[dda]

No tears for "Tookie".

I do not support the death penalty for totally non-moral reasons.

I do not like the death penalty because I believe it undermines peoples confidence in the justice system. Judges who are trying to avoid a death penalty to a particular individual are forever making questionable rulings that not only confuse and upset a large portion of the population but also lead to unanticipated consequences on every other criminal case that comes along thereafter.

However, I also believe that a society can and will protect itself in whatever manner it thinks necessary. As such, I accept that the death penalty is something which each political entity is entitled to make for itself.

Personally, I have never accepted a case to prosecute which could have resulted in the death penalty. However, not feeling it my position to superimpose my judgement for that of the people of the state of California, I have set in on a number of meetings where it was decided whether we should or should not seek the death peanalty in a particular case. I have voted that particular cases were proper cases, under our law and in the standards of my community, in which to seek the death penalty.

Tookie Williams was a viscious individual who spent most of his years before his arrest in the pursuit of violence and the spreading of the culture of violence through the Crips.

After he was convicted and sentenced Tookie:

June 30, 1981---Tookie kicked the crap out of another inmate.

January 26, 1982---Tookie threatened to kill or have killed a guard who was trying to get him to return to
his cell.

January 28, 1982---Tookie through chemical agents into the face and eyes of a guard causing chemical
burns and hospital treatment.

January 29. 1982---For the third time in two days, Tookie attacked a guard by throwing chemicals at a
guard.

February 16, 1984---The Tookster attacked another inmate and would not cease beating him until warning
shots were fired.

June 8, 1984---Tookie threatened to kill a guard.

July 4, 1986---Tookie attacked and beat a fellow inmate.

October 10, 1988---Williams was the victim of a stabbing attack which was in retaliation for stabbing of
another inmate by the Crips which Tookie had ordered.

December 24, 1991---Tookie again attacked and beat another inmate until warning shots were fired.

July 6, 1993---Tookie is involved in another fight where a shank was involved and would not cease and
desist until warning shots were fired.

All of this occurred while Tookie was on death row.

Tookie remained a member of the Crips up to his death as far as could be told by prison authorities.

Despite how he supposedly inspired so many to renounce gangs, he remains a role modle for gang members in the community. He never renounced the Crips or gave law enforcement any information on gang activities.

The judicial system looked at all of the claims of innocence and bad trial for 25 years and repeatedly judges, including the 9th District Circuit Court of Appeals, the most anti-death penalty court in America, and determined that the trial was fair and the evidence of guilt was overwhelming.

The fact that it took 25 years in not unusual here. We recently had a death penalty from this county overturned and the case returned for trial after 23 years.