{"article":{"id":140795,"heading":"Greens plead with governor to spare life of 'Tookie'","author":"twirl","created":"2005-12-08 12:16:40","modified":"2013-11-11 00:36:56","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:36:56","article":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>News Advisory <br><br>           THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA       www.cagreens.org <br>  <br>     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, December 6, 2005 <br>  <br> Contact(s):     <br>  <br> Susan King 415.823-5524 funking at mindspring.com  <br>  <br> Pat Driscoll 916.320-6430 pat at sonicfrog.com  <br>  <br> Beth Moore Haines 530.277-0610 beth at ncws.com  <br><br> Green Party of California asks the governor <br>  <br> to spare life of Stanley &lsquo;Tookie' Williams <br>  <br> at upcoming clemency hearing date <br><br> SACRAMENTO (December 6, 2005) &ndash; As the only major political party opposed <br>  <br> to the death penalty, the Green Party of California &ndash; in a letter <br>  <br> hand-delivered to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today &ndash;  asked the state's <br>  <br> chief executive to spare the life of Stanley \"Tookie\" Williams, now <br>  <br> scheduled to be executed Dec. 13. <br><br> The GPCA, in its letter, thanked Gov. Schwarzenegger for scheduling a Dec. <br>  <br> 8 clemency hearing to \"review the death penalty case,\" and requested the <br>  <br> governor consider \"the importance of the life of Stanley &lsquo;Tookie' Williams, <br>  <br> the negative social and economic impact of the death penalty, and spare Mr. <br>  <br> Williams' life.\" <br><br> \"The Green Party rejects the notion of capital punishment as a viable crime <br>  <br> deterrent, and we urge you to grant clemency in this case,\" said the <br>  <br> letter, which was also e-mailed and sent by facsimile to the governor. <br><br> \"The campaign to save Stan Williams is particularly urgent, and the Green <br>  <br> Party platform is clear on this issue: the death penalty is wrong, under <br>  <br> any circumstances,\" said Susan King, a GPCA spokesperson. \"We know innocent <br>  <br> people have been executed.  The death penalty does not deter crime, and has <br>  <br> disproportionately affected the poor and people-of-color.\" <br><br> The Greens noted that, among other issues in Mr. Williams' case, there is <br>  <br> compelling evidence that racism was a major contributing factor to his <br>  <br> conviction. The prosecutor was able to secure a conviction by effectively <br>  <br> barring all African Americans from the jury. <br><br> Mr. Williams has become a leader in speaking out against gangs and <br>  <br> violence, and written nine childrens books about the dangers of gang life <br>  <br> which have touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people all <br>  <br> over  the world. He has developed a Protocol for Street Peace which has <br>  <br> been used by rival  gangs around the country and the world to broker gang <br>  <br> truces. In recognition of his work, Stanley Williams has been nominated for <br>  <br> the Nobel Peace Prize five  times and has been nominated for the Nobel <br>  <br> Prize for Literature four times. <br><br> ##<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.cagreens.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Green Party of California, the only major political party opposed to the death penalty, asks the governor to spare life of Stanley \u2018Tookie' Williams\r\nat upcoming clemency hearing date.","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2005\/12\/140795.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":141054,"heading":"Unrelaible police informant testimony","article":"This is to dispell the rumors circulated by right wing propaganda (sdimc) that claims Tookie is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and Tookie's supporters are mostly fellow crip gangsters who wear blue..\r\n\r\nMany supporters of Tookie are not gang related, though many people in the rival gang &quot;bloods&quot; wear red and also support Tookie specifically for his work to promote peaceful truce talks between bloods and crips and an end to the violence and killing between rival gangs. Gangs can be thought of as extended families of support and without the violence and toxic crack cocaine distribution (influenced and encouraged by CIA), gangs could be thought of as tribes. People could express their rivalry with a game of soccer instead of guns imported by the CIA, contributing to genocide of lower income\/people of color. Some Tookie supporters are former members of the crips who renounce the violence yet continue to wear blue out of respect and solidarity with their comrades still stuck in the gang lifestyle. Other people are fashion conscious and just like wearing matching outfits and may prefer certain colors..