[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----MISS., N.J., OHIO, KY., USA
Dec. 13 MISSISSIPPIimpending execution Death penaltyNixon earned his ultimate sentence Humane? -- The state injecting into John B. Nixon's veins a lethal dose of the sedative sodium thiopental, leading to a deep sleep, is more humane than the last moments of terror and bullet to the brain Nixon gave Virginia Tucker. Barring some last-minute stay, convicted murderer John B. Nixon Sr. will keep his appointment with death at 6 p.m. Wednesday, a well-earned and long delayed punishment. Every time there is an execution in Mississippi, there are protests about capital punishment. But, make no mistake, as long as the United States has the death penalty, Nixon has earned it. Virginia Tucker tried to bargain with Nixon, hired by her ex-husband to kill her, at her Brandon home on Jan. 2, 1985. But to no avail. Nixon put a pistol to her head and pulled the trigger. The state injecting into Nixon's veins a lethal dose of the sedative sodium thiopental, leading to a deep sleep, is more humane than the last moments of terror and bullet to the brain Nixon gave Tucker. And he's had 2 decades of life to bargain with the executioner, living to the ripe age of 77. Had she lived, Tucker would be 65. There are others for whom juries have also decided death is earned: last week, regarding Earnest Lee Hargon's Yazoo County murders of his cousin Michael Hargon, wife Rebecca, and strangling to death their little boy, James Patrick, 4. How lenient can the law be with such behavior? Where is the compassion in watching a 4-year-old die? Headlines today trumpet the rehabilitation on death row of California's Stanley Tookie Williams, co-founder of the notorious Crips gang. Rehabilitation is good, and he's had 26 years to do good works, living to the mellow age of 51. But it doesn't help the 4 people he shot to death in 1979. According to USA Today, Americans are turning away from the death penalty, preferring life without parole. Life is precious. Maybe it takes a death penalty to teach some - like Nixon, Hargon, Williams - that lesson. (source: Opinion, Jackson Clarion-Ledger) NEW JERSEY: Prosecutor to Codey: Abolish death penaltySenate to vote on moratorium The state Senate on Thursday is scheduled to vote on a bill that calls for a one-year moratorium on the death penalty while a study of its application takes place. Meanwhile, Ocean County Prosecutor Thomas F. Kelaher has written a letter to acting Gov. Codey supporting the abolition of the death penalty and replacing it with life in prison with no parole for murderers. Kelaher said he wrote to Codey in hope that the lame-duck Legislature would pass a bill calling for replacing the death penalty with life in prison without parole. However, Jim Manion, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said Codey opposes abolishing the death penalty for now in favor of imposing a moratorium while the matter is studied. A bill that would do just that - call for a study and impose a moratorium on the death penalty for a year, beginning in January - is scheduled for a vote in the full Senate Thursday, Manion confirmed. If the Senate passes the bill, it would still need approval in the Assembly. The moratorium bill, whose sponsors include Sen. Andrew R. Ciesla, R-Brick, is supported by New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a statewide organization with some 10,000 members, according to its director, Celeste Fitzgerald. The organization contacted Kelaher to help its cause to abolish the death penalty, and the prosecutor responded recently by writing to Codey. In his letter, Kelaher noted that there have been no executions in the 23 years since New Jersey reinstated the death penalty. The history of nonapplication of the law has been a cruel hoax on the families of the victims and the citizens of this state, Kelaher wrote to Codey. We in the law enforcement community have expended enormous resources on pursuing the application of our death penalty law, he wrote. Years of appeal, countless delays, continuous hearings and millions of dollars later, the condemned are invariably moved to the general prison population. The strain on prosecution budgets is enormous, and the cost in human terms is incalculable. The limited resources of our budgets should, in my judgment, be focused on the more immediate task of investigating, arresting, trying and convicting the miscreants who prey on law-abiding citizens throughout our state, Kelaher wrote. Since the death penalty was reinstated in New Jersey in 1982, there have been 197 capital trials resulting in 60 death sentences, according to Fitzgerald. Of those death sentences, 50 have been reversed on appeal, she said. Those who have had their death sentences reversed include Robert O. Marshall, 65, the former Toms River insurance salesman convicted in 1986 of hiring a hit man to kill his wife, Maria P. Marshall, 42, during a faked robbery at a staged breakdown of the couple's car at the Oyster
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide
