Schwarzenegger denies clemency to convicted killer

Reverend Jesse Jackson outside San Quentin prison after California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency to Stanley Tookie Williams. Picture / Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency to former Crips gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams, who is slated to be executed today for murdering four people in 1979.

The case has generated widespread interest and fierce debate over the death penalty in the United States because Williams, 51, has written a series of books warning young people against gangs and says he has found redemption.

His supporters argued he should have been spared so that he could continue his anti-gang work from behind bars.

Schwarzenegger, weakened by a stinging loss on all his initiatives in a special election he called last month, would have risked alienating his Republican party if he granted clemency.

"Clemency cases are always difficult and this one is no exception," Schwarzenegger said.

"After studying the evidence, searching the history, listening to the arguments and wrestling with the profound consequences, I could find no justification for granting clemency."

Baring last-minute court intervention, officials will administer a lethal injection at 12.01am today (9.01pm NZDT) in the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison.

The decision came just over a week after a double murderer became the 1000th prisoner to be executed in the United States since the reimposition of capital punishment in 1976.

Williams was convicted in 1981 of killing Albert Owens as he lay facing downward on the floor of a 7-Eleven convenience store in a $120 robbery. Two weeks after the robbery, Williams shot dead an elderly Taiwanese immigrant couple running a motel.

Williams has said he did not commit the murders, but said he hurt many people as leader of the Crips gang in the Los Angeles area.

Williams has attracted a number of high-profile backers, including Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx, who starred in a sympathetic made-for-TV movie about the case.

The impending execution has mobilised death penalty opponents and drew pleas for his life from prominent figures such as South Africa's Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and rapper Snoop Dogg.

Opponents of clemency said Williams continues to have ties to the Crips gang he says that he co-founded, and say his lack of remorse made him worthy of society's harshest punishment.

- REUTERS