Sacramento — As this is being written Sunday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger still has not announced his life-or-death verdict on Stanley Tookie Williams. And that could mean several things.
It certainly means he is not rushing his decision, but using practically all the time available. Like governors before him, Schwarzenegger wants to be absolutely sure on this. No haunting doubts, no sleepless nights.
And he needs to be able to explain his action, in detail -- not only to a public that supports capital punishment but also to family and Hollywood friends who oppose it.
"You just have to have an open mind," Schwarzenegger told reporters Friday, speaking of clemency decisions generally. "They are very heavy responsibilities."
As for Williams, he added, "I am studying the whole thing, reading a lot ... doing all the research on it so we make the right decision."
Former Gov. Gray Davis, who allowed five murderers to be executed on his watch, says that "clemency decisions were the hardest I had to make. I wanted to satisfy myself there was no question of guilt. I'd go through every sheet of paper in the file. And those files were thick as city phonebooks."
Will Schwarzenegger refuse to block Williams' scheduled execution in San Quentin's death chamber one minute after midnight tonight? Or will he spare the quadruple murderer by commuting his sentence to life in prison?
It could be that no news from the governor since Thursday's clemency hearing has been good news for Williams. The delay might mean that Schwarzenegger is agonizing and on the verge of granting clemency. Maybe this decision has been tougher than expected.
But I'd still be very surprised if Schwarzenegger issued California's first death row commutation in 38 years, dating back to Gov. Ronald Reagan.
For one thing, here's a coldblooded killer who's begging for mercy while refusing to admit his guilt. He isn't expressing any remorse for blowing away four innocent, helpless people with a shotgun in two cheap robberies 26 years ago.
In recent years on death row, Williams has co-written some anti-gang children's books and preached against gang thuggery. But co-founding the bloody Crips, as he does admit, is not why a jury sentenced Williams to death. It was for murdering a young father of two and an elderly couple along with their daughter.
Williams maintains his innocence, but rather weakly, because the evidence against him is strong. It has been upheld by appellate courts.
