Should Stan Tookie Die?

The answer to that question would depend on Stan himself.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that a reformed criminal is one who has confessed his or her crimes, has assisted the authorities in preventing others from doing similar crimes, and has demonstrated through concrete actions that they are a new person.

With this definition in place, let’s examine the facts.

Who is Stan Tookie Williams?
Williams was convicted of murdering four innocent bystanders with a sawed-off shotgun in 1979.

Alvin Owen, Thsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang and Yee Chen Lin died at the hands of Stan Tookie Williams.
Owen was a white teen-age clerk at a 7-11 convenience store, who was shot twice in the back of the head as he lay unarmed on the floor during a hold-up. A witness has testified that Williams said,

“You should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him”.

The Yangs were Taiwanese immigrants who, along with their daughter Yee Chen Lin, were gunned down during a motel robbery two weeks after Owen died. Stan then robbed them of petty cash.

Tookie Williams was sentenced to die for these brutal crimes in 1981.

Tookie Speaks Out
The “Tookie Speaks Out” series of books targets readers from kindergarten up to high school-age. The books are supposed to discourage kids from joining gangs.

Since Stan Tookie Williams has coauthored a few books, his supportors now feel that he has reformed and is deserved of clemency.

What Are The Facts?
Williams has yet to apologize to the victims’ families. Never once has cooperated with authorities to put more violent criminals behind bars.

He has shown concrete evidence of turning a new leaf, but on closer inspection, his books actually glamorize the criminal life. Each book is full of pictures of Williams in various stages of thuggery. It’s kinda hard to tell kids to stay out of it, when he makes it so appealing.

Justifying clemency for Williams is difficult when you realize that he has done more damage to black Americans in the last 25 years than the Klan, Robert Byrd, and David Duke combined.

After examining the facts it would appear that Williams does not deserve clemency from the governer. We’ll see in a few days’ time.

Update 12/12/05:

The California Supreme Court refused to grant Stan Tookie Williams a stay of execution, which has resulted in the NAACP making a questionable move…