Dec. 13 INDONESIA: Muslim wants Poso execution delayed A Muslim leader has joined the chorus of voices calling for a delay in the execution of three people convicted for their roles in killings in Poso, to give the authorities more time to investigate the possible involvement of others in the killings. Nawawi S. Kilat, a Muslim leader in Poso who was one of the signatories of a peace deal that ended 2 years of sectarian conflict in the Central Sulawesi town in December 2001, said the delay was necessary to allow the police to investigate the possible involvement of 16 other people in the killings. He said if Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu were executed as scheduled around Christmas, the three would be unable to share with the police any information they might have on the 16 people, who are still at large. Tibo has given up the names of 16 people involved in the mass murders. People facing imminent death like he is usually do not lie. Therefore, the police should follow up on the information and conduct an investigation as soon as possible, local daily Radar Sulteng quoted Nawawi as saying on Monday. Tibo has been cooperative with investigators, Nawawi said, so the execution should be delayed for the sake of justice. Nawawi said he believed the three death row inmates were not the masterminds of the murders, but took orders from others. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently denied clemency for Tibo, Da Silva and Riwu, which was their last hope for escaping execution after the Supreme Court upheld their death penalties. Palu Police chief Brig. Gen. Oegroseno said he had received a letter from the provincial prosecutor's office asking him to prepare a firing squad to carry out the executions. Josef Suwatan, the archbishop of Manado, who oversees the North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo dioceses, said Tibo had provided authorities with valuable information. Tibo is a simple person who had been resettled from his place of origin. He did not even know how to read thus it would be impossible for him to mastermind the Poso conflict. He does not deserve such a heavy sentence, Josef said. He said the investigation into the 16 other suspects should be completed, so the court would have a full account of what happened and who perpetrated the murders. Over 1,000 people were killed in violence between Muslims and Christians in Poso between 2000 and 2001. A peace deal was signed in the South Sulawesi town of Malino in December 2001, following talks facilitated by then coordinating minister for people's welfare Jusuf Kalla. (source: The Jakarta Post) JAMAICA: Death sentence challenger to know fate Tuesday The man who successfully challenged Jamaica's mandatory death sentence is to know his fate Tuesday. Death row inmate Lambert Watson, is to appear before Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe at 9:30 for re-sentencing. Watson appeared in the Home Circuit Court for sentencing recently but the case was adjourned. At that time the Chief Justice said he wanted to examine a report from a psychiatric assessment conducted on Watson before deciding his sentencing for the 1997 murder of his girlfriend and nine-month old baby in Lucea, Hanover. In July last year the London based Privy Council sided with lawyers representing Watson and ruled that the mandatory death sentence was unconstitutional. The Privy Council found that the 1992 Offences Against the Persons Act which categorised murders was unconstitutional. Watson's lawyers had contended that the mandatory death sentence denied him an opportunity to seek to persuade the court not to sentence him to death. Since the ruling, Parliament has amended the Act which gives local judges the power to determine whether a convicted killer should be hanged or serve life behind bars. Already 4 convicted killers have been re-sentenced to death while 11 have had their death sentences changed to life imprisonment. (source: Radio Jamaica) EUROPE: Europeans Outraged at Schwarzenegger California's execution of Stanley Tookie Williams on Tuesday outraged many in Europe who regard the practice as barbaric, and politicians in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's native Austria called for his name to be removed from a sports stadium in his hometown. At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI's top official for justice matters denounced the death penalty for going against redemption and human dignity. We know the death penalty doesn't resolve anything, Cardinal Renato Martino told AP Television News. Even a criminal is worthy of respect because he is a human being. The death penalty is a negation of human dignity. Capital punishment is illegal throughout the European Union, and many Europeans consider state-sponsored executions to be barbaric. Those feelings were amplified in the case of Williams, due to the apparent remorse they believe the Crips gang co-founder showed by writing children's books about the dangers of gangs and violence.
