I missed this great news yesterday:
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A US judge signed a death warrant for a former street gangster and convicted killer who went on to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in tackling youth violence.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders set a December 13 date for the execution of Stanley “Tookie” Williams, noting that his appeal against his death sentence had been rejected by the US Supreme Court on October 11.
“I am signing the warrant of execution,” the judge said as several dozen opponents of the death penalty looked on in the crowded courtroom.
Williams, who co-founded Los Angeles’ deadly Crips gang, was convicted in 1981 for the murders of four people and has been incarcerated in a small cell on the death row of San Francisco’s San Quentin prison since then.
[…]Williams was 16 when he and a high school friend — Raymond Washington, who was later killed — began the Crips street gang in South Los Angeles in 1971.
Known as “Big Took” to fellow Crips, Williams helped build the gang into a nationwide criminal enterprise that continues to spawn street violence more than 30 years later.
He was convicted and sentenced to death for committing four 1979 murders, but he has consistently maintained his innocence.
The first victim in the killings, which took place during two separate robberies two weeks apart, was a 23-year-old convenience store worker.
A witnessed who received immunity from prosecution testified at trial that he, Williams and two other men took 120 dollars from the store’s cash register before Williams shot the young man execution-style and mocked the gurgling sounds the victim made as he lay dying.
Williams was also found guilty of the shotgun murders of a family of three people in a Los Angeles motel.
Glad to hear he will soon be able to say hi to Arafat but 24 years? It took 24 years to carry out the sentence given to this piece of dog crap?
I suppose he was given these many years to repent for his crimes but now he shall pay for them.
Everyday I work the streets where the gang he founded thrives, and I see the destruction it has caused. To the kids it has ensnared and the families who watch their kids go off to prison or 6 feet under. If anyone deserves this sentence, it is this man.
See author page
