Arnold Weighs Fate Of Gang Leader
Defense Lawyers Make Last Pitch To Calif. Governor For Clemency
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Play CBS Video Video Death Penalty Debate Web Exclusive: John Blackstone reports on the controversial case of "Tookie" Williams, a man scheduled for execution next week who has thousands of supporters who want his life spared.
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Video Calif. Execution Debate Rages Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger heard clemency arguments in the case of a gang leader due to be executed next week for murder. As John Blackstone reports, the case has drawn significant attention.
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Donald Lacy, director of the LoveLife Foundation, holds a photo of his daughter Loeshe Adanma Lacy, who was murdered in 1997, while speaking at a rally to save Stanley "Tookie" Williams from the death penalty outside of the Capitol building in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005. (AP)
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Patrick Dickson, third from right, head deputy attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, walks with other members of the prosecution team to the governor's office for a clemency hearing for Stanley 'Tookie' Williams in Sacramento, Calif., Dec. 8, 2005. (AP)
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Stanley 'Tookie' Williams, April 25, 2005, in a photo provided by the California Department of Corrections. (AP)
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Actor Jamie Foxx, left, and rapper Snoop Dogg join others to read the works of Stanley "Tookie" Williams to school students as part of "a day of action" to demonstrate against the pending execution of Williams at the Los Angeles Central Library, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005. (AP)
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Crips co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams was nominated in 2001 for a Nobel Peace Prize for his series of children's books and efforts to curtail youth gang violence. (CBS)
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Last week, the California Supreme Court rejected a defense request to reopen Williams' case because of allegations that shoddy forensics connected him to at least three of the killings. The federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, also have ruled against Williams, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1981.
If clemency is denied, there isn't much of a case to bring to the federal courts, where Fleming said he would have to demonstrate that Williams is innocent.
"We're not in a position to do that," he said Wednesday. "If we fail as counsel, a man dies."
Williams was convicted of killing Yen-I Yang, 76, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, and Yu-Chin Yang Lin, 43, in a robbery at a Los Angeles motel the family owned, and Albert Owens, 26, a 7-Eleven clerk gunned down in a separate robbery in Whittier.
"We assume he's guilty but there are circumstances about this person that warrant mercy," Ellen Kreitzberg, head of Santa Clara University's Death Penalty College, told radio station KCBS-AM last week.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and some family members of the victims told Schwarzenegger in writing that Williams should die. Prosecutors and crime victim advocates have said the Crips gang that Williams co-founded with a friend in 1971 is responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths, and that he should not live because he denies his guilt.
Williams lawyers want him spared because his teachings from behind bars — through a series of books and talks by phone — have convinced youths to avoid gangs.
The effort to save Williams has been led by celebrities who say he has redeemed himself on death row.
After meeting with the condemned killer Thursday, actor Jamie Foxx who portrayed him in a television movie, pleaded with the governor to save his life.
"Don't kill this guy. Don't kill him," Foxx said. "We've got our fingers crossed."
©MMV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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