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide
URGENT ACTION APPEAL 13 December 2005 UA 323/04 (Originally issued 26 November 2004 and re- issued 21 June 2005) Fear of death sentence/Unfair Trial/Flogging SAUDI ARABIA: Abbas Majood Akanni (m) Murtala Amao Oladele (m) Abbas Azeez Oladuni (m) Nurudeen Owoalade (m) Nurudeen Sani (m) Mohammed Abdulahi Yussuf (m) Wahid Elebyte (m) Ahmed Abbas Alabi (m) Suliamon Olyfemi (m) Mafiu Obadina (m) Samiu Hamud Zuberu (m) Kasim Afolabi Afolabi (m) Abdullamim Shobayo (m) - Nigerian nationals, aged 20-30 Twelve of the men named above reportedly had their sentences increased from five years' imprisonment and 500 lashes to seven years' imprisonment and 700 lashes on 30 November in a closed court. The flogging could be carried out at any time. Suliamon Olyfemi remains at risk of execution. All 13 men have been sentenced in proceedings that fell short of minimum international standards for fair trial. They have not had access to legal or consular representatives or adequate translation facilities throughout the trial proceedings. The 13 men were originally sentenced in November 2004. They were among hundreds arrested in Jeddah in September 2002 during a fight that resulted in the death of a policeman. All the others were subsequently deported, some after serving prison sentences and receiving corporal punishment. On 10 August Amnesty International wrote to Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs seeking further information about the status of the 13 men and asking what efforts the Nigerian government had made to ensure that the rights of its nationals abroad are protected. Amnesty International received no response, but the Nigerian Consulate in Jeddah is known to have raised the case of the 13 men with the authorities. BACKGROUND At least 81 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year; the true figure may be much higher. Almost half of those executed were foreign nationals. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: - recognizing the right and responsibility of the government of Saudi Arabia to bring to justice those guilty of recognizably criminal offences, but pointing out that flogging is cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment amounting to torture, and that the death penalty is the ultimate violation of the right to life; - urging them to ensure that Suliamon Olyfemi is not executed, and the 12 other Nigerians are not flogged; - seeking assurances that the 13 men will be given immediate access to legal representation, consular assistance, including adequate translation facilities, and any medical treatment they may need; - seeking assurances that any future proceedings against the 13 will meet the minimum international standards for fair trial; - urging the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs to intervene on behalf of Suliamon Olyfemi and the other 12 men, and ensure that they are protected from the death penalty and corporal punishment. APPEALS TO: Minister of the Interior: His Royal Highness Prince Naif bin 'Abdul 'Aziz Minister of the Interior Ministry of the Interior P.O. Box 2933 Airport Road Riyadh 11134 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Fax: 011 966 1 403 1185 (it may be difficult to get through, please keep trying) Salutation: Your Royal Highness Minister of Foreign Affairs: His Royal Highness Prince Saud al-Faisal bin 'Abdul 'Aziz Al-Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nasseriya Street Riyadh 11124 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Fax: 011 966 1 403 0159 (it may be difficult to get through, please keep trying) Salutation: Your Royal Highness Minister of Foreign Affairs: His Excellency Oluyemi Adeniji Minister of Foreign Affairs Maputo Street, Zone 3, Wuse District PMB 130 Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria Salutation: Your Excellency COPIES TO: Ambassador Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Embassy of Saudi Arabia 601 New Hampshire Ave. NW Washington DC 20037 Fax: 1 202 944 3113 Email: i...@saudiembassy.net Please send appeals immediately. Check with the Colorado office between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm, Mountain Time, weekdays only, if sending appeals after January 24, 2006. Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights. This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal. Urgent Action Network Amnesty International USA PO Box 1270 Nederland CO 80466-1270 Email: u...@aiusa.org http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/ Phone: 303 258 1170 Fax: 303 258 7881 -- END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL --
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----CALIF., MISS.
