[E-rundbrief] Info 338: Bianca Jagger: Arbitrary Justice. Death penalty - Stanley Tookie Williams - USA
Matthias Reichl
mareichl at ping.at
So Dez 11 09:25:16 CET 2005
E-Rundbrief - Info 338: Bianca Jagger: Arbitrary Justice. Death penalty -
Stanley Tookie Williams - USA. Demand to governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for
clemency.
Bad Ischl, 11.12.2005
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at
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ARBITRARY JUSTICE
By BIANCA JAGGER
Clemency is "the historic remedy for preventing miscarriages of justices
where judicial process has been exhausted".
While we are constantly being reminded of the shopping days we have left
before Christmas, Stanley Tookie Williams has a far more urgent countdown,
his life clock is ticking away, while he waits for California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger to decide his fate. Williams is schedule to be
executed on the 13 of December by lethal injection.
On November 21, I travelled to San Quintin State prison to meet Williams,
when I arrived; I couldn't help wonder why they have chosen this idyllic
place to build one of the most infamous top-security prisons in the nation.
San Quintin is situated on prime real state, overlooking the beautiful San
Francisco Bay, it was established on Bastide Day, 14 July 1852 at point
Quentin in Marin County in approximately 432 acres; the first San Quintin
condemned unit was established in 1893, North Block was built in 1934 and
houses all males sentence to death in the state of California. The original
condemned unit was originally designed to house 68 condemned prisoners,
today, San Quintin houses approximately 6,000 prisoners, and approximately
600 death row prisoners.
The guards at the correctional facilities were cordial and polite, after
being searched; I was allowed to bring 30 dollars to buy food, and I was
told not to carry phones, cameras, paper or pens. That morning the weather
was beautiful and the sun was shining, a prison guard escorted me, we
walked approximately 1,000 metres before we arrived at the death row unit.
I had expected to meet William's behind a barrier of glass and wire
partition, as I had when I met Karla Fay Tucker and Gary Graham in death
row in Texas. Instead, I was going to meet Williams face to face, he was
already inside a small cell with Barbara Becnel his co-authored and
long-time supporter and reverend Jesse Jackson. Before I entered, Williams
put his hand behind his back through a small aperture in the metal door for
the guard to hand cuffs him. Once I was inside and the door was close they
removed the handcuffs, he reached out to say hello, Williams is tall and
well built, it is visible that he was once a body builder, he appeared calm
and at peace with himself, I shook his hand and sat next to him. I had so
many questions and knew my time with him was limited. I told him I had
recently listened to a debate about his case on National Public Radio (NPR)
and felt very disturbed when his defender had to admit that he was not
willing to apologise or express remorse for the murders for which he was
convicted and condemned to death, I asked him why? He answered in a calm
and measured voice "I am innocent, I did not commit the crimes for which I
was sentenced to death, I cannot ask for forgiveness and express remorse
for a murder I didn't commit, even if by refusing to do so, I risk loosing
my life, 'I cannot lie in order to live' " he looked me straight in the
eyes, and he went on to say "First and foremost I am innocent, there was no
tangible evidence that linked me to the crime, all evidence was
circumstantial, hear say from a discredited informant, a bloody foot print,
an indentation from an army boot, the indentation did not match my boots,
no finger print that matched mine, at first the ballistic expert declared
that the shell didn't match my shot gun, The prosecutor Robert Martin, told
him to try again and this time the ballistic expert said 'it was similar'
but at the hearing he said it 'was the same' they didn't use
Photomicrography to examine the shells. 'My lawyers are asking to have the
shells examined with photomicrograph, to establish what the human eye
cannot distinguish' ". I had a sip of water, and asked him why he thought
he was convicted and sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit "I had
a nasty reputation and my reputation was put on trial, I had co-founded the
street gang the Crips and had earned a bad reputation for being violent and
beating up people, I was tried convicted and sentence to death by an all
white jury, the prosecutor Robert Martin dismissed three prospective black
jurors, because he was seeking an all white jury, he is notorious for
engaging in racial discriminations, in addition, I had an incompetent
legal counsel" he took a sip of his drink and went on to say on a lower
voice " I have apologised on many occasions for my crimes and I genuinely
have tried to redeem myself" how? I asked, " I have written nine books to
reach out to young people and bring them away from a life of violence and
street gangs, I educated myself and became an autodidact, as you can
imagine this place has little room for rehabilitation, it was up to me to
change. For the first 8 to 9 years I gave them hell, I spent years in
solitary confinement, my redemption came by virtue of my education, it help
me developed a conscience".
His case has received widespread support among religious leaders, Nobel
Prize winners, celebrities and international figures, and has further
ignited the debate into America's barbaric, medieval and outdated death
penalty policy.
This was my first visit to San Quintin, however, this was not my first
visit to a prisoner on death row awaiting an imminent execution, I was
anguished and upset at the thought that Stanley Tookie Williams only had 22
days to live and that his life clock was ticking away, I remember having
the same disturbing thought when I visited Karla Fay Tucker and Gary Graham
know as Shaka Sankofa on death row in Texas, both hoped George W. Bush then
Texas Governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole would changed
their sentence from death to life imprisonment without parole. They were
both executed by lethal injection, I witness the chocking state sanction
murder of Gary Graham, across America and throughout the world people
believe he was innocent of the crime for which he was executed, he was
convicted and sentence to death base on a sole eyewitness testimony. Karla
Fay Tucker drew widespread opposition to her execution because of her
rehabilitation, religious conversion and her work on the "Scare-straight"
programme to help adolescent drug abusers, George W. Bush washed his hands
as a modern Pontius Pilates and made a mocking remark about her in the
media and the Board of Pardons and parole has never recommended that a case
be commuted on the basis of mercy or rehabilitation and has never spared a
death row prisoner from execution by lethal injection. Stanley Tookie
Williams' life depends on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the
Governor has the authority to: grant a pardon if he believes Stanley Tookie
Williams is innocent, grant clemency and commute his death sentence to life
imprisonment without parole, if he believes that Williams has rehabilitated
, no longer presents a threat to society and has shown remorse for the
crimes for which he was sentenced to death, In addition the Governor can
grant a reprieve to allowed William's lawyer's to present a discovery
motion to "seek evidence that should have been disclosed at the time of his
trial but was suppressed and continuous to be suppressed by the prosecution".
