Stanley Williams (offender)

Stanley "Tookie" Williams III (born December 29, 1953 in New Orleans , † December 13, 2005 in San Quentin State Prison , Marin County ) was an American bodybuilder sentenced to death for four murders and co-founder of the youth gang Crips . During his imprisonment he wrote children's books and books against racism, gangs, drugs and violence, for which he was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. However, several state and federal habeas corpus petitions were most recently dismissed by the United States Supreme Court on October 11, 2005 . After another unsuccessful request for clemency, the death penalty was carried out.

Life

Tookie Williams grew up in California and was recruited into the Crips Gang in Los Angeles in 1971 by Raymond Washington .

Williams was a fanatical bodybuilder who is said to have trained with Arnold Schwarzenegger , among others . Because of his charisma, his muscular appearance and his determination in gang conflicts, he led parts of the Crips at times, especially after Raymond Washington was imprisoned. Professionally he was employed as an overseer in a youth home. He was very popular in the late 1970s, but he lost control of his life due to psychoactive substances he regularly consumed.

In 1981 he was sentenced to death by a US court for four murders, which he committed in two robberies in 1979. He has been detained in San Quentin State Prison since his conviction . Williams originally refused to cooperate with the authorities - particularly with regard to the Crips - and was involved in several attempts to break out and assaults against security officers and other inmates. It was only around 1993 that he changed his behavior and began writing books against gangs, violence, drugs and racism, as well as children's books. Up until his execution, Williams vehemently denied having committed the murders he was accused of, and he publicly apologized for founding the Crips.

According to a court ruling, Williams killed employee Albert Owens while robbing a shop in 1979. According to witnesses, he forced him to lie on his stomach and then shot him in the back. He was also charged with the killing of the couple Yen-Yi Yang and Tsai-Shai Yang and their daughter Yee-Chen Lin, who died in the same year during a robbery of their Los Angeles motel from a gun that belonged to Williams . According to witness statements, Williams boasted several times about these murders. In the Owens case, he allegedly claimed to have eliminated a witness to the attack ("didn't want to leave any witnesses"). In conversations with friends, he allegedly referred to the victims of the second attack as Buddha-heads .

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed an appeal by Stanley Williams in 1994 , but stated that his guilty verdict was based on “circumstantial evidence and testimony from witnesses whose background was doubtful and who were motivated to lie to do so the public prosecutor's office to obtain a reduction in either the guilty verdict or the sentence ”. The trial against Stanley Williams took place in a judicial district where only one percent of the available jurors are black.

Williams' attorneys most recently submitted a pardon to Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Governor of California . Snoop Dogg , who is himself a member of the Crips, Jesse Jackson , Desmond Tutu , Laurence Fishburne , Danny Glover , Anjelica Huston , Tim Robbins , Susan Sarandon , Jamie Foxx sat down for a pardon , i.e. a conversion of the death sentence into a life sentence and Faris Al-Sultan .

After Schwarzenegger spoke to the convict's attorneys, he turned down the pardon on December 12, 2005. Among other reasons, he cited that Williams had prepared a violent outbreak after his arrest by trying to blow up a prisoner's bus together with a fellow prisoner and kill the guards. There are detailed escape plans in Williams' own handwriting. Although Williams never carried out this plan, his intention to murder several servants to enable his escape from prison while he awaits his murder trial is not in line with his alleged innocence. Furthermore, it is not necessary to question the innumerable findings of the courts over a period of 24 years, as well as that there can be no pardon (redemption) without apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal murders. The governor's constitutional power to grant grace must be reconciled with the governor's constitutional duty to ensure compliance with the law. Also with regard to the rejected pardon of the murderer Donald Beardslee, who was sentenced to death, Schwarzenegger stated after his decision that "it was the hardest day of his life when he had to decide on the pardons."

Williams was executed by lethal injection on December 13, 2005 at 12:35 am local time (9:35 am CET ) . As a last meal he had wanted only a glass of milk.

According to his last request , his lawyer scattered his ashes in a park in Soweto , South Africa .

Reactions

Due to the execution , a discussion broke out in Graz , Schwarzenegger's hometown. SPÖ , Greens and KPÖ demanded the renaming of the then Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium . This was not the first discussion about a renaming, but this came before Schwarzenegger by depriving the city of the right to use his name for advertising purposes for Graz. Thus Graz had to remove its name from the stadium. Since April 27, 2016, the Graz football stadium has been called Merkur Arena .

Movie

Williams' life was in 2002 in the film Redemption - The Grapes of Wrath (Original: The Stan Tookie Williams Story: Redemption ) with Jamie Foxx filmed.

Private

Stanley Williams was the father of two sons, one of whom was sentenced to 16 years in prison for manslaughter .

Works

• Stanley Tookie Williams, Barbara Cottman Becnel: Life in Prison , SeaStar Books, 02/2001, ISBN 1-58717-094-9
• Stanley Williams: Redemption: From Original Gangster to Nobel Prize Nominee - The Extraordinary Life Story of Stanley Tookie Williams , Milo Books, November 30, 2004, ISBN 1-903854-34-2
• Stanley Tookie Williams, Barbara C. Becnel: Gangs and Weapons (Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence) , Powerkids Press, January 2003, ISBN 0-8239-2342-8
• Stanley Tookie Williams, Barbara C. Becnel: Gangs and Drugs (Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence) , 1997, ISBN 1-56838-135-2
• Stanley Tookie Williams, Barbara C. Becnel: Gangs and Self-Esteem (Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence) , 1999, ISBN 0-613-02690-X
• Stanley Tookie Williams, Barbara C. Becnel: Gangs and the Abuse of Power (Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence) , 1997, ISBN 1-56838-130-1
• Stanley Tookie Williams, Barbara C. Becnel: Gangs and Violence (Tookie Speaks Out Against Gangs.) , 1997, ISBN 0-8239-2345-2
• Stanley Tookie Williams, Barbara C. Becnel: Gangs and Wanting to Belong (Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence.) , 1997, ISBN 1-56838-131-X
• Stanley Tookie Williams, Barbara C. Becnel: Gangs and Your Friends (Tookie Speaks Out Against Gangs.) , 1997, ISBN 1-56838-136-0
• Stanley Tookie Williams, Barbara C. Becnel: Gangs and Your Neighborhood (Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence.) , 1997, ISBN 1-56838-137-9
• Stanley Tookie Williams: Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir , Damamli Pub Co, March 30, 2005, ISBN 0-9753584-0-5

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Stanley "Tookie" Williams - Will Schwarzenegger show mercy? In: FAZ . December 11, 2005, accessed May 22, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Execution in California - Williams' agonizingly long death. In: Spiegel Online . December 13, 2005, accessed May 22, 2019 . 
3. ^ ^{A b} Arnold Schwarzenegger: Statement of Decision - Request for clemency by Stanley Williams. (PDF; 49 kB) December 12, 2005, accessed on May 22, 2019 (English). 
4. ↑ Urgent action - Death penalty ( Memento from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
5. ^ Controversy over execution - Schwarzenegger withdraws its name from Graz Stadium. In: Spiegel Online. December 19, 2005, accessed May 22, 2019 .