Dec. 13 CALIFORNIA: Without mercy Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once characterized his conflicted feelings about the death penalty as a duel between his Austrian brain and the American brain. He recalled that capital punishment was an absolute no-no in his native Austria. On Monday, his American brain prevailed. He refused to get in the way of the execution of 51-year-old Stanley Tookie Williams, the founder of the Crips street gang and convicted killer of four people during two 1979 robberies. Schwarzenegger scoffed at Williams' claims of innocence. He noted that Williams' appeals have been thoroughly reviewed in the 24 years since his conviction. The governor was equally dismissive of Williams' talk of redemption. In his 5-page rejection of the clemency petition, Schwarzenegger said an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings were prerequisites of redemption. He suggested that Williams' attempt to plot an escape before trial was evidence of guilt and callous disregard for human life. He even derided the argument that Williams' anti-gang writings from prison -- including eight children's books on the subject -- were making a positive contribution to society. Perhaps his Austrian brain would have recognized the value of keeping Williams alive to offer a credible voice of warning to young people who are vulnerable to the lure of gangs. Perhaps his immersion in American culture has anesthetized him to concerns about the margin of error in this nation's justice system. Perhaps there was a time when Schwarzenegger might have at least delayed the death of Stanley Tookie Williams until the California Assembly could consider the merits of AB1121, which would impose a moratorium on capital punishment while a commission assesses whether its application in this state is fair, just and accurate. The first hearing on that bill, authored by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, is Jan. 10 -- one week before the next scheduled execution in California. But it's not the American way to wait. Regrettably, Schwarzenegger allowed the execution to proceed. Williams was killed by lethal injection at 12:36 a.m. today. (source: Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle) *** At the Gates of San Quentin No buzzards were gliding overhead, but several helicopters circled, under black sky tinged blue. On the shore of a stunning bay at a placid moment, the state prepared to kill. Outside the gates of San Quentin, people gathered to protest the impending execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. Hundreds became thousands as the midnight hour approached. Rage and calming prayers were in the air. The operative God of the night was a governor. Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption, Arnold Schwarzenegger had declared. Hours later, a new killing would be sanitized by law and euphemism. (Before dawn, a newscast on NPR's Morning Edition would air the voice of a media witness who had observed the execution by lethal injection. Within seconds, his on-air report twice referred to the killing of Williams as a medical procedure.) But at the prison gates, there were signs. The weak can never forgive. No Death in My Name Executions teach vengeance and violence. But for the warfare state - with the era of big government a thing of the past except for police, prisons and the Pentagon - vengeance and violence are rudiments of policy, taught most profoundly of all by the daily object lessons of acceptance, passivity and budget. The execution was scheduled for 12:01 a.m. 25 minutes before then, people outside the gates began to sing We Shall Overcome. We shall live in peace ... Overhead, the helicopters kept circling, high-tech buzzards. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, said one sign. Elsewhere in the crowd, another asked: Are we blind yet? At 7 minutes to midnight, it occurred to me how much the ritual countdown to execution resembles the Doomsday Clock invented by atomic scientists several decades ago to estimate the world's proximity to nuclear annihilation. From the stage, speakers praised Williams' renunciation of violence, his advocacy for nonviolence. At 2 minutes before midnight, a TV news correspondent stood on the roof of a white van, readying a report for the top of the hour. At midnight the standup report began. It ended at 12:02 a.m. A speaker called for a national moratorium on the death penalty in the United States. No to Death Machine Careerism, a sign said. As you do unto the least of these, you do unto me, another sign said. Full silence took hold at 12:24 a.m. Then, an old song again. ... We shall ... overcome ... some ... day. An announcement came at 12:38 a.m.; Stanley Tookie Williams was dead. The country was no safer. Just more violent. The sanctity of life was not upheld, just violated. It's over, said a speaker. But it's not over. From San Quentin to Iraq, death is a goal of policy.
