12-09-05, 10:30 am

Stanley Williams, a black man, is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 13, 2005 for two robberies resulting in the murders of Alvin Owens, Thsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang, and Yee Chen on Feb. 27, 1979 in Los Angeles County.

Williams maintains his innocence for these two crimes.  However he admits to a life of gang violence and to co-founding the Crips youth gang.  During his 26 total years in prison, 24 of which have been spent on death row, Williams has completely reformed.  Williams’ case presents a strong argument for clemency.  During his time on death row, he has written an award-winning series of children's books that warn about the perils of the gang lifestyle; written another book for older children that demythologizes the prison experience (undercutting a myth that prison is some kind of rite of passage for young African-American males); written his own autobiography which renounces gang violence; produced a peace protocol to help street gangs turn to peaceful behaviour; and founded an Internet-based peer mentoring and anti-gang program involving children in the United States, Switzerland, and South Africa.

His work played a prominent role in gang truces in Los Angeles and Newark, New Jersey. In 2004, after watching a film that depicts Williams' life (Redemption, in which the actor Jamie Foxx plays Stanley Williams), more than 300 members of the Crips and Bloods gangs in Newark, New Jersey, signed a peace treaty, agreeing to end gang violence.

Inspired by Williams' work against violence, a member of the Swiss Parliament has nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Furthermore, President George W. Bush's Council on Service and Civic Participation bestowed upon Stanley Williams the “Presidential Call to Service Award.” The letter congratulating Williams for the award praised him for having contributed to the “build[ing of] a culture of citizenship, service, and responsibility in America.”  This special award 'honors those who have provided more than 4,000 hours of service over the course of their lifetime.”

In addition to the obvious problems with executing someone who has so clearly reformed and who may serve a meaningful purpose to society if allowed to live, there are also problems with Williams’ trial.  At Williams’ request, no mitigating evidence was presented at trial, although such evidence was available.  According to the Supreme Court of California in the People v. Deere, such a lack of any mitigating evidence, even in accord with the defendant’s wish, renders the penalty determination constitutionally unreliable.  Oddly, the very same court ruled against Williams when the same circumstances existed. 

Moreover, Williams’ trial counsel allowed the prosecutor to unconstitutionally strike three black potential jurors.  Two had been drawn, passed for cause, and had been placed in the jury box.  One had been drawn as an alternate juror.  The striking to potential jurors for no reason other than their race is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

It is also important to note that Williams’ defense counsel neglected to object to the prosecutor’s unconstitutional juror strikes.  This failure of defense counsel is a clear violation of the defendant’s right to effective assistance of counsel.  As stated by the dissenting opinion in Williams’ U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ rejection of his motion for re-hearing “[a]ny reasonable attorney under the circumstances of this case would have objected to the prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges to rid the jury of African-Americans.”

The same dissent also points out that “[t]here is a reasonable probability that Williams would have succeeded in proving that the prosecutor was engaging in impermissible racial discrimination.”  Had trial counsel objected this probability may have been realized.  The same dissent continues by stating that such an error is “sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome of the trial.”    

Clearly Stanley Williams is not an appropriate candidate for the death penalty.  His trial was riddled with extraordinary constitutional violations.  Additionally Williams has reformed in prison and can serve as an asset to society while serving a term of life in prison without possibility of parole.

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From National Coaltion to Abolish the Death Penalty