\r\n\r\nEither way a great many people around the world NOT involved in gangs are demanding that Arnold the Nazi Actor grant Tookie clemency because of his work and effort for peace and reasonable doubts about his guilt in the charges..\r\n\r\nTo address the murder of the four individuals that Tookie is accused of;\r\n\r\nAn often ignored fact is the willingness of the police to extract a supposed confession by bribing a fellow inmate with a reduced sentence if said inmates provides police\/DA with evidence. If a information file just happens to enter the cell of the informant the night before, the confession can appear to be real. However good it may sound to the DA, the confession is not valid and cannot be used as evidence. Since our justice system is far from perfect, these sort of mishaps occur often, though police look good by completing the arrest of suspect with guilty conviction and sentence..\r\n\r\nIn Tookie's conviction a police informant was used as evidence and this informant recieved a reduced sentence for claiming Tookie confessed to the murder from his neighboring cell. Asking the police to be honest about providing said informant with extra relevent info required to obtain conviction is as difficult as breaking the blue wall of silence, police fraternal code of &quot;omerta&quot;.. \r\n\r\nAll this snitching by police informants for reduced sentences can become quite confusing for discovering reality and real justice. Here's an example of another high profile case where Gambino mob rat Sammy &quot;the Bull&quot; Gravano snitched on former Gambino don John Gotti is now himself being snitched upon by two other snitches. Snitches snitching on a snitch! Talk about poetic justice for Sammy &quot;the RAT&quot; Gravano, and complete jibberish of information for ANYONE trying to discover the truth of WHO actually committed the murders?  \r\n\r\n&quot;Guilt-or-innocense will always be debatable in criminal cases but if Sammy Gravano is actually innocent of Peter Calabro' murder this confessed hitman should qualify to win the nomination as the most wrongfully accused criminals to ever walk the planet. (well, not quite)\r\n\r\nConsider the following scenarios: \r\n\r\n(1) law enforcement officers familiar with the murder investigation of Peter Calabro disputed Kuklinski's story that Gravano hired him to kill the officer. They know the names of the real suspects. Read published book titled: Murder Machine written by Jerry Capeci. \r\n\r\n(2) Molinelli's predecessor, D.A. William Schmidt and a team of detectives had previously investigated Kuklinski's story that Gravano hired him to kill the officer and found no solid evidence to corroborate his confession. \r\n\r\n(3) Kuklinski solicited Gravano's lawyer, Anthony Ricco, for $200.000.00, to recant the statement he made to police that Gravano hired him to commit the murder. \r\n\r\n(4) When Detectives from other agencies questioned Kuklinski about murders he committed and boasted about on the HBO documentary he switched horses and rode down a trail of half-denials and in some cases he suffered from amnesia---unable to recall exact details about murders committed.&quot; \r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.americanmafia.com\/Feature_Articles_323.html\r\n\r\nOther than the inaccuracy of relying on police informants hungry for reduced sentences (snitches are liable to say anything), the two cases (Tookie & Gravano) don't have much else in common and was used as example to illustrate how unreliable police informants really are. Definitely NOT RELIABLE EVIDENCE in irreversible death sentence..\r\n\r\nMurder and violence is an unfortunate reality for a great many families in LA and other poverty stricken communities, though the state's role in contributing to this tragedy is ignored by individuals misled into believing the death penalty can provide victims with closure. No loved one can ever be replaced, and a great many families of victims realize this and also oppose the death penalty.. \r\n\r\n&quot;Vindication for victims and closure for victims' families are often held out as primary reasons for supporting the death penalty. However, many people in this community believe that another killing would not bring closure and that the death penalty is a disservice to victims.&quot; \r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.deathpenaltyinfo.org\/article.php?did=573&scid=62","author":"used as evidence against Tookie","parent_id":140795,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-12-10 22:24:19","modified":"2005-12-10 22:24:19","fileurl":""}]}