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, N.Y., TENN., NEV., IND.
Dec. 13 TEXAS: 19 convicted killers put to death in Texas in 2005 Pints of Blue Bell ice cream purchased for the men housed in the Polunsky Unit of Texas' death row usually mean one thing - someone is about to die. In what's become somewhat of a tradition, a condemned inmate preparing for execution empties his prison trust fund and uses the money to buy the handful of inmates on death watch each a $1.29 pint of ice cream. I used to like ice cream, condemned inmate Luis Ramirez said. But now I eat it out of respect. Ramirez had eaten his share of pints before buying a round himself in October, when he was executed for the 1998 murder-for-hire plot in which a San Angelo firefighter was killed. Ramirez was 1 of 19 Texas prisoners executed by lethal injection in 2005, 4 less than in 2004 but about average for the past decade in the nation's most active death penalty state. Texas accounts for more than 1/3 of all the executions in the United States. The year marked the 3rd execution of a woman in Texas. Frances Newton, 40, was put to death in September for the 1987 shooting spree that left her husband and two children dead. Nationally, she became the 11th woman put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume after a decade-long hiatus. After spending almost 20 years on death row, Troy Kunkle was executed in January for the $13 robbery and fatal shooting of a Corpus Christi man, while Alexander Martinez, on death row for only about 2 1/2 years, voluntarily went to the death chamber in June, asking appeals be stopped so he could die for killing a Houston prostitute in 2001. But the largest single exodus from Texas death row occurred after the Supreme Court ruled in March that it was unconstitutional for states to execute anyone convicted of crimes committed when the offenders were under age 18. As a result, Gov. Rick Perry commuted the sentences of 28 condemned inmates to life prison terms, making them eligible for parole after 40 years behind bars. While these individuals were convicted by juries of brutal murders and sentenced to die for their heinous crimes, I have no choice, Perry said. Among the inmates were Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal of Harris County, convicted with 3 others for a highly publicized gang-rape and fatal beating of 2 teenage girls in Houston, and Robert Springsteen of Travis County, convicted in 2001 of the infamous Yogurt Shop slayings a decade earlier when 4 teenage girls were bound, gagged and shot in the head. The Supreme Court also ruled that a black Houston man wrongly was condemned for a slaying in Dallas 20 years ago, ruling 6-3 that Thomas Miller-El's jury unfairly was stacked with whites. Miller-El is back in Dallas awaiting a new trial. In another case with ramifications for Texas, President Bush in February ordered states to conduct new hearings for 51 Mexicans on death row who said they were denied legal help from their consulates in violation of international law. More than 2 dozen foreign-born inmates at least 16 from Mexico - are on Texas death row, and the presidential order effectively halted executions for those inmates until the outcome of the hearings. At least 15 convicted killers joined death row in 2005, down from 22 from the previous year. The decline mirrors a national trend that reflects better legal help for capital murder defendants and court decisions blocking death sentences for those under 18 or determined to be mentally retarded. The Legislature this year approved a law that gives juries in capital cases the option of deciding on a life-without-parole sentence. Previously, Texas juries could choose only between death or life in prison, with parole possible after 40 years. Texas had been 1 of 3 states among the 38 with the death penalty without the life without parole option. There has been little impact from the new law so far because it affects only crimes committed since Sept. 1. At least 9 inmates are set for executions in the 1st quarter of 2006, 3 in January, ensuring a small but conscientious group of death penalty opponents will protest in Huntsville when executions are scheduled. I think the interest kind of ebbs and flows, said Dennis Longmire, a criminal justice professor at nearby Sam Houston State University who said attendance has been up over the past 10 years at the quiet demonstrations where he regularly holds a candle. I think there's a lot more public awareness of some of the laws and frailties of the system, and I hope there's going to be more attention given to it, he said. I know people are much more suspect about the integrity of the system. * A look at the 19 inmates executed in 2005 Here's a look at the 19 Texas inmates executed in 2005 and their crimes: - Jan. 4: James Porter, 33, for using a smuggled rock wrapped in a pillowcase to fatally pummel Rudy Delgado, 40, a convicted child molester, during a May 2000 assault at a state prison
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MISS., USA, TENN., CALIF.
