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Governator allocates 60 minutes for Tookie's final hearing (30 minutes for each side)

by SaveTookie.org
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set a 30-minute time limit for each side to argue over clemency for Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Schwarzenegger did not hold a similar meeting for either of the clemency petitions he has rejected (Kevin Cooper and Donald Beardslee).
Posted on Thu, Dec. 01, 2005


Lawyers for Crips co-founder will get 30 minutes with governor


BY JOHN SIMERMAN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - What lawyers for Stanley "Tookie" Williams want most is another day in court. What they'll get, on Dec. 8, is a half-hour in the "horseshoe."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set a 30-minute time limit for each side to argue over clemency for Williams, the Crips gang co-founder who has found loud support for his series of children's books and anti-gang outreach work from death row at San Quentin State Prison.

He faces execution Dec. 13 for the murders of four people in 1979.

The meeting in the governor's Capitol office area - known as the horseshoe - will start at 10 a.m. The ground rules, issued Thursday in a letter to lawyers, allow each side to reserve some of the time for rebuttal. Lawyers for Williams will begin first.

"It affords the counsel the benefit of presenting their material and their case directly to the governor," said Margita Thompson, Schwarzenegger's press secretary.

Schwarzenegger did not hold a similar meeting for either of the clemency petitions he has rejected. Kevin Cooper, whose execution was stayed under court order, never got a hearing. Donald Beardslee, as a twice-convicted felon, was entitled to a state Board of Prison Terms hearing that ran half a day, said Bill Sessa, a board spokesman. Beardslee was executed in January.

"Of course our side would like half a day, but I have to give the governor the benefit of the doubt that he's read all the materials," said Barbara Becnel, Williams' longtime advocate.

Williams was convicted in 1981 for the murders of Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Yang and Ye-Chen Lin at a Los Angeles motel, and of store clerk Albert Owens at a 7-Eleven in Whittier, Calif. The U.S. Supreme Court in October declined to hear his most recent appeal. On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court denied his motion to reopen the case.



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To help stop the execution, please see:

http://www.savetookie.org/

http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/


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