Gang leader set to die as appeals fail

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency on Monday to Stanley Tookie Williams, citing the former Crips gang leader's lack of remorse for four brutal murders.

The rejection, following the denial of last-minute appeals by two top courts, clears the way for Williams to be executed by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday for murdering four people in two 1979 petty robberies around Los Angeles.

"Stanley Williams insists he is innocent, and that he will not and should not apologize or otherwise atone for the murders of the four victims in this case," Schwarzenegger wrote. "Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings there can be no redemption."

"Based on the cumulative weight of the evidence, there is no reason to second guess the jury's decision of guilt or raise significant doubts or serious reservations about Williams' convictions and death sentence."

The case has generated widespread interest and fierce debate over the death penalty in the United States because Williams, 51, has written a series of books warning young people against gangs and says he has found redemption.

Civil rights leader Rev.
Jesse Jackson said he broke the news to Williams that Schwarzenegger had denied clemency as the inmate met several supporters in prison. "He said 'Don't cry, let's remain strong,"' Jackson told Reuters. "He smiled, you know, with a certain strength, a certain resolve."

"I think he feels a comfort in his new legacy as a social transformer," Jackson said.

The inmate's supporters argued he should have been spared so he could continue his anti-gang work from behind bars.

In a rare coincidence in death penalty cases, Williams has said he met Schwarzenegger at a Los Angeles-area gym in the 1970s when both men were enthusiastic bodybuilders.

The governor, weakened by a loss on all his initiatives in a special election he called last month, would have risked alienating his Republican party if he granted clemency.

"In this case, the one thing that would be the clearest indication of complete remorse and full redemption is the one thing Williams will not do," Schwarzenegger wrote.

At San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco, a prison spokesman described Williams as quiet and cooperative and said he did not request any special final meal.

FINAL APPEALS DENIED

Also on Monday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals twice rejected the latest appeal by lawyers to reconsider the case. Pondering their fifth habeas corpus petition on the case over the past quarter century, the state Supreme Court also rejected the petition on Sunday night.

Ronald George, the California Supreme Court's chief justice, told Reuters last week that there was "something wrong" with a system in which judges must routinely ponder last-minute death row filings after two decades of decisions.

Williams was convicted in 1981 of killing Albert Owens as he lay facing downward on the floor of a 7-Eleven convenience store in a $120 robbery. Two weeks later, Williams shot dead an elderly Taiwanese immigrant couple running a motel, as well as their visiting daughter.

Williams' large team of lawyers continued to file legal petitions in the hours before the execution, including to the
U.S. Supreme Court and a request for a reprieve from Schwarzenegger, the latter of which was quickly rejected.

"We will not rest until 12:01 a.m. tonight," attorney Jonathan Harris told reporters.

The case has drawn wide attention to a large extent because of the dedication of a former journalist, Barbara Becnel, who edited his anti-gang books and served as a co-producer of a film staring Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx about Williams.

The scheduled execution comes just over a week after a double murderer became the 1,000th prisoner to be executed in the United States since the 1976 reimposition of capital punishment.

"I am not the kind of person to sit around and worry about being executed," Williams told Reuters in an interview last month. "I have faith and if it doesn't go my way, it doesn't go my way."