****UPDATE**** As of 12:36 a.m. Fox News is reporting unofficially that Stanley “Tookie” Williams is now dead having been executed for four murders in 1979. A few minutes later it is confirmed that death as come to Mr. Williams.

I’m looking at the “demonstrators” faces and many are sad and some looked surprised. Can they they really be surprised? Did they think that the last minute Joan Baez songs at the “Executionopollooza” outside the prison were going to do something? When the most liberal court in America voted unanimously to not stop the execution earlier today one would have thought that’s it. But I guess after 26 years some people thought it’d never happen.

Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times was one of the observers and just noted that Tookie offered no resistance. Fox cut away when the second observer started talking about trouble with the second IV. Later on another witness said that they had some difficulty inserting the needle into the right arm. This frustrated Tookie and he said some cross words to them (one witness thought Tookie had said “Still can’t find it?”).

Several of the witnesses said that they believe that Tookie was defiant and resistent to the end. Others said he tried to intimidate the press by staring them down.

Outside they are starting to play jazz, presumably to make people want to disperse and go home.

Three of Tookie’s supporters who observed the execution jumped up during the execution and said that the State of California had just killed an “innocent man” at which point Laura Owens, a relative of one of the people murdered by Tookie, broke down and cried. Tookie’s supporters classless to the end.

A group of Tookie supporters burned an American Flag with a nazi symbol painted on it. That’s a good way to connect with mainstream public opinion.

A few death penalty proponents showed up and were roughly pushed out by the anti-death penalty protestors.

***UPDATE*** No Clemency: Hasta La Vista…..Tookie!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused requests to block the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. Schwarzenegger rejected claims that the founder of the murderous Crips gang had atoned for his crimes and found redemption on death row.

“Stanley Williams insists he is innocent, and that he will not and should not apologize or otherwise atone for the murders of the four victims in this case,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings there can be no redemption.”

Here is a link to the California Department of Corrections web site that will be handling the execution.

The Department of Corrections is supplying media information including this crime summary from which this paragraph was taken:

On Wednesday, February 28, 1979, around 4 a.m., defendant Stanley Williams and a companion were in one car traveling with the co-defendant and another companion. They were running low on gas and decided to rob a store. They stopped at a 7-Eleven market at 10437 Whittier Boulevard in Whittier and all four entered the market. The attendant, victim Albert Lewis Owens, was sweeping the parking lot and was herded into the store by the defendant and one of the companions. While one of the companions emptied the cash register drawer and took $120, the defendant took the victim into the back room, told him to get on his knees and then shot him twice in the back with a shotgun. On Sunday, March 11, 1979, at about 5:30 a.m., the defendant, accompanied by another man, broke down the door and entered the Brookhaven Motel at 10411 South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles and shot to death 67-year old Thsai Shai Young, his 63-year old wife Yen-I Yang and their 43-year old daughter Ye Chen Lin. He took about $50 in cash and left.

Four people killed for $170.00. Never said sorry.

Here is something I read from the media information sheet is that Tookie has a son, who shares his name and something else. Stanley Williams, Jr. is serving a 16-year sentence for 2nd Degree Murder at High Desert State Prison. Following in his dad’s footsteps. Father must be proud.

A couple of other observations:

Mike Farrell said on his website that it is not clear that Tookie was in fact guilty despite being found so and losing every appeal over the past 25 years. I wonder what Farrell has to say about the following:

The transcripts of Williams 1981 trial paint a disturbing picture of the former Crips gang leader, who was convicted of shooting four people to death with a shotgun during two robberies, later boasting about the gurgling sounds convenience store clerk Albert Owens made as he died.

During the trial, prosecutors say, Williams plotted to kill a sheriff’s deputy and an accomplice who was expected to testify against him, then blow up a bus full of inmates with dynamite to escape in the resulting chaos.

I think we know that Farrell would say. Since we weren’t there, how do we know that they are true. Prosecutors might be lying. Well, according to transcrips of the trial, after the jury read their verdict:

“Williams, according to transcripts, looked to jurors and mouthed: “I’m going to get each and every one of you mother-f*ckers.”

That’s from transcrips Mike.

Williams has said he now regrets his role in the Crips but has refused to debrief authorities on the gang, saying that doing so would brand him a “snitch.” Well, I guess he can now walk with his head high to the execution room that he never ratted anyone out. Hope that makes him feel like a real man as he meets his maker.

Instead of seeing the decision and public reaction as a repudiation of his position, Jesse Jackson has attempted to capitalize on the rejection by being the one to tell Tookie that it’s over.

Jesse Jackson said he broke the news to Williams that Schwarzenegger had denied clemency as the inmate met several supporters in prison. “He said ‘Don’t cry, let’s remain strong,”‘ Jackson told Reuters. “He smiled, you know, with a certain strength, a certain resolve.”

Sorry I don’t buy this one bit. I believe it is far more likely that Tookie said “I’m going to kill that Austrian mother-f*cker!” To which Jackson would no doubt have said “Amen Brother.”

