Crowd gathers in Los Angeles
for Tookie Williams funeral
Peter Prengaman
LOS ANGELES — Celebrities from hip-hop star Snoop Dogg to
motivational speaker Tony Robbins lamented the execution of Stanley
Tookie Williams at a funeral Tuesday that drew hundreds to the violence-wracked
area where Williams founded the murderous Crips gang three decades
ago.
Under heavy police presence, mourners including gang members flashing
hand signs waited in line to enter the 1,500-seat Bethel AME Church.
Vendors sold T-shirts with Williams’ picture, and a large
TV set up in the parking lot allowed the overflow crowd to watch
the service. Williams was executed Dec. 13 despite clemency pleas
from celebrities and others who said he had rededicated his life
to peace.
“It’s nine-fifteen on twelve-thirteen and another black
king will be taken from the scene,” Snoop Dogg told mourners,
reciting a poem about the execution. The line “I don’t
believe Stan did it” drew wild applause in the parking lot.
Williams, 51, was put to death by injection at San Quentin Prison
for the 1979 shotgun murders of a 7-Eleven clerk and three motel
owners.
“The war within me is over. I battled my demons and I was
triumphant,” Williams said in a recording played to mourners,
whom he asked to spread a message to loved ones.
“Teach them how to avoid our destructive footsteps. Teach
them to strive for higher education. Teach them to promote peace
and teach them to focus on rebuilding the neighborhoods that you,
others and I helped to destroy.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson decried the execution of Williams, who Jackson
said saw himself in the end as a “healer, not a predator.”
“Tookie is dead. We’re not safer, we’re not more
secure, we’re not more humane,” Jackson said.
Robbins told the mourners he knew Williams only a short time but
said he had “so much rage and so much anger” after his
execution.
While on death row, Williams wrote children’s books warning
against gang life. Those efforts attracted supporters who lobbied
for clemency, arguing Williams had redeemed himself. But Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger was unconvinced, and refused to spare his life.
Several dozen gang members wearing blue attire associated with Crips
gangs watched the funeral in the parking lot. One who identified
himself as “Killowatt the Third,” age 33, estimated
there were 20 to 30 Crips-affiliated gangs there to honor Williams.
“That’s my role model, man. That’s the CEO of
the Crips,” he said.
Al Birdsong, 54, a school security officer who waited for hours
to get into the funeral, said Williams did not deserve to be executed
after more than two decades in prison.
“I’m here to pay my respects to humanity, and that goes
to Tookie and everyone else they do in. ... What if it was your
son?” Birdsong said. “He’s no different from any
other human being. We all made mistakes.”
Keelonnie Roberts, 23, of Torrance, said her father was a Crip who
used to tell her tales of gang life. Although Roberts never met
Williams, she said, “He seemed like a sweet man to me.”
Mourner Rick Hayes, 36, of Compton, wore a T-shirt with the slogan,
“What does redemption mean ...,” which he had made.
If Williams was unable to earn clemency from the governor, “what
can a black man do, what can he do in society, to get another chance
at life?” Hayes asked.
In his will, Williams asked that his remains be cremated and the
ashes scattered over South Africa.
Tuesday’s ceremony was not the first public funeral for an
executed inmate.
About 300 people attended a San Francisco service for Robert Alton
Harris, a murderer whose 1992 execution was the first in 25 years
after a death penalty ban and became a rallying point for opponents
of capital punishment.
Associated Press Writer Robert Jablon contributed to this report.
(Associated Press)
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