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Post by Maggie on Dec 17, 2005 7:17:14 GMT -5
Service for Williams Is Scheduled for Tuesday The killer was executed at San Quentin this week. His ashes are to be spread in South Africa.
By Anna Gorman, Times Staff Writer
A memorial service for Stanley Tookie Williams, a co-founder of the Crips gang who was executed at San Quentin this week, will be held at a South Los Angeles church Tuesday, organizers said.
The service is scheduled for noon at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and will be officiated by Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, said supporter Jasmyne Cannick. Other participants will include the Rev. Jesse Jackson, recording artist Snoop Dogg and NAACP President Bruce S. Gordon, she said.
Williams, 51, was convicted of murdering four people 26 years ago. He was executed by lethal injection Tuesday, hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied his clemency petition. His case drew international media attention, in part because Williams had become an anti-gang activist and had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
He requested that his ashes be spread in South Africa. Cannick said his request would be honored.
She said the funeral was a chance for Williams to be remembered as a man who made contributions to the community.
"This is an opportunity for people who knew Mr. Williams, who were friends with Mr. Williams, who respected his work to be able to pay their final respects," Cannick said.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said officers would be in the area but would not intrude on the service.
"We will monitor it like we would any other large event like this," said Lt. Paul Vernon. "We don't anticipate any problems."
The church, at 7900 S. Western Ave., holds about 1,500 people, organizers said. They said they planned to show the service on screens outside for any overflow crowd.
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Post by Maggie on Dec 14, 2005 13:21:31 GMT -5
Judy, America has had many Presidents. Some good, some not so good. Never ever has it had one like Bush. He is evil to the very core. When I see him on TV I see Satan standing right there with him! If we can live through this it will take many many years to just get us back to where he took over. I can't help but wonder why no one has "terminated" him. Guess no one wants to go to DR just for killing a PUKE!! Kathy you and I agree..... Bush and his corrupt administration NEED TO GO! I don't think a president has ever been so hated as this one...... Recently I heard Jimmy Carter on LKL.... I was so impressed with the interview. I had forgotten what it felt like to listen to a leader (even though he is a former president) speak and actually feel a sense of respect. He talked about how the country is really losing faith in it's leaders and in it's government.... Gee I wonder why?? Well, as far as Tookie's Call To Service Award..... I wish the media would have had the balls to read it on the air.... over and over. I don't think I heard it once.
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Post by Maggie on Dec 13, 2005 15:00:52 GMT -5
Being that Stanley Williams received the Call to Service AWARD from our very own pres Bush.... I was wondering if OUR PRESIDENT, who GAVE THE AWARD TO WILLIAMS had any comment on the State sanctioned killing of Stanley Williams?
Anybody know??
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Post by Maggie on Dec 14, 2005 13:33:31 GMT -5
There are no words to even describe the feelings I have about this country right now. From the death penalty to bush (the lower case is intentional) calling the medicare drug plan a "good deal". I feel so ashamed that there are soldiers dying for the mess that we have let this country become. I love my country but I ABHOR the morons that we have ELECTED to run it. Wait...no...I take that back. I meant to say the morons that we allowed to STEAL an election. Great post and I agree. I say we get an independent in the Whitehouse.... one who is against the DP.... one who CARES about the people in this country. Somebody we don't have to be ashamed of.
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Post by Maggie on Dec 13, 2005 14:37:05 GMT -5
Miles,
You are a better person than me.
I would be violating the rules of this board if I wrote what I wish for Schwarzenegger.
He is a heartless coward..... but then, so are all the others who had a hand in this execution. The "justices" that sat on state and federal courts with NO BALLS and NO sense of human decency or compassion.
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Post by Maggie on Dec 13, 2005 12:25:34 GMT -5
Pope, many Europeans express outrage over execution of 'Tookie' Williams 11:23:13 EST Dec 13, 2005 VANESSA GERA
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The execution of convicted murderer Stanley (Tookie) Williams in California on Tuesday outraged many in Europe, who regard the practice as barbaric, and feelings ran particularly high in Austria, the homeland of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict's top official for justice matters denounced the death penalty for going against redemption and human dignity.
"We know the death penalty doesn't resolve anything," Renato Cardinal Martino told Associated Press Television News. "Even a criminal is worthy of respect because he is a human being. The death penalty is a negation of human dignity."
Capital punishment is illegal throughout the European Union, and many Europeans consider state-sponsored executions to be barbaric. Those feelings were amplified in the case of Williams, due to the apparent remorse they believe the Crips gang co-founder showed by writing children's books about the dangers of gangs and violence.
