"It was quite obvious he was guilty," Sabala said. "It wasn't even close. To have eyewitnesses to the actual murder, one of the participants, plus they have the gun involved in it and they matched the shells, that was quite obvious."
Sabala still remembers the gruesome images from the crime-scene photographs, bodies lying in the blood-spattered motel room, Lin shot in the face.
"I'd love to sit in at his execution," Sabala said. "I'd even go so far as to push both plungers and put the liquid into his veins."
During his first 12 years on San Quentin's Death Row, Williams remained the violent gangster he had been on the streets of LA.
Prosecutors and prison officials said he beat other inmates, attacked guards and led the Crips gang that operated inside the prison. In 1988, after prison officials believed he ordered the stabbing of another inmate, he was placed in a small cell commonly known as "The Hole."
epiphany
There, he had an epiphany.
"I think he hit rock bottom," said Phil Gasper, a death penalty opponent and professor at Notre Dame de Namur Uni-versity who befriended Williams about five years ago. "That isolation, he had nowhere to go and nothing much to think about except his own life."
It was at this point, supporters say, that Williams renounced his gang lifestyle and dedicated his life to spreading an anti-gang message.
The best way to do it, he thought, was through children's books.
He told this plan to Barbara Becnel, a journalist who'd interviewed him at San Quentin in 1992 for a book on gangs. Becnel was initially suspicious, but she encouraged him to pursue his idea.
In 1993, Williams offered to try to help broker a peace between the Crips and their fiercest street rivals, the Bloods.
He videotaped a message at San Quentin that was shown to a group of 400 gang members at a summit in Watts in April 1993. With Williams' help, the truce was reached, and by 1996 authorities reported a 25
percent drop in gang-related homicides in Los Angeles County.
Becnel said, "When I saw his voice was a respected voice, I thought, this is of value, and I need to do whatever I can."
Over the next three years, Becnel and Williams teamed up to write eight children's books, all of which were published in 1996, including Gangs and Violence, Gangs and the Abuse of Power, Gangs and Weapons and Gangs and Drugs.
Because of the books, Williams has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times and the Nobel Prize for Literature once. Gasper submitted four of the nominations for the Peace Prize.
"His influence has been so positive in the last 10 to 12 years, he's worthy of being nominated," Gasper said. "I know quite a few Death Row inmates, but I've never met anyone with the dedication and determination that Stan has."
Gang experts are mixed over the impact of Williams' work.
The case went to appeal and the verdict was upheld. Now, only Schwarzenegger can prevent Williams' execution. Lawyers for Williams pleaded for his life before Schwarzenegger on Thursday, five days before Williams is set to die.
"I want to make sure I make the right decision," Schwarzenegger has said. "We are dealing with a person's life."
With supporters and opponents entering the last stretch in the battle to see justice done, Stanley Tookie Williams' case divides moral opinion.
RSS