Stanley 'Tookie' Williams

HOC. PRESS RELEASE TO PRESENT PETITION FOR ‘TOOKIE’ WILLIAMS

December 2, 2005: there will be the presentation of the petition signed by the italian governors to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to halt the executions of Stanley “Tookie” Williams, whose execution is scheduled on december 13. At the presentation, which will be held December 3rd, in Rome, will speak: Piero Marrazzo, Governor of Regione Lazio and first petitioner; Sergio D’Elia, Hands Off Cain Secretary; MP Pietro Folena, coordinator of the italian mp signatures; Elisabetta Zamparutti, Editor of the Hands Off Cain 2005 Report and Francesca Mambro, coordinator of the Hands Off Ccampaign on Tookie Williams. Mr George Ryan, former Governor of Illinois and Honorary President of the Hands Off Cain, will intervene by telephone from United States. A video-message by Stanley “Tookie” Williams will be broadcasted. On November 30, the California Supreme Court refused to stop the execution of Williams. 
The court voted 4-2 to deny a motion to reopen the case, shifting the focus to efforts by supporters of Williams to convince California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant an 11th-hour clemency appeal.
Attorneys for Williams had filed a motion to reopen his case on November 10 with California's highest court.
Schwarzenegger, who is scheduled to meet with prosecutors and attorneys for Williams on December 8 declined to say whether he would grant clemency. He has rejected two previous clemency requests from death row inmates, though one of those executions was stayed by a federal court. Williams, a cofounder in Los Angeles in 1971 of the notorious crips gang who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his children's books, is scheduled to die at San Quentin prison. Williams, 51, was sentenced to death in 1981. He maintains he is innocent, and supporters cite his renunciation of his past and his efforts to curtail gang violence, including a series of children's books he co-wrote in prison. Supporters have nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel in Literature, and a cable tv movie of his life last year starred oscar-winner jamie foxx. The Hands Off Cain petition addressed to the Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, to halt the execution of Williams, has been signed by all the 21 Italian Governors and by more than 100 Italian Parliamentarians. During the press conference will be released data on the death penalty in the Usa and will be presented the perspectives of the international campaign aiming at obtaining a resolution by the un General Assembly for a universal moratorium on capital executions. (Sources: HOC, 02/12/2005)