Tookie's Fate In Arnold's Hands
Federal Court Also Asked To Spare Crips Founder From Execution
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Play CBS Video Video Life In Schwarzenegger's Hands Stanley "Tookie" Williams is set to be executed tomorrow. After appeals from the community and celebrities, reports John Blackstone, clemency from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is his only hope.
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Video 'Tookie' Williams' Final Day? Web Exclusive: Lora McLaughlin reports on what may be Stanley "Tookie" last day on death row. Supporters have been pressing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant the former gang leader clemency.
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Video The "Tookie" Clemency Debate Is Crips co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams deserving of clemency for four murders? Sandra Hughes brings us both sides of the case as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decides his fate.
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Stanley Tookie Williams, above, denies committing the murders of which he was convicted but has apologized for co-founding the Crips, a gang police link to hundreds of murders in L.A. and elsewhere. (AP (file))
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Norma Jean Cabrera, right, joins other protesters outside the gates of San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 11, 2005, to demonstrate against the planned execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. (AP)
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A guard tower rises above San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2005. Stanley Tookie Williams, co-founder of the Crips gang and a convicted murderer, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the prison early Tuesday. (AP)
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Anti-death penalty supporters are targeting Schwarzenegger in demonstrations, including one Sunday outside the Santa Monica church he usually attends.
Among the protesters is Shaka Satori, of the Save Tookie Williams Committee, who says this is an opportunity for the California governor to reinforce the commandment 'Thou Shalt Not Kill.'
Williams was convicted of shooting Albert Owens to death during a convenience store robbery on Feb. 27, 1979. He also was convicted of the March 11, 1979, murders of motel owners Yen-I Yang and Tsai-Shai Chen Yang and their daughter, Yu Chin Yang Lin, at a South Los Angeles motel.
Williams denies committing the murders but has apologized for co-founding the Crips, a gang prosecutors blamed for thousands of murders in Los Angeles and beyond.
In the petition filed Saturday, Wefald told the justices that Los Angeles County prosecutors failed to disclose at trial that witness Alfred Coward was not a U.S. citizen and that he had a violent criminal history.
The failure resulted in "depriving Williams of the opportunity to mount a defense" that Coward was Owens' killer, Wefald wrote.
Coward is now in prison in Canada for the murder of a man during a robbery.
"All of the witnesses who implicated Williams were criminals who were given significant incentives to testify against him and ongoing benefits for their testimony," Wefald wrote.
Wefald's request for an emergency stay also said a bill calling for a death penalty moratorium in California is scheduled to be heard in the California Legislature in January.
The California Supreme Court, a federal district court judge in Los Angeles, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court have upheld Williams' convictions in earlier appeals.
©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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