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The Governator Denies Tookie Clemency
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today rejected clemency for Stanley Tookie Williams, a convicted murderer and one of the founders of the Crips.
The decision was announced moments after a federal appeals court in San Francisco turned down Williams' request for a stay of execution. Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 12:01am
"Clemency cases are always difficult and this one is no exception," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
"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."
Schwarzenegger's statement noted all of the issues that had been litigated in the appeals process.
"Based on the cumulative weight of the evidence," he said, "there is no reason to second-guess the jury's decision of guilt or raise significant doubts or serious reservations about Williams' convictions and death sentence."
Today's double blow seems to ensure that Williams will be executed as scheduled. Williams' supporters will seek to have the U.S. Supreme Court intervene, but the governor was considered Williams' best possibility for clemency.
The state Supreme Court rejected a last-minute plea Sunday night, and today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the stay at 11:30 a.m.
It was possible that a larger panel of judges from the circuit court could consider the case if a judge on the court asks for what is known as "en banc" review. But the court denied an en banc review this afternoon.
The governor's rejection of clemency was personally and politically difficult for Schwarzenegger, who has denied two pleas for clemency in other cases.
The last Californian to be given mercy was a mentally ill killer, spared in 1967 by then Gov. Ronald Reagan.
This governor, whose career has been based on his popularity, was soundly rebuffed by voters in the recent special election. Recently, the governor named a Democratic Party activist, Susan Kennedy, as his new chief of staff, sparking outrage from his Republican and conservative supporters.
Schwarzenegger met with Williams' lawyers and prosecutors last week to hear arguments for and against clemency. Williams, 51, sent a personal letter to the governor, seeking clemency.
The campaign to save Williams has been the fiercest of any recent effort to halt an execution. Hollywood luminaries, including Jaime Foxx, and influential groups, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, campaigned on behalf of Williams.
In 1981, Williams was convicted of four murders during two robberies.
Albert Owens was killed during a robbery of a 7-Eleven store on Feb. 27, 1979, and motel owners Yen-I Yang and Thsai-Shaic Yang and their daughter, Yee Chen Lin, were killed at the Brookhaven Motel on South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles 12 days later.
Williams has maintained that he is innocent. His plea for clemency was based on his transformation while in prison for almost a quarter-century. He and his supporters argue that he has changed his life since his gang days, writing children's books and warning youths about the perils of the gangster life.
Law enforcement officials, including Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, strongly opposed clemency, calling Williams a coldblooded killer who has "left his mark forever on our society by co-founding one of the most vicious, brutal gangs in existence, the Crips."
On Oct. 11, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Williams' last appeal.
On Sunday night, the California Supreme Court voted 6-0 to deny Williams a stay of execution. His lawyer, Verna Wefald, then filed a 150-page habeas corpus petition and request for a stay with the 9th Circuit.
The federal petition raised a host of issues, including the assertion that Williams is "actually innocent" of the four 1979 murders for which he has been on death row at San Quentin for 24 years.
Under federal law, courts are required to dismiss what are known as "successor" habeas corpus petitions unless the defendant can demonstrate:
Consequently, the judges denied his request to have the petition considered in full and denied the stay of execution.
The order was issued in the names of Judges Proctor Hug, T.G. Nelson and Ronald Gould, the same panel that in 2002 rejected Williams' request to have his conviction and death sentence overturned. That panel, in a rare move, suggested that Williams might be a worthy candidate for clemency because of his anti-gang activities while on death row.
Earlier today, the Compton NAACP and other community activists said they had new evidence offered by a man who shared a cell with an informant in the Williams case in Men's Central Jail. They also called for investigations into all death row cases where jailhouse informants had been used.
Gordon Bradbury Von Ellerman, 46, said he saw officers deliver police reports about Williams' case to George Oglesby, an inmate who later testified against him. Von Ellerman said he came forward now because he did not learn until last week that Oglesby had been a witness at Williams' murder trial.
It would have been "unfathomable" for Williams to confess to Oglesby, Von Ellerman said, not only because Oglesby was widely regarded as a snitch but also because the two men were housed in different units and had only the barest interaction.
Source: Time
The decision was announced moments after a federal appeals court in San Francisco turned down Williams' request for a stay of execution. Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 12:01am
"Clemency cases are always difficult and this one is no exception," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
"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."
Schwarzenegger's statement noted all of the issues that had been litigated in the appeals process.
"Based on the cumulative weight of the evidence," he said, "there is no reason to second-guess the jury's decision of guilt or raise significant doubts or serious reservations about Williams' convictions and death sentence."
