Hollywood Leads Campaign for Death Row Reprieve By Andrew Gumbel
December 1, 2005, the Independent/UK http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article330456.ece Hollywood actors, musicians, church leaders and death penalty opponents staged protests and vigils across the US on behalf of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips street gang who faces execution in less than two weeks unless the California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, can be persuaded to grant him clemency. The outpouring of support for "International Save Tookie Day" yesterday underlined the controversy surrounding Williams's death sentence and suggested that his execution, if it goes ahead, could be the most contentious judicial killing in America in years. While police and prison officials say Williams is a cold- hearted murderer who deserves to die, his supporters believe he is a poster-child for rehabilitation. Not only has Williams publicly renounced his gangland past, he has written a series of books over the past decade urging disadvantaged children to steer clear of gangs and devised a protocol for ending urban street wars, which has been successfully applied in several countries. His cause has been championed by Nobel laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, politicians including the popular former governor of New York Mario Cuomo, rabbis, nuns and a long list of Mr Schwarzenegger's fellow entertainment celebrities including Harry Belafonte, Elliott Gould, Ed Asner, Jackson Browne, Susan Sarandon and Ted Danson. At a time when the rationale behind capital punishment is being increasingly questioned in the US - a convicted killer was granted clemency in Virginia just this week because of doubts about the quality of evidence against him - the passions swirling around Williams' case have taken on a rare intensity. This week is likely to see a grim milestone, as a North Carolina convict is slated to become the thousandth person executed in the US since the reintroduction of the death penalty in the 1970s. Yesterday's protest was led by the Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx, who played Williams in a recent television movie called Redemption. He was joined by Snoop Dogg, the gangsta rapper. Mr Foxx's birthday happens to fall on 13 December, the execution date. He said earlier this week: "The only birthday present I want from the Governor is clemency for Stan 'Tookie' Williams." Passions are equally high on the pro-execution side of the argument. A popular Los Angeles-area radio show has inaugurated a "Kill Tookie" hour - prompting heated accusations of racism - and posted photographs of the murder victims from his trial on its website. Law enforcement officials, meanwhile, appear to have launched something of a smear campaign against Williams. Police in the impoverished Los Angeles suburb of Fontana recently identified him as the illegitimate father of a known sex offender accused of raping a 13-year-old child. The sex offender's mother has since given a sworn statement saying the police story is untrue. A spokesman at San Quentin prison outside San Francisco, home to California's death row, has accused Williams of "orchestrating gangland crimes from his cell". This, however, is contradicted by Williams' written disciplinary record, in which his jailers commend him for his "positive programme over the past 10 years". Governor Schwarzenegger has indicated he is not looking forward to making a decision. American politicians rarely lose support by taking a tough stance on crime, but he may be more sensitive than most to pressure from Hollywood and the international community. He is due to hold a private meeting with lawyers from both sides next week. 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WHAT: March and Rally Calling for Clemency for Stanley Williams WHEN: DECEMBER 3 at NOON WHERE: LEIMERT PARK South of Baldwin Hills Plaza where Crenshaw Blvd. meets Vernon Ave. LOS ANGELES, CA 90008 WHO: Speakers include: -> Barbara Becnel (co-author of the anti gang books for children) -> Stephen Rohde (one of Stan's clemency lawyers) -> Juan Melendez (exonerated and released from death row) ->Members of the clergy, some hip hop artists, and many others MORE INFO CONTACT: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call 310-242-3813 ### Saturday, December 3rd @ 10am: Join the Bus Riders Union for a day of action and education on global warming and climate change: "USA JOIN THE WORLD" 10:00am SHARP @ the corner of Wilshire & Western Call President Bush NOW: (202) 456-1111 Call Senator Harry Reid NOW: (202) 224-3542 or 1-888-355-3588 Tell them the U.S. must ratify the Kyoto Protocol (see details below) Stop Calling Them Katrina, Rita, Stan or Wilma -- The Eye of these Man Made Disasters Resides in the U.S. Government! U.S. Lifestyle vs. Third World Survival. Don’t let the Bush administration fool you--global warming is human made and is killing us. Greenhouse gases from car tailpipes, factories, and oil refineries trap heat in the atmosphere, warm the earth, and cause countless "extreme weather events" that wreak havoc on the world’s most vulnerable communities. In New Orleans, thousands of Black people drowned and more were displaced by Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of Guatemalans were buried in the mud by Hurricane Stan, and whole nations such as Tuvalu watch as their pacific island sinks beneath rising ocean water. Stop the Bipartisan Non-Compliance. The U.S. has only 6% of the world’s population but produces 25% of the world’s greenhouse gases that cause these disasters! Countries like Tuvalu are calling for a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases, starting with industrialized nations like the U.S., in order to stop or even slow down the damage done by global warming. In 1998 the Clinton Administration signed the Kyoto Protocol--an international agreement that requires a reduction of a meager 5%. But the Clinton administration chose not to defend the protocol and never sent it for ratification to the US Senate that included a significant number of Republicans and Democrats closely allied with oil, coal, utility and automobile industries who threatened mutiny and painted armageddon if introduced. Meanwhile the Bush Administration walks out of International talks staunchly rejecting the agreement during his first term with no significant public challenge from the Democrats. In 2004, John Kerry paraded with movie stars and environmentalists appearing pro-Kyoto while actually rejecting the treaty as a policy matter. Join the Clean Air, Clean Lungs, Clean Buses Campaign. Unfortunately the average person in the U.S. isn’t doing much to help. Let’s be honest, many of you have been freaked out about global warming after watching movies like The Day After Tomorrow, and witnessing the devastating images of the recent hurricanes. But then, you watch a commercial about a gas-guzzling SUV and you want one! LA is the most polluted city in the country, with thousands of tons of greenhouse gases emitted from the 8 million cars that overrun the county. The Labor/Community Strategy Center and the Bus Riders Union is challenging LA’s obsession with cars. We want to restrict the 8 million polluting cars in Los Angeles and expand public transportation through our Clean Air, Clean Lungs, Clean Buses campaign that would: • Reduce L.A.’s cars from 8 million to 4 million • Implement bus-only lanes on major thoroughfares throughout Los Angeles • Use the cleanest fuels available for all future bus purchases • Double the Los Angeles County MTA bus fleet from 2500 to 5000 clean fuel buses • Implement auto-free zones in Los Angeles to dramatically reduce auto congestion and pollution • Double the mileage of cars in California (and the U.S.) from 25 mpg to 50 mpg within a decade Join Us on December 3rd: The Labor/Community Strategy Center and the Bus Riders Union, in solidarity with Tuvalu, Samoa, Sri Lanka, South Africa and thousands of cities across the world, will demand that the Bush administration and the US Senate ratify the Kyoto protocol. From December 3rd-9th, there will be an international meeting in Montreal on the progress of the Kyoto protocol. While over 160 countries have signed and ratified the agreement, George Bush and the US Senate still refuse to ratify it. USA JOIN THE WORLD! Meet at 10:00am SHARP @ the corner of Wilshire & Western (bus lines: 720, 20, 21, 207, 357, Red Line to Wilshire/Western) Please RSVP to: 213-287-2800, ext. 28 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Call Bush right now: (202) 456-1111 Senator Harry Reid right now: (202) 224-3542 or 1-888-355-3588 Tell them the U.S. must ratify the Kyoto Protocol! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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