Attorneys for four-time convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday to grant clemency to the co-founder of the Crips, who became an anti-gang activist years after he went to death row in 1981.
Williams, 51, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison on Dec. 13, unless Schwarzenegger commutes his death sentence to a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"This petition is about redemption, rehabilitation and hope. It is about a single man, a prisoner for a quarter-century, who found purpose while facing death by execution," wrote Peter Fleming Jr., the New York-based attorney who is leading the legal team seeking clemency for Williams.
Fleming emphasized that the clemency request is narrowly focused on how Williams changed his life in prison and became a force for good, and not on fighting his convictions or challenging the death penalty.
Williams has steadfastly maintained his innocence in the killings of Albert Owens, a clerk at a 7-Eleven in Pico Rivera and father of two shot to death Feb. 27, 1979, and of three members of the Yang family, who were gunned down 12 days later at the motel they ran on Vermont Avenue.
"This petition is not about the death penalty, or about reversing the judgment of the courts. Nor does it diminish the death of Albert Owens, Yen-I Yang, Thsai-Shai Yang or Yee-Chen Lin, or the suffering of the family members and friends who loved them," the clemency papers state.
The petition notes that the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, in rejecting a request to reverse Williams' death sentence, said his "good works and accomplishments since incarceration may make him a worthy candidate for the exercise of gubernatorial discretion."
Margita Thompson, the governor's press secretary, said that he would review all the material submitted by Williams' lawyers and the response expected from Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.
Cooley spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said, "Obviously, we will be opposing clemency."
Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, said a representative of the Yang family had said they too oppose sparing Williams' life.
Lora Owens, Albert Owens' stepmother, also objects to clemency because Williams has never apologized for the murders. "To be redeemed is to accept responsibility, and he has never done that," Owens said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "As a matter of fact, he has done the very opposite. He has said it is someone else's fault, way back to his childhood."
