‘Tookie’ Williams’ tape is part of pitch to governor for clemency.
Lawyers for Stanley “Tookie” Williams released an emotional video Tuesday laying out why they believe the man convicted of four murders more than two decades ago should be spared the death penalty.
In jailhouse interviews and telephone conversations, the 10-minute video portrays Williams, 51, as a reformed man who has touched the lives of thousands with his anti-gang message.
Mexico to Extradite More Suspects to U.S.
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to allow the extradition of criminal suspects who face life sentences abroad, clearing the way for thousands of alleged killers and drug traffickers to stand trial in the United States.
The court’s 6-5 vote ends four years of wrangling between the U.S. and Mexican governments over murder suspects who have been protected by Mexico’s ban on life sentences.
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005
Telling His Story to Save His Life
Writer Barbara Becnel has made clemency for Stanley Williams a global cause celebre.
So obscure that his conviction for four murders barely made headlines, death row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams owes his notoriety as much to a determined woman who stood by him and to committed death penalty opponents as to his shift from gangster to anti-gang activist.
During a jailhouse visit in 1993 to research a book on gangs, writer Barbara Becnel discovered that Williams, who is scheduled to be executed Dec. 13, had renounced his gang past. Over the next two years, Becnel shed her doubts about the co-founder of the Crips and helped him work to persuade youths to avoid gangs.
Campbell leading 48th fundraising contest
Contributions to the GOP House candidate hit $1.2 million. Jim Gilchrist, in second place, took in $465,000.
WASHINGTON – State Sen. John Campbell, R-Irvine, has raised more money than his two major opponents put together. Going into the final days of the campaign for the 48th Congressional District, he and American Independent Party candidate Jim Gilchrist have the same amount of money in the bank.
Campbell has spent the most money of the three major candidates in the race, sending multiple mailers to district residents and producing radio and cable television commercials.
Candidates to replace former Rep. Christopher Cox had to file statements with the Federal Elections Commission by the end of last week.
The election will be on Dec. 6.
President highlights reforms that his budget underfunded
Ending the catch-and-release policy for illegal aliens, as President Bush called for yesterday, will take years and far more than the current number of detention beds—something Mr. Bush himself underfunded in his most recent budget to Congress.
The president, speaking in Tucson, Ariz., followed the lead of congressional Republicans who have told him that border security must be part of any immigration bill. Mr. Bush also took credit for increases in border and interior enforcement spending, pitched his plan for future foreign workers and endorsed changing laws to allow for quicker deportation of some illegal aliens.Monday, November 28th, 2005
Gov. to Consider Clemency for Killer
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will hold a private hearing at his Sacramento office Dec. 8 to consider whether to grant clemency to convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams, co-founder of the Crips street gang.
Margita Thompson, the governor’s press secretary, said Schwarzenegger’s decision to hold the private meeting with lawyers representing Williams and the families of his victims did not indicate which way he was leaning on whether to commute Williams’ sentence from death to life in prison without possibility of parole.
“The governor reviewed the material in the case this week,” Thompson said late Friday. “He decided the best route is a private clemency hearing, so he can hear directly from counsel.”
Fear, hate spread across region
By: SHARI CRALL - Commentary
There is an ugliness spreading across Southwest County. It was best pictured in the hate-filled, fearsome face of KFI radio personality John Kobylt, in The Californian photo during his recent visit here.
There are many eloquent words that could be, that have been said, from modern to ancient times about the danger of such faces. You can catch some in the theater, in George Clooney’s movie about newsman Edward R. Murrow, as he faced down the same look on Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s face.
The current atmosphere of fear and hate regarding the Mexican immigrant in this community is giving me shivers. Suddenly, even though they have been standing on a corner, connecting with odd jobs for longer than most of the homeowners in this town have lived here, day laborers are not welcome.
No charges of crime or even rudeness, were leveled, just fear. We are afraid of those men congregating on the corner. As one who walked past that corner for years in the early morning, the polite nods of those looking for work there was the most I ever encountered.