Today's double blow seems to ensure that Williams will be executed as scheduled. Williams' supporters will seek to have the U.S. Supreme Court intervene, but the governor was considered Williams' best possibility for clemency.
The state Supreme Court rejected a last-minute plea Sunday night, and today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the stay at 11:30 a.m.
It was possible that a larger panel of judges from the circuit court could consider the case if a judge on the court asks for what is known as "en banc" review. But the court denied an en banc review this afternoon.
The governor's rejection of clemency was personally and politically difficult for Schwarzenegger, who has denied two pleas for clemency in other cases.
The last Californian to be given mercy was a mentally ill killer, spared in 1967 by then Gov. Ronald Reagan.
This governor, whose career has been based on his popularity, was soundly rebuffed by voters in the recent special election. Recently, the governor named a Democratic Party activist, Susan Kennedy, as his new chief of staff, sparking outrage from his Republican and conservative supporters.
Schwarzenegger met with Williams' lawyers and prosecutors last week to hear arguments for and against clemency. Williams, 51, sent a personal letter to the governor, seeking clemency.
The campaign to save Williams has been the fiercest of any recent effort to halt an execution. Hollywood luminaries, including Jaime Foxx, and influential groups, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, campaigned on behalf of Williams.
In 1981, Williams was convicted of four murders during two robberies.
Albert Owens was killed during a robbery of a 7-Eleven store on Feb. 27, 1979, and motel owners Yen-I Yang and Thsai-Shaic Yang and their daughter, Yee Chen Lin, were killed at the Brookhaven Motel on South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles 12 days later.
Williams has maintained that he is innocent. His plea for clemency was based on his transformation while in prison for almost a quarter-century. He and his supporters argue that he has changed his life since his gang days, writing children's books and warning youths about the perils of the gangster life.
Law enforcement officials, including Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, strongly opposed clemency, calling Williams a coldblooded killer who has "left his mark forever on our society by co-founding one of the most vicious, brutal gangs in existence, the Crips."
On Oct. 11, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Williams' last appeal.
On Sunday night, the California Supreme Court voted 6-0 to deny Williams a stay of execution. His lawyer, Verna Wefald, then filed a 150-page habeas corpus petition and request for a stay with the 9th Circuit.
The federal petition raised a host of issues, including the assertion that Williams is "actually innocent" of the four 1979 murders for which he has been on death row at San Quentin for 24 years.
Under federal law, courts are required to dismiss what are known as "successor" habeas corpus petitions unless the defendant can demonstrate:
That his claim relies on a new interpretation of constitutional law, made retroactive by the U.S. Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable;
That the factual predicate for the claim could not have been discovered previously through the exercise of due diligence;
That the facts underlying the claim, if proven and viewed in light of the evidence as a whole, would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that, but for constitutional error, no reasonable fact finder [jury or judge] would have found the petitioner guilty of the underlying crime.
The 9th Circuit panel ruled today that Williams did not assert a "new rule of constitutional law."
That the factual predicate for the claim could not have been discovered previously through the exercise of due diligence;
That the facts underlying the claim, if proven and viewed in light of the evidence as a whole, would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that, but for constitutional error, no reasonable fact finder [jury or judge] would have found the petitioner guilty of the underlying crime.
The 9th Circuit panel ruled today that Williams did not assert a "new rule of constitutional law."
The court also said that to the extent that Williams' claims are not subject to mandatory dismissal because they were previously presented, he "has not made a prima facie showing that his claims, whether viewed individually or in the aggregate, could meet the statutory requirements of both due diligence and clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence."
Consequently, the judges denied his request to have the petition considered in full and denied the stay of execution.
The order was issued in the names of Judges Proctor Hug, T.G. Nelson and Ronald Gould, the same panel that in 2002 rejected Williams' request to have his conviction and death sentence overturned. That panel, in a rare move, suggested that Williams might be a worthy candidate for clemency because of his anti-gang activities while on death row.
Earlier today, the Compton NAACP and other community activists said they had new evidence offered by a man who shared a cell with an informant in the Williams case in Men's Central Jail. They also called for investigations into all death row cases where jailhouse informants had been used.
Gordon Bradbury Von Ellerman, 46, said he saw officers deliver police reports about Williams' case to George Oglesby, an inmate who later testified against him. Von Ellerman said he came forward now because he did not learn until last week that Oglesby had been a witness at Williams' murder trial.
It would have been "unfathomable" for Williams to confess to Oglesby, Von Ellerman said, not only because Oglesby was widely regarded as a snitch but also because the two men were housed in different units and had only the barest interaction.
Source: Time
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