Stanley Tookie Willaims free essay sample

Stanley Tookie Willaims BY sarnrnte1247 Stanley Tookie Williams and Redemption Effective Essay Writing August 14, 2009 2 Can a person on death row be redeemed? Redemption is not a word commonly associated with a four-time convicted murderer awaiting execution on death row. While some think the death penalty is barbaric, others believe it is Just punishment for the crime committed. Stanley Tookie Williams, convicted murder and co-founder of the notorious Crips gang, was described in black and white depending on who was speaking of him. The case of Williams leaves much room to argue guilt or innocence. Stanley Tookie Williams was born on December 29, 1953 to a 17-year-old mother in the New Orleans Charity Hospital. He never met his father who deserted them before Williams turned I-year-old. In 1959 he and his mother caught a Greyhound bus to Los Angeles and settled into South-Central Los Angeles which Williams recalled as a shiny red apple rotting away at the core according to his autobiography Blue Rage, Black Redemption. We will write a custom essay sample on Stanley Tookie Willaims or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In 1971, Williams Joined Raymond Truck Washington to form the West Side Crips. This gang along with the Bloods of Los Angeles went on to perpetrate over 70 gang elated homicides in 1974, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1972, two youths left a concert at the Hollywood Palladium and were attacked by 20 Crips members who wanted their leather coats and wallets. When Robert Ballou, Jr. refused, he was beaten to death. He was not a gang member, played football in high school and was considered to be a good person by friends and family alike. Nine Crips members 3 were later arrested and charged with his murder. This was considered the first murder by the Crips and evidenced the criminal side and ruthlessness of the gang. Williams is apprehended in 1979 for four murders and placed on trial. He is accused of murdering Albert Owens, 26, a store clerk for a take of between $60 and $122. He also murdered Robert Yang and his family, mother, father and sister. Again his take was about $100 and this occurred at the Brookhaven Motel that the family owned. The murders actually shocked Williams own community and tips started pouring in that Williams had been bragging about the murders. Ballistics matched Williams shotgun to the shell casings left at the crime scenes. two counts of robbery. He is sentenced to death and sent to San Quentin prison. From 1980 to 1988 Williams is involved in many violent incidents in prison. They include assaulting other prisoners, death threats against guards, throwing chemicals and other substances on guards and participating in sexual activity with a female visitor that had to be stopped by gun officers. He was also stabbed by another death row inmate who belonged toa splinter Crips rival gang. He was finally placed in solitary confinement in 4 October, 1988, and it was then that Williams sought redemption. He had always aintained his innocence in the murders and believed that his background and upbringing were responsible with other things contributing to his rage. He believed later that this solitary confinement was the beginning of his quest for change within himself. Williams published his first in a series of childrens book in 1996, Gangs and Wanting to Belong. He agrees to do a taped interview to support the 1992 gang truce and repudiates his gang affiliation. He issues a public apology for his part in forming the Crips and apologizes to anyone afflicted by gang violence. He rites his book Life in Prison which attempts to dissuade young people from the path of violence he took which landed him in San Quentin. He is nominated for the Nobel Prize seven times as a result of his writings and activities and is given a Presidents Call to Service Award from President Bush. From the date of Williams conviction he has always maintained that he was innocent and had not received a fair trial. Some points to consider: the only three black Jurors in the pool were eliminated, the prosecuting attorney made remarks during his closing argument comparing Williams to a Bengal Tiger in captivity in a oo and said the Jury needed to imagine him in his natural habitat which was like going into the back country, into the hinterlands. In two subsequent cases, Martin was rebuked by the California Court of Appeals for using race as a criterion in Jury selection and had two murder convictions overturned on those grounds. Alonso, A. (October 26, 2006) Stanley Tookie Williams, Could be First Gang Member Executed in California. Street Gangs Magazine, 7. Williams was convicted based on testimony from co-conspirators 5 and Jailhouse informants. Other than the shotgun shell casing, no other physical vidence tied him to the scene of the crimes. His final appeals exhausted it was up to the Governor of California to grant clemency. He does not. He gives the defense and prosecutor 30 minutes each to present their claim and renders his decision on December 12, 2005, that no clemency will be granted. All appeals are now finished. Williams is scheduled to die on December 13, 2005, by lethal injection at San death penalty, I can respect those who oppose it.