Snoop Dogg, Supporters Say Tookie Should Live

Nov. 20 - KGO (KGO) -- The battle over the scheduled execution of convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams is heating up. Williams is the founder the notorious Crips gang. He was convicted of killing four people in 1979. Since then, he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts from prison to stop gang violence. In Santa Clara on Saturday, rapper Snoop Dogg and Williams both made pleas for the execution to be stopped.

The battle to save Stanley Tookie Williams is building strength among an army of young people. Saturday afternoon, Williams called the Junior State of America's northern California convention, direct from Death Row.

Stanley Tookie Williams, San Quentin inmate: "I definitely appreciate individuals are putting forth the initiative to help me get a clemency or stay, and I appreciate it and I love all of you wholeheartedly."

Rapper Snoop Dogg told the teens about when he was a member of the Crips gang and how Williams inspired him to change and live a positive life.

Snoop Dogg, rapper: "There's people who don't know how to get along and have beefs with each other. He's showing people how to work that out, how to communicate and how to come along and to be able to converse with each other."

After Williams' call, the high schoolers rushed to buy "Save Tookie" t-shirts and the convicted killer's books.

Nick Mann, Archbishop Riordan High School, San Francisco: "What I saw in there was amazing, because the volume of his call from Death Row was very low. And we had to be absolutely silent to hear him, and that's the voice at which social reforms like Tookie Williams speaks always, and we just can hear him over all our own arguing and in-fighting."

Teens who are facing some of the same struggles as Williams once did called for clemency in a rally at San Quentin prison. He's been incarcerated there since 1981.

Ryniqueka Dowd, Richmond resident: "Since he's gone through all this, I'm definitely not going to get into any gangs, and I will do what he did."

Ryniqueka Dowd was one of hundreds of people who gathered at the prison's east gates to urge Governor Schwarzenegger to commute Williams' death sentence to one of life imprisonment.

Jan Miller says the publicity surrounding Williams is insulting to victims' families. After her daughter was murdered, she founded citizens against homicide in San Anselmo.

Jan Miller, Citizens Against Homicide co-founder: "All they really want to talk about is this Tookie Williams, and his supporters and his rap friends. And no one wants to talk about the thousands of youth that because of him are involved in drugs, and how much their families suffer."

It is fair to say the cries to save Stanley Tookie Williams will become only louder as his December 13 execution date draws near. On November 30, protestors will hold simultaneous events across the state, including Sacramento, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco.

On Sunday, the Junior State of America Convention will host Rebecca Owens, the daughter of one of Tookie's Williams' victims. Owens says she has been waiting for justice to be served and wants Williams' sentence carried out.

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