Dec. 13 TEXAS: Advocates say Texas needs innocence panel 53 years after he was executed for murder in England, George Kelly's name was cleared in 2003 after an independent commission reviewed his case and referred it back to the courts. There is no such commission to consider the case of Ruben Cantu. Cantu, of San Antonio, was condemned primarily on the account of an eyewitness who recently recanted. Cantu was executed in 1993. The only course of action now is for the local district attorney whose office originally prosecuted the case to reinvestigate it. To state Sen. Rodney Ellis, that is not good enough. The Houston Democrat repeatedly has proposed creating a so-called innocence commission, but the idea has flopped in the Texas Legislature. Ellis envisions something similar to the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent federal agency that investigates plane crashes. For the public to have confidence in the criminal justice system, it's not enough for the office where the problem may have come out of to review it, Ellis said. Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed disagrees. We already have a system, she said, contending that district attorneys' offices are best-equipped to re-examine any such case because they are the ones with investigative and subpoena powers. She sees no conflict of interest. None of my people were involved in this case, Reed said. We're having to start from square one looking at the case. It is a case that is 21 years old. In 1984, Cantu, then 17, became a suspect in the robbery and fatal shooting of Pedro Gomez, 25, and the shooting of his friend, Juan Moreno, 19. Moreno was shot nine times but survived. Twice, San Antonio police showed Moreno, then an undocumented immigrant, Cantu's picture as part of a photo lineup, and he did not select anyone. But the third time, he picked Cantu. Recently, Moreno recanted, saying he had felt pressured by investigators, according to the Houston Chronicle. A convicted accomplice has signed a sworn statement saying Cantu wasn't involved, and another man told the Chronicle that Cantu was in Waco at the time. Reed said her office is looking into that possible alibi and whether to prosecute Moreno. Is he lying today, or was he lying yesterday? she said. If Moreno in fact was lying at trial, Reed said, it was based on that - that felony of perjury - that this man was executed. Reed has looked at Cantu's case before, at least briefly. As a state trial judge in the late 1980s, she was among several jurists who rejected his appeal. She also set an execution date for him. There have been plenty of exonerations in capital murder cases - 122, according to one tally by the Death Penalty Information Center - but those exonerations involved inmates who still were alive. Cases such as Cantu's are rare, but not unprecedented. Samuel Gross, a University of Michigan law professor, recently led a probe into a Missouri death-penalty case and concluded an innocent man had been executed. As a result, St. Louis' circuit attorney's office has begun re-examining the 1980 murder for which Larry Griffin was put to death. The top prosecutor, Jennifer Joyce, was not in office at the time. We were very happy at her response, Gross said. One of the reasons I've been interested in studying this (is) it is astonishing to me how little we do in response to cases of proven false conviction, and now perhaps proven false execution. Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law's Innocence Project, said while prosecutors should play a role in re-examining questionable cases, they shouldn't have the last word. You need an independent body for credibility with the public, Scheck said. But also, it's a different kind of inquiry. You may not have anybody to prosecute, but everybody would want a report issued, saying to what degree of certainty can we say an innocent person was executed. Any innocence commission, in Scheck's view, should include prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges a group that would be respected by the public. No such body exactly like that exists in the United States, Scheck said. In Illinois, then-Gov. George Ryan halted executions and appointed a commission of experts in 2000 to suggest reforms after 13 condemned inmates were exonerated. Connecticut and North Carolina have commissions designed to determine what went wrong in cases in which the courts already declared a wrongful conviction. That's different from a commission to determine wrongful convictions. There is no legal procedure for reviewing a case after an execution is done because the party's dead, said William Allison, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. The 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham is another Texas case that some say is overdue for its own re-examination. After Willingham, of Corsicana, was executed for a 1992 fire that killed his three baby daughters, the Chicago Tribune published a report