Bush to Press Immigration Plan in Arizona
TUCSON, Ariz. – President Bush is trying to build support for a comprehensive immigration strategy — and mollify conservatives wary of his guest worker plan for foreigners — even though Congress has largely shelved the issue for now.
The Senate has postponed its work on immigration proposals until early next year, partly because lawmakers are divided over the scope of such changes and whether foreigners illegally working in the United States should be allowed to stay. The House hopes to tackle some border security measures before adjourning, but little time remains and it has other issues on its plate.
Border Security an Issue for GOP
Bush will lay out his plan this week to stem illegal immigration. The divisive subject could reinvigorate or roil his party in 2006 elections.
The issue is most intense in states along the southern border, where President Bush will travel this week to promote his plan to stem illegal immigration. But concerns about the flow of such immigrants into the U.S. are cropping up in states far removed from Mexico and Central America.
The debate pits advocates of strict new immigration limits against powerful business interests that rely on cheap immigrant labor. That divide is apparent in contentious campaigns in which immigration-control activists are challenging establishment Republicans.
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005
Activists to protest ‘Kill Tookie’ show
Community activists plan to hold a protest today against KFI-AM (640) for what they contend is the local station’s race-baiting in airing a popular afternoon talk radio show that has turned the execution of former gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams into entertainment.
A multiracial coalition, spearheaded by the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, hopes that by staging peaceful protests and by filing a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission it can pressure the Clear Channel-owned station into canceling “The John and Ken Show’s” daily 5 p.m. observance of the “Tookie Must Die/Kill Tookie” hour. The producers of the show said Tuesday that the station had no plans to cancel the program.
Mayor talks tough to unions
Engineers, architects to picket at LAX; seek same deal as utility workers
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other city officials vowed Tuesday to stand their ground against demands from city unions for deals on par with the lucrative contract awarded two months ago to Department of Water and Power employees.
In the first public sign that other city workers’ expectations have soared because of the DWP workers’ deal – raises up to 6 percent a year, depending on inflation – the Engineers and Architects Association announced plans for a massive demonstration at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday, one of the busiest travel days of the year, when disruptions could create havoc for tens of thousands of passengers.
Monday, November 21st, 2005
“Kill Tookie Hour” Crosses the Line
As if there aren’t enough entities working against San Quentin Death Row inmate Stanley “Tookie” Williams, Clear Channel station KFI 640 AM hosts John and Ken of the John & Ken Show have decided to designate 5 p.m. as the “Kill Tookie Hour” everyday Monday through Friday until and if Williams is executed on December 13.
Somehow the execution of Williams has been deemed as “entertainment” at KFI, a station notoriously known for it’s blatant racism and bigotry not only against Blacks but Mexican immigrants as well.
CLICK HERE TO EMAIL JASMYNE CANNICK
Read the press release here.
Victim’s brother breaks silence
Through 24 years of legal wrangling over the fate of the man convicted of killing his brother, Wayne Owens stayed above the fray.
In that time, convicted murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams, co-founder of the Crips street gang, became a children’s author, an anti-violence advocate and a star for death-penalty opponents. His myriad supporters called him a changed man and nominated him for the Nobel peace prize.
The story of his reformation grew to eclipse that of the four persons he was convicted of killing in California.
Owens, of Olathe, stepped into the spotlight last week with a letter asking California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to help return the focus to Owens’ brother — a freckle-faced redhead with a big smile who was a security guard in Westport before he headed west to put his life back on track.
Wayne Owens, brother of Albert Owens, killed by Tookie Williams will talk to John and Ken today !
Pair of brothers shot returning home from “Tookie” rally
RICHMOND, Calif. – A pair of brothers was shot, one of them fatally, as they returned home from a weekend rally for condemned inmate Stanley “Tookie” Williams, police said Monday.
Sheriff’s deputies found Elliot Noble, 20, of Oakland, fatally shot in a vehicle at the side of a road before noon Saturday, Contra Costa Sheriff’s spokesman Jimmy Lee said.
The second victim, his 22-year-old brother, was taken by helicopter to a hospital, where he remained in serious condition Monday. Police have no suspects.