Here is a closing tip to the anti-death penalty crowd. Figure out a way to fight the death penalty without putting people like Tookie up on a pedestal.

Commenting on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s decision:

8763 Wonderland: Thank God. We can now stop hearing how this thug was nominated for a Nobel Prize five times. Did you know that anyone with a Ph.D can forward a nominee to the prize committee? Yep. It’s that simple.

Ace of Spades: But, but, but, but… He wrote a children’s book!

Moonage: Tookie should have died a long, long, long time ago.

Captain’s Quarters: “I’m disgusted by the actions of the celebro-activists that continually degrade the anti-execution cause by attempting to transform murderous thugs like Tookie Williams into misunderstood geniuses who deserve special consideration after murdering people in cold blood.”

Baldilocks: “…move into my South Central LA neighborhood to see what “Tookie” and his Crip co-founder Raymond Lee Washington (who’s burning in Hell right now) have wrought for the last thirty-odd years.

Michele Malkin: “…the crusading Rev. Jackson did not know the names of Williams’ victims when asked by KFI-AM radio talk show hosts John and Ken.”

Patterico: Tonight and tomorrow morning, forget about Stanley “Tookie” Williams, a man who is unquestionably guilty of at least four heinous murders, and laughing about them afterwards. Remember instead his victims: Albert Owens, Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, and Yu-Chin Yang Lin.

Ace of Spades: At least the NY Times didn’t use: “Internationally loved children’s author is killed in the prime of his life.”

Spot-on: “How many celebrities does it take to save one man’s life?”

******

Click on image to read about another murderer who is reportedly publishing children’s books. (Is this a new trend?).

******

Original post published prior to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s announcement:

Whenever Independent Sources posts a piece on Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Andrea Yates, or Holly Ashcraft, some lovable nut posts a comment about how dare we or anyone else “judge” that person whether they be a pedophile or child killer. In the case of Tookie Williams, his fate appears to be as much in the hands of public opinion as anything else. Since we are part of the public it would appear that it is both our right and obligation to share our opinion.

I had started out writing this with the thought that his life should be spared. But after collecting the data for the post, there is simply not sufficient basis for doing so. My initial reasoning was that disingenuous or not, we need more voices preaching nonviolence to inner city kids . Having a once-feared gang leader admitting his path was wrong was better than one going down as a martyr or a tough guy. But now having written and researched the post I don’t think so. Read what’s below and see where you end up. And as long as your name is not Mike Farrell, please share your opinion with us pro or con.

First and most specifically we must consider the four lives that were cut short by Tookie’s sawed-off shotgun during a pair of 1979 robberies. Store clerk Albert Owens, 26 and motel owners Yen-I Yang, 76 and Tsai-Shai Yang, 63, and their daughter Ye-Chen Lin, 43, all left behind horriby shaken families. Tookie elected to kill them all in cold blood. He made that choice and wasn’t forced to do so by circumstances, mental illness, passion, twinkies, etc.

Four years ago, a family member of one of the victims learned Williams was alive and had been nominated for a Nobel Prize. “I was just flabbergasted,” said Rebecca Owens. “How could the man who co-founded the Crips be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? What in the world?” [Ed. note: Yasser Arafat 1994 comes to mind though at least Arafat didn’t also get a nomination for literature.]

Below is a photograph of Yu-Chin Yang Lin, one of Tookie’s victims:

Patterico weighs in with further discourse on why Williams should die.

All the misplaced fantasist rage directed at the CIA by conspiracy theorists like U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters rightfully belongs on Stanley Williams. Williams is the Ken Lay of Cocaine, a man who built a corporate structure that enslaves , impoverishes, and exploits Americans–especially, but certainly not exclusively, their own African-American neighbors (and on the supply end, thousands of Latin Americans as well.) But unlike a corporation that relies on the courts to enforce its contracts or settle disputes with competitors, the Crips rely on shotguns, switchblades, and ball bats. They don’t exactly pay their enforcers, molls, bagmen, lookouts and runners minimum wage and give them primo health benefits, either. They’re even worse than Wal-Mart, I hear.

Jessie Jackson has asked Schwarzenegger to spar William’s life. That in itself is enough to want to see the execution through. Ditto on the opinions of the European press.

Many celebrities have joined his cause, saying he has redeemed himself on death row. That makes me want to throw the switch myself. Are they aware that Williams has not acknowledged guilt or remorse about the crimes. So much for redemption. Retired Compton Police Department gang unit officer Rick Baker, who knew Williams, agreed. “Anyone who could take credit for organizing a gang that killed 50 times more people than the Mafia — how could you grant a guy like that clemency?” he said. Along these lines, Joseph C. Phillips of Blacknews.com takes Hollywood to task:

[Death Row Records recording artist] Snoop, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover, Jamie Foxx and the other celebrity voices now raised in support of Williams offer a clear picture of the distorted moral vision of the Hollywood left. It is a vision that finds virtue contemptible and props up homicidal maniacs who write bad children’s books as role models for the masses….

