GANG MURDERER "TOOKIE" WILLIAMS
RUNNING OUT OF TIME
Today, multiple murderer and co-founder of the notorious
"Crips" street gang, Stanley "Tookie" Williams,
lost a major battle in the effort to prevent his execution. A majority
of the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has announced that it
will not reconsider an earlier ruling by a three-judge panel rejecting
Williams' claim that the prosecutor used racial bias in selecting the
jurors for his 1981 murder trial.
"Unless the United States Supreme Court intervenes, which is unlikely,
today's denial of en banc review means the end is in sight," said
Kent Scheidegger, Legal Director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.
"It is likely that this multiple murderer will finally receive
the punishment that a jury, 24 years ago, unanimously agreed he deserved,"
he added.
In 1979, Williams and three accomplices got together to smoke some
PCP and rob some local merchants in Whittier, CA. After unsuccessful
attempts to rob a liquor store and a restaurant, the group robbed a
7-Eleven store at gunpoint. After ordering the clerk to his knees, Williams
killed him with a gun shot to the head. He later laughed as he told
his friends how the victim gurgled as he lay dying. Two weeks later,
Williams murdered a motel owner, his wife and daughter during a robbery
that netted $50.
During the decades following his conviction and sentence, as his various
claims of trial and sentencing errors have dragged through the courts,
Williams has authored children's books discouraging involvement with
gangs and drugs, and become a celebrity among death penalty opponents.
In 2000, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Swiss Parliament
member Mario Fehr, and other outspoken opponents of capital punishment.
"Despite Mr. Williams' celebrity, he snuffed out the lives of
four innocent people. The most pro-defendant federal court in the country
has found no legitimate claims that his trial or sentencing were unfair
or improper. It's time for him to pay for these four murders, as well
as the tens of thousands of others whose lives have been destroyed by
the drug-dealing gang he founded," said Scheidegger.
Kent Scheidegger can be reached for comment at (916)
446-0345.
The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation helped win nine United States
Supreme Court decisions during the 2003/2004 term.
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