Interviews,

Watch The Video

A Conversation with Death Row Prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams from his San Quentin Cell

Stanley Tookie Williams. In just under two weeks, on December 13, the 51-year-old Williams is scheduled to be executed by the state of California. Williams is a convicted murderer and the co-founder of one of the country's most notorious street gangs, the Crips. But since his incarceration he has also become a Nobel Peace Prize nominated children's author and a vocal advocate against gang violence.

Stanley Tookie Williams' life now largely rests in the hands of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who has the power to commute the death sentence. On December 8th the governor will meet with Williams" defense team to hear its case for executive clemency. An international campaign to save his life has also been growing. Actions are planned across the world today in what has been described as International Save Tookie Day. In Los Angeles hip hop star Snoop Dogg and actor Jamie Foxx will join others in reading excerpts from Williams' books. Foxx starred in a film about Tookie's life titled Redemption. To date over 32,000 people have signed online petitions calling for Schwarzenegger to commute the death sentence.

The story of Tookie Williams begins in the streets of Los Angeles in the early 1970s. At the age of 17 he started the Crips street gang with his friend Raymond Washington. The gang would expand across the country and even overseas. In 1979 Williams was arrested in connection with four murders.

He was convicted of shooting dead a 7-Eleven clerk named Albert Owens and of robbing and killing a Taiwanese motel owner along with his wife and daughter. He was sentenced in 1981 to four death sentences.

Tookie Williams has always maintained his innocence and claims he received an unfair trial, in part, because he was convicted by an all-white jury. In 1993, Williams life took a dramatic turn when he agreed to record a videotaped message from death row supporting a truce between the Crips and the Bloods. The videotape was shown during a peace summit meeting attended by over 400 gang members.

• Stanley Tookie Williams, speaking in 1993.

After Tookie Williams addressed the Hands Across Watts gang peace summit in 1993, he became more involved in helping to keep young people out of gangs. With the help of his main advocate, Barbara Becnel, Williams soon began writing children"s books and speaking with young people about the gang life. He also helped orchestrate truces between gangs.

While his court appeals have largely been exhausted, judges have publicly admitted there is a strong case for clemency. In 2002, a three-judge panel on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his death sentence but in a rare move urged then-Governor Gray Davis to consider commuting the death sentence. The judges praised Tookie Williams for his "laudable efforts opposing gang violence" and his "good works and accomplishments since incarceration."

On Tuesday I had a chance to interview Stanley Tookie Williams from death row in San Quentin. He called us collect on a phone monitored by prison officials.

• Stanley Tookie Williams, speaking from San Quentin death row.

More information: SaveTookie.org

AMY GOODMAN: In 1993, Williams's life took a dramatic turn when he agreed to record a videotaped message from death row supporting a truce between the Crips and the Bloods. The videotape was shown during a peace summit meeting attended by over 400 gang members.

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: Working together, we can put an end to this cycle that creates deep pain in the hearts of our mothers, our fathers, and our people, who have lost loved ones to this senseless violence.

AMY GOODMAN: After Tookie Williams addressed the Hands Across Watts gang peace summit in 1993, he became more involved in helping to keep young people out of gangs. With the help of his main advocate, Barbara Becnel, Williams soon began writing children's books and speaking with young people about the gang life. He also helped orchestrate truces between gangs.

While his court appeals have largely been exhausted, judges have publicly admitted there's a strong case for clemency. In 2002, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his death sentence but in a rare move urged then-Governor Gray Davis to consider commuting the death sentence. The judges praised Tookie Williams for his, quote, “laudable efforts opposing gang violence” and his, quote, “good works and accomplishments since incarceration.”

On Tuesday, I had a chance to interview Stanley Tookie Williams, from death row in San Quentin. He called us collect on a phone monitored by prison officials.

AMY GOODMAN: Hello? Stanley Williams?

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: Yes, it is.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: Okay.

AMY GOODMAN: Thank you for joining us. I know you don't have much time, so I want to ask why you are petitioning the governor for executive clemency?

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: I’m petitioning -- my attorneys are petitioning the governor because I am innocent, but primarily, they're trying to save my life so that, inevitably, I will be able to prove my innocence.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the crime that you were convicted of? Are you guilty of that crime?

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: No, I am not culpable of those crimes. I have been stating that fact from the incipient, from the moment of my arrest. False arrest.

AMY GOODMAN: Why do you think the jury found you guilty?

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: Oh, it was quite easy. It was a paradigm of racism. We are talking about prosecutorial misconduct. We are talking about exclusion of exculpatory evidence. We are talking about I.A.C., which is ineffective assistance of counsel. We are talking about biased jury selection, which results in an all-white jury. We’re talking about involuntary psychotherapic druggings, the misuse of jailhouse and government informants. And last, but not least –

TELEPHONE RECORDING: This call and your telephone number will be recorded and monitored.

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: -- no -- not a shred of tangible evidence, no fingerprints, no crime scenes of bloody boot prints. They didn't match my boots, nor eyewitnesses. Even the shotgun shells found conveniently at each crime scene didn't match the shotgun shells that I owned.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you there that night?

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: No, I wasn't. Everything was predicated on hearsay and circumstantial evidence.

AMY GOODMAN: Why do you believe the police arrested you?

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: Because of my past. Because of my history. I was the co-founder of the Crips. I was someone that, whenever anything happened pretty much in L.A. or in Compton, for instance -- as an example, in Compton, the Compton armory had been broken into and quite a few weapons were missing. Of course, they automatically assumed that I had something to do with it or I knew of someone who broke in there, and I was submitted -- I had to -- I was subjected to two lie detector tests.

AMY GOODMAN: And yet they still arrested you?

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I have been picked up for many strange cases. Some -- I even had Johnnie Cochran had to represent me for a attempted robbery on two individuals who, in a sense, were broker than I was; they were more destitute than I was, but yet, still, I attempted to rob them.

AMY GOODMAN: Laura Owens, the stepmother of U.S. Army veteran, Albert Owens, one of the four people --

STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS: The stepmother.

AMY GOODMAN: The stepmother says that you're a cold-blooded murderer. They want to sweep it under the rug. Your response?




Prev Page - Next Page >>