Leaders of Austria's pacifist Green party went as far as to call for Schwarzenegger to be stripped of his Austrian citizenship - a demand that was rejected by Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel.
"Whoever, out of political calculation, allows the death of a person rehabilitated in such an exemplary manner has rejected the basic values of Austrian society," said Peter Pilz, a Greens leader.
In Graz, Schwarzenegger's hometown, local Greens said they would file a petition to remove the governor's name from the southern city's Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium. A Christian political group went even further, suggesting it be renamed the "Stanley Tookie Williams Stadium."
"Mr. Williams had converted and, unlike Mr. Schwarzenegger, opposed every form of violence," said Richard Schadauer, the chairman of the Association of Christianity and Social Democracy.
Williams was executed Tuesday morning at California's San Quentin State Prison after Schwarzenegger denied Williams' request for clemency. Schwarzenegger suggested that Williams' supposed change of heart was not genuine because he had not shown any real remorse for killings committed by the Crips.
Criticism came quickly from many quarters, including the Socialist party in France, where the death penalty was abolished in 1981.
"I am proud to be a Frenchman," party spokesman Julien Dray told RTL radio. "I am proud to live in France, in a country where we don't execute somebody 21 years later."
"Schwarzenegger has a lot of muscles, but apparently not much heart," Dray added.
In Italy, the country's chapter of Amnesty International called the execution of Williams "a cold-blooded murder."
"His execution is a slap in the face to the principle of rehabilitation of inmates, an inhumane and inclement act toward a person who, with his exemplary behaviour and his activity in favour of street kids, had become an important figure and a symbol of hope for many youths," the group said in a statement.
In Germany, Volker Beck, a leading member of the opposition Greens party, expressed disappointment. "Schwarzenegger's decision is a cowardly decision," Beck told the Netzeitung online newspaper.
From London, Clive Stafford-Smith, a human rights lawyer specializing in death penalty cases, called the execution "very sad."
"He was twice as old as when they sentenced him to die, and he certainly wasn't the same person that he was when he was sentenced," Stafford-Smith said.
Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, called it "a sad day" and said the city would keep Williams in its memory the next time it celebrated a victory against the death penalty somewhere in the world.
Rome's Colosseum, once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, has become a symbol of Italy's anti-death penalty stance. Since 1999, the monument has been bathed in golden light every time a death sentence is commuted somewhere in the world or a country abolishes capital punishment.
"I hope there will be such an occasion soon," Veltroni said in a statement. "When it happens, we will do it with a special thought for Tookie."
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Post by Maggie on Dec 12, 2005 16:35:46 GMT -5
He wouldnt be eligible for execution himself with his IQ. What a joker. catz only you could make me smile at a time like this. short lived.... but thanks- hugs, Maggie
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Post by Maggie on Dec 12, 2005 16:16:38 GMT -5
In all honestly, I'd believed that he would grant clemency. Talk about living in a 'fool's paradise'. How much more blood must be shed before the point is reached whereby killing is not punished by killing? I feel absolutely sick. So did I Janet. It's sick beyond words.
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Post by Maggie on Nov 21, 2005 7:05:29 GMT -5
Updated: 09:31 PM EST Investigation Suggests Wrong Man Executed
HOUSTON (Nov. 20) - A decade after Ruben Cantu was executed for capital murder, the only witness to the crime is recanting and his co-defendant says Cantu, then 17, wasn't even with him that night.
The victim was shot nine times with a rifle during an attempted robbery before the gunman unloaded more rounds into the only witness.
That witness, Juan Moreno, told the Houston Chronicle for its Sunday editions that Cantu wasn't the killer. Moreno said he only identified him at the 1985 trial because he felt pressured and was afraid of authorities.
The doubts now being raised come too late for Cantu. He had long professed his innocence but was executed in Texas on Aug. 24, 1993, at the age of 26.
"You've got a 17-year-old who went to his grave for something he did not do. Texas murdered an innocent person," Cantu's co-defendant, David Garza, said.
Garza, who was 15 at the time of the murder, recently signed a sworn affidavit saying he allowed his friend to be accused even though Cantu wasn't with him the night of the killing.
The Chronicle reviewed hundreds of court and police documents in its investigation of the case.
On the night of the attack, 19-year-old Moreno and his friend, 25-year-old Pedro Gomez were sleeping in a house they were helping build for Moreno's brother. They awoke to a pair of teenagers demanding money, one who was carrying a .22-caliber rifle. Gomez was killed; Moreno was shot but survived.