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----CALIF., USA
Dec. 14 CALIFORNIA: The Repentant Criminal Stanley Williams Has Been Executed in California Stanley Tookie Williams, sentenced to death for the murder of 4 people in 1979, was executed at San Quentin Prison Tuesday, December 13, after midnight, by lethal injection. The day before, the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, had rejected the request for clemency for this repentant ex-gangster, who had co-founded the Crips gang in Los Angeles: 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, he explained in a text stating the reasons for a decision which adheres strictly to respect for the law and the application of the death penalty. The Williams case and the eventual irregularities in his trial, added the Governor, have been minutely examined since he was found guilty and sentenced 24 years ago, and there is no reason to reverse the decisions of the courts which confirmed the verdict of the jury, namely that he was guilty of 4 murders and must pay with his life. Mr. Schwarzenegger was not convinced by Mr. Willimas repentance, on which the clemency request was based. The dedication of Williams book, Life In Prison, casts serious doubts on his redemption, he wrote. This book was published in 1998, several years after Mr. Williams' supposed redemption. The book is dedicated to 'Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt, Ramona Africa, John Africa, Leonard Peltier, Dhoruba Al-Mujahid, George Jackson, Mumia Abu-Jamal and all the men and women, the young people who have suffered the hell of being incarcerated.' And the Governor reopened a senstive chapter in the history of Afro-Americans incarcerated in California prisons: This list offers a curious mixing of individuals. Most have a violent past and some were sentenced for having committed hateful crimes, including the murder of representatives of authority. The inclusion of George Jackson on this list defies understanding and is an indication that Williams has not reformed and considers violence and anarchy as a legitimate means of answering social problems. A footnote summarizes the history of George Jackson, a Black man accused of the murder of a prison guard, who with his brother organized a murderous escape attempt in 1970 (in which Angela Davis was wrongly implicated). The refusal of clemency and the execution of Stanley Williams were greeted with sorrow and revolt by the sympathizers who had watched all day Monday at San Quentin. The actor Mike Farrell, president of the association Death Penalty Focus, did not mince words: Governor Schwarzenegger has washed his hands, like Pilate, and ordered the extermination of a man who has become a positive force in our society. The Reverend Jesse Jackson was also shocked: The Governor preferred revenge to redemption and chose to use Stanley Williams as a trophy. Questioned about the risk of riots following the execution, Jesse Jackson relayed a final appeal from the condemned man; Stanley Williams feels that riots would annihilate his heritage and the strength of his teaching. (source: Column, Claudine Mulard, Le Monde (Paris) ) USA: Americans still strongly back death penalty Despite the controversial execution of a celebrated death-row convict who campaigned to stop gang violence, Americans - even in ultra-liberal California - continue to back the death penalty. The execution by lethal injection of former gang founder and convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams drew strong condemnation in parts of Europe where capital punishment is banned. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who refused to commute Williams' sentence, was lambasted in his native Austria where the death penalty does not exist, with Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel declaring his regrets and the Greens party demanding Schwarzenegger lose his Austrian citizenship. In France, leading Socialist politician Jack Lang called Williams' death a barbaric act. But in California, one of the United States' most progressive states, known for launching deeply liberal causes, nearly two-thirds of the people still support the death penalty, said Michael Brennan, a University of Southern California law professor. The last recent poll, the Field poll two years ago, registered 64 percent in favor of the death penalty, said Brennan, a specialist in the death penalty. Brennan added that Californians' views are in line with the entire country. In the last 2 years, we sent something in the neighborhood of 100-plus to death row in California, he said. Williams' case drew strong support from well-known leftist activists in this state, many who believed the former gang leader's work to convince young people to stay away from gangs and crime merited changing his death sentence to life in jail. On Monday night rights activist Jesse Jackson and singer Joan Baez led more
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----CALIFORNIA