On Sunday November 13, one week before the “Save Tookie” rally at San Quentin, fourteen-year old William Cox and a friend were attending a neighborhood carnival when they were gunned down by a man who mistook them for rival gang members. Cox, who was not in a gang, was struck in the chest and died at the scene. That is the evil wrought by Stanley Williams!

Of course Snoop and Danny Glover did not hold a rally for William Cox. His death went unnoticed by the Hollywood commissars of compassion. They were too busy trying to save the life of a cold-blooded killer to notice one more young life snuffed out by gang violence. That tells you all you need to know about the corrupt vision the Hollywood left has for America…

According to the LA County District Attorneys Office Response to Stanley Williams Bid for Clemency, the victims, who were defenseless, and offered no resistance, were killed with blasts from defendant’s shotgun for the purpose of preventing the victims from ever being witnesses against the defendant.

Williams was a 5-foot-10, 300-pound terror who channeled self-hate into violence against others: spitting in people’s faces, stealing and robbing, exacerbating volatile mood swings with PCP, and murdering four people in 1979. That year, Los Angeles led the nation in gang-related homicides.

William is NOT an oppressed model citizen who has been unfairly treated and unjustly convicted. He has had after all 24 years of legal appeals.

Bonnie Williams-Taylor, Williams’ ex-wife and mother of one of his sons said her ex-husband was convicted to be a “fall guy” for out-of-control gang violence. Someone should remind her that her loving husband killed four people in cold blood and founded the Crips. If there was a person in the world responsible for out-of-control gang violence, it would be her husband. Unrelated topic, I’m aware that everyone should be weighing in on this one but I wonder how clean her hands were while hubby was building one of the most violent criminal organizations in the country? Something tells me that she had an inkling of what was going on if not more, which for me discounts her statements to zero.

As I had said at the beginning I had started out a post about why I thought he should be spared to spend the rest of his days preaching peace from his jail cell. Urban kids see gangsters drive around in nice cars and rappers sing about shooting their way to the top. Someone needs to expose them to the falsehoods of these promises and not all kids are going to listen to their local preacher or school counselor. But in reading what he did and that to date he has not accepted responsibility or helped law enforcement deal with the organization he created, not to mention the lies and myths being propagated by the “Save Tookie” crowd, I just can’t come up with enough reasons to overturn what a jury and then many, many, many appeals concluded. If anyone deserves closure at this point it is the surviving family members of Tookie’s shotgun victims. Let’s at least give them that.

Update: A new witness whose testimony clears Tookie Williams, however this witness doesn’t appear to be part of the clemency or appeal filings made last week and this weekend. Where was this witness for 25 years? If this witness is lying as is likely then they should be prosecuted.

Hat tips and detailed coverage at: Flopping Aces Malkin (more Malkin) Deans World

Suggested additional Tookie reading:

Flaps is covering the story in detail. Much of the above was sourced by them (props to them for collecting it).

Detailed execution procedures being followed (Los Angeles Times)

The threat of violence if Tookie is executed should not impact the Governor’s decision.

Update: California Supreme Court rejected last minute legal efforts to stay Tookie’s execution as without merit and calling them “untimely and successive” (which the LAT tells us really means “repetetitve”). Next step is possibly going to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The circus continues.

Update: LAT’s George Skelton covers Gov. Schwarzenegger’s decision-making process and makes these astute observations:

“…I’d be very surprised if Schwarzenegger issued California’s first death row communtation in 38 years…”

“…here’s a cold-blooded killer who’s begging for mercy while refusing to admit his guilt. He isn’t expressing any remourse for blowing away four innocent, helpless people with a shotgun…”

“Williams maintains his innocence, but rather weakly, because the evicdence against him is strong. It has been upheld by appelate courts.”

“Another reason clemency would be surprising is this: If there is one thing Schwarzenegger seems to firmly believe in, it is that the governor should follow the people’s will.”

Coming from a liberal columnist at a liberal paper, Skelton’s article must be very sobering to Tookie supporters who now must try and find comfort in chanting nuns and “celebrities” like Mike Farrell who say that they are not sure that Tookie is guilty. Of course one of the reasons people have trouble connecting with the Save Tookie crowd is that some move from just sparing him (”let’s let him be punished by living the rest of his live in jail” which some can relate with) to honoring him (look at the sign below; no I’m sorry the world does not need Tookie, but we’ve got him and we’re now trying to figure out what to do with him.)

Others on the story: Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill, Righting America (source for Tookie photo above), Right Voices , Cobb and Hog on Ice (who thinks Tookie will get his stay because of CA politics).

Of course, Tookie does have his supporters. Among them Save Tookie and Blue Flypaper.

Update: Memorial service for Tookie is scheduled for Tuesday, December 20th. Of course, Jesse Jackson will be there. One organizer said that the funeral was “a chance to be remembered as a man who made contributions to the community.” Is that what you call organizing the Crips? The revisionism just never stops. Wonder what they’ll say about the real victims–the four people shotgunned by Tookie? It’s enough to make one throw up.

technorati: tookie stanley tookie williams

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2005 at 10:00 pm by Insider and is filed under California Schemin', Big Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.