Tookie Gets No Love from the Guv

The Governator has declined to grant clemency to Stanley Tookie Williams, which means that the office his Maker should be calling Tookie today to confirm their previously scheduled meeting for early Tuesday morning.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused Monday to spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, the founder of the murderous Crips gang who awaited execution after midnight in a case that stirred debate over capital punishment and the possibility of redemption on death row.

Schwarzenegger was not swayed by pleas from Hollywood stars and petitions from more than 50,000 people who said that Williams had made amends during more than two decades in prison by writing a memoir and a series of children's books about the dangers of gangs. (NOTE: None of the books sold more than 330 copies. You won't hear that in the media reports.- HC)

With a reprieve from the federal courts considered unlikely, Williams, 51, was set to die by injection at San Quentin State Prison early Tuesday for murdering four people in two 1979 holdups.

Looks like it's strike two in the countdown to the Christmas riots.

UPDATE: I'm watching CNN (I know, I should know better) and Wolf Blitzer is just beside himself that the governor turned Tookie down after all of Tookie's "good works". He also used the lame "if by his writing, his words, he can save one or two lives by discouraging people to join gangs, then maybe it would be worth it to let him stay in San Quentin for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole" as part of a question to Robert Martin a prosecutor in the Tookie murder case. Mr. Martin said that he didn't believe "that was a conclusive argument". Poor Wolf.


Stanley Tookie Williams; Tookie; Tookie Williams