“They had just left the rally at San Quentin in support of Tookie Williams,” Lee said. “We need to find out what they were doing there and how this evolved.”
Jesse Jackson, Bianca Jagger plead for life of US inmate
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and human rights champion Bianca Jagger visited a condemned US inmate and called for celebrity governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to spare his life.
JESSE JACKSON ON THE JOHN AND KEN SHOW TODAY !
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, leaves San Quentin Prison in San Quentin, Calif., Monday, Nov. 21, 2005, after visiting death row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams. At left is Zachary Sullivan, 11, and at cemter is Michelle Williams, 11, who wear shirts to show support for Williams. Tookie Williams’ execution has been set for Dec. 13. He was convicted in 1979 of killing four people during two robberies in Los Angeles. While on death row, he’s received international acclaim for his children’s books warning kids to stay away from gangs. Williams has asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for clemency. The children were among several people protesting the scheduled execution. How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of ‘Curveball’
The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein’s suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the war in Iraq.Five senior officials from Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with The Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so.
Snoop Dogg at rally for Tookie Williams
More than 1,000 people gathered outside the gates of San Quentin State Prison on Saturday, seeking clemency for death row inmate Stan “Tookie” Williams, a man they called a symbol of second chances
“Stanley Tookie Williams is not just a regular old guy, he’s an inspirator,” rap star Snoop Dogg told the crowd. “He inspires me and I know I inspire millions.”
Snoop, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, calls himself a former member of the Crips gang that Williams founded. The actor and rapper spoke briefly at the end of the rally, saying a movie about Williams’ life inspired him to do more to help kids, including starting an inner-city football league.
“People got to understand, this is not just a publicity stunt,” he said. “This is real people out here. I see people of all walks, all ages, all sizes, all colors. It doesn’t matter, we’re all about one thing, humanity, and it’s about keeping this man alive.”
Victim’s Daughter: Jury Has Spoken
The battle over the scheduled execution of convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams is heating up.
On Sunday, Rebecca Owens – the daughter of one of Williams’ victims – spoke out.
Rebecca Owens, daughter of one of Tookie’s victims: “I’ll never have the opportunity to say, ‘Can I come over for Thanksgiving?’ Or, ‘I’m cooking, come over and see the kids.’”
Dgen Bui, Franklin high school: “Why should you give death to a person who is helping society right now? I don’t think he should be free from it, he should serve life in prison.”
Jesse Jackson, Bianca Jagger To Visit Tookie
Barbara Becnel says Jackson and Jagger will visit Williams at noon. They will hold a news conference afterward outside prison gates.
Jackson has long been an outspoken civil rights advocate and Jagger has become increasingly vocal in recent years about her opposition to the death penalty.
The former model once married to rock legend Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones attended a rally in Texas in April.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein stood outside her office one recent afternoon explaining her plan for granting legal status to some farmworkers who had entered the country illegally.
She turned to leave, then beckoned back a departing reporter. “Please don’t use the word `amnesty,”’ Feinstein said. “It’s not an `amnesty.’ It’s an `earned transition.”’
Across the Capitol that day, during a testy immigration hearing, Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff how “mass deportations” of illegal immigrants would impact the country.
“The bills don’t call for `mass deportations,”’ grumbled Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
While every political fight has its public buzzwords, few have had a lexicon so brimming with anger and pathos as the current debate over illegal immigration.
Friday, November 18th, 2005
LIABLE!
Robert Blake Found Responsible In Wrongful-Death Case
A jury finds actor Robert Blake responsible Friday for the 2001 shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, and returned a damages award of $30 million for her children.
The panel, which deliberated for eight days, also determined that Blake’s former handyman, Earle Caldwell, was not involved in the death of Bakley, who was killed May 4, 2001, while sitting in Blake’s car outside Vitello’s restaurant in Studio City.
The 12-person jury voted 10-2 on the questions of Blake’s and Caldwell’s liability. The panel split 9-3 on the damage amount.
Blake sat quietly in the courtroom after the verdict was read, staring down toward the floor.
