The California Supreme Court refused last week to halt the scheduled execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams, the Crips gang founder who became an anti-gang activist while in prison and whose supporters claim has redeemed himself. In a last-ditch legal move, defense attorneys petitioned the high court earlier this month, alleging shoddy forensic testing and other errors may have wrongly sent Williams to San Quentin State Prison, where he is scheduled die by injection Dec. 13.
Lawyers for Williams, author of a series of anti-gang books for children, wanted to re-exam ballistics evidence that showed his shotgun was used to kill three people during a 1979 motel robbery. The defense claimed the forensic evidence was "junk science," but prosecutors said that allegation was "based upon innuendo, supposition and the patent bias of (Williams') purported expert."
The high court voted 4-2 without comment to deny the inmate's petition, with Chief Justice Ronald George voting to reopen the case. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could also still intervene. He has agreed to hear Williams' clemency petition, and if clemency is granted it would commute the inmate's sentence to life without parole.
The high court's ruling came as death penalty opponents rallied around the state urging the governor to spare Williams' life because of his apparent turnabout on death row.
"We're all remaining optimistic. We're all remaining prayerful," Bonnie Williams-Taylor, Williams' ex-wife and the mother of one of his sons, said at a rally in Los Angeles.