Moreno was shown a photo of Cantu after rumors at his school that he had been involved, but Moreno didn't identify him as the shooter, the newspaper said. But about four months later, Cantu was involved in a bar shooting that injured an off-duty police officer. Though accusations he shot the officer were dropped, Sgt. Bill Ewell reopened the Gomez case.
A bilingual homicide detective was sent to Moreno's home to show him another photo of Cantu. He didn't identify him.
The next day, Moreno, then an illegal immigrant, was taken to a police station and again shown Cantu's photo. This time, he picked Cantu out from among five photos, according to an officer's report.
"The police were sure it was (Cantu) because he had hurt a police officer," Moreno said in a recent interview. "They told me they were certain it was him, and that's why I testified."
Ewell, now retired, told the Chronicle, "I'm confident the right people were prosecuted."
The district attorney who handled the case, Sam D. Millsap Jr., said though that he never should have sought the death penalty in a case based on testimony from an eyewitness who identified a suspect only after police showed him a photo three times.
Miriam Ward, forewoman of the jury that convicted Cantu, said the panel's decision was the best they could do based on the information presented at trial.
"With a little extra work, a little extra effort, maybe we'd have gotten the right information," Ward said. "The bottom line is, an innocent person was put to death for it. We all have our finger in that."
Since executions resumed in 1982, Texas has executed 355 inmates, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
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Post by Maggie on Oct 5, 2005 9:34:10 GMT -5
For anybody interested The Faces of Wrongful Conviction The purpose of this conference is to illustrate both the problem of wrongful conviction and the unfair application of the death penalty in California and to mobilize for change. Since 1990, over 200 people have been wrongfully convicted and exonerated in California. This conference will facilitate the largest gathering of California’s exonerees ever. In addition, new research discussing the causes and prevalence of wrongful conviction in California and demonstrating systemic racial and geographic disparities in the application of the death penalty in this state will be presented. This conference will offer a series of workshops on the causes of wrongful conviction (i.e., snitch witnesses, mistaken eyewitnesses, junk science, etc.), problems with the death penalty, and opportunities for action. Workshop topics will appeal to: (1) exonerees; (2) lawyers and law students; and (3) activists. Panel speakers will include: prosecutors, jurors, judges, the family members of murder victims, and the family members of people on death row. This conference will also incorporate film, art, drama, and a new book on California exonerees. Confirmed speakers include: Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, Co-Directors of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and co-authors of Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches From the Wrongly Convicted; Michael Radelet (University of Colorado), respected death penalty scholar; and Lawrence C. Marshall (Stanford University), founder of the Center on Wrongful Conviction at Northwestern Law School. stopwrongfulconvictions.org/
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Post by Maggie on Sept 25, 2005 15:40:59 GMT -5
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Post by Maggie on Aug 17, 2005 15:50:26 GMT -5
Honest to god bourney sometimes I forget you are only 13 ;D Your parents are very lucky! I wish more young people were as aware as you are...... I wish more adults were as aware as you are! Kudos to you
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Post by Maggie on Aug 9, 2005 8:11:52 GMT -5
And what preytell would you have in its place? Would you then have government appointed people decide your fate? You think that it isn't fair now? That would be the same type of system that they have in the middle east! You had better rethink that theory before throwing our system out the window because it is the best one out there so far! Wow. Just one more reason I think the jury system as it is right now needs to go. Thank you for posting this. Sweeb, I'm totally serious. I think the whole jury system needs big time reform. Personally I am for professional jurors.... I think people should qualify to sit on a jury.... by way of logic tests, reasoning skills, ability to be objective-- all these things can be measured... and education. In this day and age with forensics and technology what it is-- we need educated people on juries. Do you want a moron deciding your fate?
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Post by Maggie on Aug 6, 2005 9:54:27 GMT -5
Wow.
Just one more reason I think the jury system as it is right now needs to go.
Thank you for posting this.
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Post by Maggie on Aug 17, 2005 16:08:51 GMT -5
This is a very scary reality.
I've also wondered how much difference a "death qualified" jury makes?
I remember during jury selection in the Peterson case.... MANY, many people were dismissed JUST BECAUSE they did not believe in the DP. Interesting that many of those same people seemed more inclined to actually support "innocent until PROVEN guilty"..... just an observation I made.
Something about a death qualified jury that favors the prosecution, IMO.
To be honest, I don't understand how this is even legal. I wish somebody would challenge this.
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