Clemency Denied for Williams

[CrimsonTide4]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A convicted killer who co-founded the Crips street gang and later became a Nobel Peace Prize nominee has been cleared for execution by a federal appeals court.

Stanley Williams could be executed by injection as early as next year unless the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reconsiders its decision, the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes or the governor grants him clemency.

Williams and a high school friend, Raymond Washington, created the notorious Crips gang in Los Angeles in 1971. Hundreds of spinoffs and copycat gangs have since emerged across the nation.

Washington was killed in a gang fight in 1979. Williams, "Big Took" to his fellow gang members, continued his violent ways and transformed the Crips into a national enterprise.

Williams, now 48, was convicted of killing four people in 1979. While appealing his death sentence, he has spent time writing children's books and coordinating an international peace effort for youths - all from his 9-by-4-foot cell at San Quentin State Prison.

The work has landed him Nobel Peace Prize nominations the last two years, but his efforts haven't swayed prosecutors and police groups who believe he should remain behind bars.

"He's created one of the biggest criminal networks that the world has ever seen. I will be glad to see him executed," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa J. Brault. "I don't think writing a few children's books negates what he has done."

Williams was sentenced to death in 1981 for fatally shooting a convenience store worker. He was also convicted of killing two Los Angeles motel owners and their daughter during a robbery a few days later.

Williams claims he is innocent. He said in his appeal that jailhouse informants lied when they testified that he confessed to the murders.

Despite its decision Tuesday, the appeals court seemed sympathetic to Williams' plight.

"Although Williams' good works and accomplishments since incarceration may make him a worthy candidate for the exercise of gubernatorial discretion, they are not matters that we in the federal judiciary are at liberty to take into consideration," Judge Procter Hug Jr. wrote.

A spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis said it's too soon to know whether the governor will intervene.

Barbara Becnel, a journalist who has helped Williams with his publishing career and maintains a Web site for the condemned inmate, was shaken by the court's ruling.

"That's incredibly bad news," she said.

The inmate's Internet Project for Street Peace links at-risk California and South African youths through e-mail and chat rooms. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 - a move that drew sharp criticism from police groups - but he did not win.

Williams was nominated again this year for the prize. The winner has not yet been announced.


What Do you think?