Dec. 13 CALIFORNIA: Williams' death doesn't end debate on life The argument over whether convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams was a man of peace or a death-row con artist raged on after his execution Tuesday, with supporters announcing they would give him a funeral befitting a statesman. The 51-year-old founder of the bloody Crips gang died by injection at San Quentin Prison just after midnight for the murders of four people in two 1979 holdups, professing his innocence to the very end, even when an admission of guilt might have helped save his life. His last, best hope was an act of mercy by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But the governor was unconvinced by Williams' supporters - several Hollywood stars among them - who argued that he had redeemed himself behind bars with memoirs, children's books and lectures against the dangers of gang life. After the execution, Williams' supporters vowed to continue his work to discourage youngsters from following in his footsteps, and promised another book from writings he left behind. If they think they succeeded by killing him in getting people to forget about him, they have done just the opposite, said Barbara Becnel, his collaborator and most vocal supporter. Williams declined to make a final statement as he went to his death. He seemed frustrated by the time it took officials to insert the intravenous lines into the former bodybuilder's muscular arms. At one point, Williams uttered something to the nurse and offered to help, said Steve Ornoski, the warden. About 15 minutes after the process began, he appeared to ask: You doing that right? Williams refused a sedative, said Becnel, one of the witnesses. She said he was brave and strong and he was everything we believed him to be. Other witnesses included Rudy Langlais, executive producer of Redemption: The Stanley Tookie Williams Story, a TV movie starring Jamie Foxx. Joan Baez, who sang Swing Low, Sweet Chariot outside the prison, called the execution planned, efficient, calculated, antiseptic, cold-blooded murder. But another one of the witnesses, Lora Owens, stepmother of 1 of the 4 people Williams was convicted of killing, told ABC: I believe it was a just punishment long overdue. The execution also drew fierce criticism in Europe, where politicians in Schwarzenegger's native Austria called for his name to be removed from a sports stadium in his hometown. Schwarzenegger has a lot of muscles, but apparently not much heart, said Julien Dray, spokesman for the Socialist Party in France, where the death penalty was abolished in 1981. Williams was condemned in 1981 for using a sawed-off shot gun to kill 7-Eleven clerk Albert Owens, 26, in Whittier. Weeks later, he killed Yen-I Yang, 76, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, and the couple's daughter Yu-Chin Yang Lin, 43, at the Los Angeles motel they owned. In denying clemency, Schwarzenegger said Williams had failed to atone for his crimes, and questioned whether claim of redemption was just a ploy. The governor also questioned the effectiveness of Williams' anti-gang rhetoric. It is hard to assess the effect of such efforts in concrete terms, but the continued pervasiveness of gang violence leads one to question the efficacy of Williams' message, Schwarzenegger said. Williams co-founded the Crips, a notorious street gang that has contributed and continues to contribute to predatory and exploitative violence. Becnel said she was planning a memorial service befitting a statesman for Sunday or Monday in Los Angeles. She said Williams asked to be cremated and have his ashes spread in South Africa. Foxx and rapper Snoop Dogg are expected to attend, she said. Snoop Dogg, a former Crips member, spoke to Williams by telephone about 2 hours before his death and talked about the book they planned to write about sharing wisdom among black men - father to son, grandfather to grandson. Stanley had the credibility to be heard when speaking out about gang violence, Snoop Dogg said. We will remember Tookie for what he stood for in the end, and hopefully, we have brought enough light to his story that others can be influenced and inspired to change their ways as well. (source: Associated Press) ** Angela Davis: The State of California May Have Extinguished the Life of Stanley Tookie Williams, But They Have Not Managed to Extinguish the Hope for a Better World We speak with longtime prison activist and professor Angela Davis about the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. She was outside San Quentin prison when he died. In the written response to Williams' clemency appeal, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said The dedication of Williams' book 'Life in Prison' casts significant doubt on his personal redemption. - the dedication includes Angela Davis. In California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's written response to Stanley Tookie Williams clemency appeal, Schwarzenegger writes: The dedication of Williams' book Life in Prison casts
