much as me I thank you for beliving in him.And to Tookie I love you man rest in peace and thanks for everything you did I'm going to miss you and I eant you to know that you will always be in my heart and that I will miss you.But I will see you again some day All my love to you were ever you may be.

[Johnny]

If you do not like this country leave! If TOOKIE was white would you all feel he should not be killed? People act like because he stoped being a gangster he should be forgiven, it doesnt work that way! You do the crime you pay. You will have every gang banging thug thinking he can kill your MOM then scrible some words in a book, ask gangsters not to be so mean and expect to be forgiven.

[Johnny]

If you do not like this country leave! If TOOKIE was white would you all feel he should not be killed? People ast like because he stoped be a gangster he should be forgiven, it doesnt work that way! You do the crime you pay. You will have every gang banging thug thinking he can kill your MOM then scrible some words in a book and ask gangsters not to be so mean and be forgiven.

[Bob]

The death penalty is not punishment. All human beings, good and bad, with all our faults, have just one life. We all have just one death. Once death has occured there is no more earthly punishment.

How did California's killing Tookie punish him any more than my future death punishes me?

Staying in prison for a lifetime is punishment. This is freedom. It's so irrelavant.

[Micha Farrell]

Listen here Ashley if he were white then he has to be right don't even bother talking your words are wasted and were not black thats an insult it's african american the coments arent soming from africa. And you obviously don't know what is going on.because this has nothing to do with whether he is white or black its the fact that no one else understands and there are soo many other "Black" people on death row along with caucations. Stanley tried to turn his life around to make the world a better place for ignorant people like you so you don't get shot or killed thats all why is that wrong???

[Ashley]

For all you black people who think he is innocent..just imagine for one minute that stan is white and the people he killed were black..i bet that would change your opinion

[Micha Farrell]

How can people say it is right to give Stanley Williams the death penalty? He was just another black man living in poverty without a role model and someone to take care of him. There fore he had to rob and kill to get what he needed. Especially growing up in South Cental L.A.You gotta do what you need to in order to survive. And now there are serial killers who survived their life sentence on deathrow and are out again. Stanley showed people that he wanted to change his life around by letting people make movies about his life, biographys, and he also made many childrens books to make the world aware of what joing a gang is like. He tried so hard to help people out so they wouldn't end up behind bars or dead. If he hadn't done that then he would have achieved nothing in his life except to have people fear him and gain respect but he really changed lives. He was motivational to many gang members and fellow Crips and rival Bloods. No matter how much you try no one will ever make as big of a difference as Stanley. Govenor Arnold has no clue what is like to be involved in a gang and completely turn your life around. If he spent one day in the life of a gang member he would know why "Tookie" Robbed and Killed. People act like Tookie planned it out to kill that little girl and the other three people. He needed money and things went wrong. He proved he was sincere about his actions and tried to pay it back to society by writing. He obviously did. Otherwise he wouldn't have had so many responses when he came out with his books.My condolences go out to Stanley Williams' family and friends. He will be missed. R.I.P Stanly"Tookie"Williams.

[Sonya]

I am certain Williams committed the four murders for which he died, but even if he didn't, his execution was justified because he is responsible for EVERY murder ever carried out by a Crips member. And so what if he wrote a couple of books? They sold what? a few hundred copies? Big deal! It's possible one or more of his victims had a book or two in them too, something that might have changed the world for the better. But they didn't get an extra twenty-six extra years to write them. If anyone is ashamed to live in this country because we try to take steps to make sure murderers don't get to continue carrying out their vicious acts, no one is forcing them to stay. I note that nearly all of the people who claim they think this is an unjust nation, continue to live here. Why? There are a couple of hundred other countries to choose from if this one is not to your liking.

[Crystal]

I can not understand why people really believe by killing someone they will find peace those people must not be in their right minds. It's a story I will never forget. I did feel like Stan 'TOOKIE' Williams should have stayed in prison because it's possible he may have commited those crimes but from my understanding they didn't even have enough evidence but he recieved the lethal injection when other's like Charles Manson and The KKK founder didn't it's something I do not understand or agree with and I honestly from my head to my toes and with everything that is inside of me I am ashame to be in this country it's disgusting and a disgrace,so I felt like what could i have done In Michigan and being 17 years old it's hard, so Instead I will voice my opinion and in the future I will be more active in helping those who deserve clemency and etc., It's a calling I feel it in my heart and I will go on to help others in his situation. This has made me see things in reality the justice system is racist and unfair and they killed a man who did more in prison than we did in the "free world" he turned his, and other's life around it's crazy He did not deserve to die ..... His spirit and what he stands for will live on he will not be forgotten and he just a black man white people are trying to make an example of... Rest in peace forever you will be remembered and We love you...

[Ashely]

to me the Death penalty is wrong And since they executed "tookie" how come they never executed the BTK killer?

[Ashely]

to me the Death penalty is wrong And since they executed "tookie" how come they never executed the BTK killer?

[Deb]

I am not familar with the whole case, but what I have heard, and read I think that no matter how many books he has written, he started the crips and it will always be here wether he is dead or alive, but every time someone dies by the hands of a crip, he might as well have done it his self, almost like an accessory after the fact. Just my oppinion.

[Ken]

Think for one minute, what if stan "tookie" williams never was born??? All the good that he has done in the past 25 years will never right the wrong of the murders he has done and the creation of one of the worst gangs in the U.S. and all they have done.............just think what if.........