Stanley Tookie Williams has been in death row for nearly a quarter of a
Century. In 1971 Williams co-founded the notorious Los Angeles street gang
"the Crips" and in 1981 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death
by an all white jury. Since Williams' incarceration, he has decried gang
violence and has made great efforts to reform the violent conduct of
others. He has writing nine books to warned youth about the dangers of gang
life. His enlightening work has touched thousands of troubled youths and
many have since turned away from gang violence. To those transformed by
Williams' writings, he has come to represent a symbol of hope and purpose.
For his good works, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
recommended that Mr. Williams would make a "worthy candidate" for an act of
executive clemency.
Williams has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since
2001. He has also been awarded the US presidential service award in 2005
for his outstanding work to benefit the country's youth.
In his appeal before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals William argued that
Robert Martin, the prosecutor in his case, had engaged in "impermissible
racial discrimination in the jury selection", Martin had removed all blacks
from William's jury, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the US
constitution. In his appeals Williams points to two California Supreme
Court cases that involved the same prosecutor where his actions are at
issue in People v. Turner and People v. Fuentes, in both cases the
California Supreme Court reversed the judgement, in People v. Turner the
court concluded "the record demonstrated that the prosecutor used his
peremptory challenges to strike Black prospective jurors in a racially
discriminatory manner for the apparent purpose of obtaining an all -White
jury to try this black defendant for crimes against white victims. In the
People v. Fuentes the court concluded that the prosecutor engage in a
pattern and practice of discriminating on the basis of race in the exercise
of peremptory challenges"
California is embarking on an avalanche of executions right before a state
senate bipartisan commission is set to examine the fairness of the
application of the death penalty in the State.
The scheduled execution of Williams is but a glimpse into the broken system
of justice in the State of California. Three men are on the brink of being
executed by lethal injection; their convictions were based on unreliable
informants, racially biased practices, and poor legal counsel.
Death sentences in California continue to rely on discriminatory practices
and sub-standard legal representation. California has no formal system of
proportionality review in either the trial courts or the state supreme
court, and as a result, no mechanism exists to bring the issue of racial
discrimination before state courts. This lack of meaningful review creates
fertile ground for an institutionalised pattern and practice of racial bias.
There is little question that in capital cases, a competent attorney can
mean the difference between life and death. "Often defendants are
sentenced to death not for committing the worst crimes but for having the
worse lawyers". Executing a person, because of the incompetence of their
attorneys, instead of the gravity of their crime, only adds to the
arbitrary and discriminatory nature of the death penalty. The failure of
Williams' attorney to object to the jury selection should not prejudice him
from receiving relief from the courts. In his Feb. 2, 2005 dissent on the
9th Circuit's decision to deny Stanley Tookie Williams recent request for
relief (Williams v Wodford) Judge Rawlinson stated, "The trial attorney
missed more than one opportunity to make that simple motion; he could have
made the motion after the first strike, the second strike, the third
strike, or at the conclusion of jury selection - when he knew that the
prosecutor's challenges had resulted in an all white jury. Any way you
slice it, counsel's failure to object constituted ineffective assistance of
counsel, and we should not hesitate to say so."
The California State Senate-established a bi-partisan Commission on the
Fair Administration of Justice. The Justice Commission has two years to
identify the problems in the criminal justice system that lead to wrongful
conviction and wrongful execution and to make specific recommendations to
the Legislature and the Governor as to what is needed to make California's
criminal justice system just, fair, and accurate. The Commission has just
begun to investigate these disturbing issues,
Governor Schwarzenegger must exhibit respect for due process, it would be
indefensible to execute one more person while critical questions about the
administration of justice in the state of California are being reviewed by
a bipartisan committee. The Governor must halt all executions until the
investigation of the Justice Commission is completed.
I urge Governor Schwarzenegger to exhibit leadership and grant clemency to
Stanley Tookie Williams, and commute his sentence from death to life
imprisonment without parole. I hope he will recognise that it is the human
capacity for change and redemption that endows us all with the potential to
become better people. Killing Stanley Tookie Williams will only complete
the cycle of violence and will shouts out the light of redemption that
exist in all of us. Governor Schwarzenegger should realise that criminal
courts in the US are the institution least affected by the civil right
movement, the courts have failed, and are failing in their duty to ensure
due process for all, the death penalty in the state of California is
selectively applied, it feeds prejudices against minorities, the poor and
those lucking political clout. The Governor should declare a moratorium on
all executions in California.
Bianca Jagger is The Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador and a Member of
the Executive Director's Leadership Council of Amnesty International USA.
She received in 2004 the Right Livelihood Award ("Alternative Nobel price").
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Distributed by:
Ole von Uexküll
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD AWARD FOUNDATION
PO Box 15072, 104 65 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 702 03 37, Fax: +46 8 702 03 38
ole @ rightlivelihood.org, www.rightlivelihood.org
Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Award is presented annually in the
Swedish Parliament and is often referred to as the "Alternative Nobel
Prize". Its aim is "to honour and support those offering practical and
exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today".
---
Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
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