On Tuesday, December 13, 2005 2:26 PM [PDT], John Thornton Asked:
>
> I haven't followed this case at all. Were the facts in the case
> questionable?
>
Evidence points to frame-up in Tookie Williams case By Clive Leeman -Guest Columnist- Updated Dec 8, 2005, 01:19 pm
<..> According to Atty. Wefald and federal courts that reviewed Williams' case, Williams' 1981 trial for the murder of Albert Owens, a convenience store clerk in Whittier, and Los Angeles motel owners Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shaic Yang and their daughter Yee Chen Lin, was based on flimsy circumstantial evidence; the fabricated testimony of five informants having "incentives to lie in order to obtain leniency from the state...." (according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals); and the perjury of at least one police officer.
Physical evidence such as fingerprints and a bloody boot-print could not be traced to Stanley Williams.
Only one shotgun shell was found at the motel. It ostensibly came from a shotgun purchased legally five years before by Mr. Williams, but the gun itself was actually found under the bed of informants James Garrett and his wife Ester. The Browning shotgun shell was sold at only two local stores, one of which, a Big Five, had been robbed of guns and ammunition by Mr. Garrett the year before.
The Garretts were both being investigated for the murder of their crime partner, Gregory Wilbon. This investigation was dropped, according to Atty. Wefald, after they testified that Mr. Williams "volunteered" a confession to them.
Deputy Gilbert Gwaltney perjured himself when he supported Mr. Garrett, by testifying that the informant had a sound alibi at the time his crime partner Wilbon was murdered. Mr. Wilbon's body was so badly decomposed, Mr. Williams' lawyers write, that it was impossible to establish a time of death and thus impossible to establish an alibi.
Another informant also claimed that Stanley Williams had "volunteered" a confession to him-but only after a police officer had left the police file on Mr. Williams overnight in the informant's cell for him to read before he testified the next day, according to Atty. Wefald.
The prosecutor, who had already been censured twice by the California Supreme Court for discriminatory behavior, threw three Black people off the jury, leaving a majority-White jury with few or no Blacks (at least one juror's racial identity is in dispute).
<More>
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_2313.shtml
Leigh