Clemency debate for convict
2005-11-18 10:50
Los Angeles ? United States prosecutors have urged California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to deny clemency to a death row murder convict - who has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize.
Schwarzenegger is Crips street-gang founder, Stanley "Tookie" Williams, last chance to stay alive. He is scheduled for execution on December 13.
Los Angeles prosecutors have urged the former movie star politician not to show mercy. They argue that Williams deserves to die because he is a "cold-blooded killer".
"Stanley Williams now seeks mercy, the very mercy he so callously denied his four victims," said prosecutors.
"Stanley Williams does not deserve this mercy," said assistant head deputy district attorney, John Monaghan, and deputy district attorney David Walgren.
"In fact, despite the overwhelming nature of the evidence against him, and despite the non-existence of any credible defence, Stanley Williams has steadfastly refused to take any responsibility for the brutal, destructive and murderous acts he committed," they added.
Williams was convicted for the February 1979 shooting death of a convenience store clerk and the shotgun murders of a family of three in a Los Angeles motel less than two weeks later. He was sentenced to death in 1981.
The co-founder of Los Angeles' notorious Crips gang has been incarcerated in a small cell on the death row of San Francisco's San Quentin prison for 24 years.
However, since his death sentence, Williams, 51, has renounced his gang past, has penned children's books, been the subject of a television movie starring Jamie Foxx, and been nominated for the world's top peace prize.
No condemned murderer has been granted clemency in California since 1967.