Punkin McNair will try anything to warn his students at Bell Gardens High School away from gangs, and the story of Stanley Tookie Williams provides the perfect vehicle.
McNair built a curriculum for his English class based on the books written by Williams, widely reputed to be a founding member of the notorious Crips street gang, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday for murdering four people in 1979. The nine-book series, titled Tookie Speaks Out Against Gangs, won Williams widespread praise and
literary awards, including nominations for both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature.
"Here's somebody that's true-to-life from the 'hood,'" McNair said. "He's from similar streets that we've walked today. And look at what he's done. That lets you know that it's never too late."
Less than 30km away, Larry Sabala of Torrance is still haunted by images of the shotgun slayings he saw while sitting on the jury that convicted Williams of the murder of convenience-store worker Albert Owens, 26, and motel owners Yang Yen-I, 76, and Yang Tsai-shai, 63, and their daughter Lin Yee-chen, 43, during separate robberies.
Sabala, 63, and his fellow jurors recommended the death penalty, and now nearly 25 years later he still believes
Williams deserves to die.
"What do you think it looks like when you've been shot at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun? It's not pretty," he said.
These are the two lives of Tookie
Williams, whose impending execution has ignited a firestorm of debate around the nation about the death penalty in general, and in particular whether Williams should be granted clemency.
Death penalty opponents and gang members have united to fight for Williams' life, touting his role as a teacher and a mentor trying to steer children away from gangs and violence.
They've formed the Save Tookie Committee, staging rallies attended by the likes of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Snoop Dogg and Jamie Foxx, who played Williams in a movie about his life.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a Save Tookie Williams Tour on Tuesday, featuring press conferences and rallies in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego. More than 30,000 people have signed a Save Tookie petition at his Web site, www.tookie.com.
But others maintain he's an unrepentant career criminal whose refusal to apologize for the murders -- or even acknowledge his participation in the execution-style slayings -- demonstrates his inhumanity and bolsters the arguments for his
execution.
Check facts
With all of Williams' legal appeals exhausted, his fate lies with Governor Arnold Schwarz-enegger. The governor had scheduled closed-door meetings last week when Williams' attorneys argued that his behavior behind bars makes up for his life of violence on the streets of Los Angeles.
Stanley Tookie Williams III was born Dec. 29, 1953, in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was named for his father -- Tookie is his given middle name, not a nickname -- but raised by his mother, who gave birth to him when she was 17.
In an effort to escape the poverty and crime in Louisiana, his mother moved to California in 1959, settling in South Los Angeles.
In his popular memoir, Blue Rage, Black Redemption, Williams said kids needed a fight-or-flight mentality to survive the streets of South LA. He chose to fight, and did often.
RSS