> Leigh:
>
>> Finally Wojtek, please spell my name correctly...
>>
>> ...and being "like" something is considered a disrespectful
>> frame of reference to a person in many cultures, be nice, I
>> have friends that can find you ;>
>
>
> Sorry and sorry. The first was just a spelling error, the second one
> was meant to indicate that I do not mean "you personally" but the
> kind of stuff that you and others happen to post, which to reiterate
> boils down to whom we believe - since none of us has any first
> knowledge of the facts of the case. I stay with the jury and the
> courts as, I am sure, a great majority of people would.
>
> Wojtek
>
Indeed I do, I'm just incredibly skeptical of the presentation of evidence and testimony at a time when the hysteria about gangs was almost almost as prevalent as the belief that Nicaragua was about to invade Harlingen TX.
Tookie Williams was no saint, obviously, and the Celebrity "cause celebre'" spectacle is a complex one, including posers and the quite serious long term anti death penalty advocates like Mike Farrell, but I believe that Williams sincerely figured out his sociologically related mistakes (big ones!), was repentant for them, but refused to admit to a crime that he steadfastly claimed he never committed.
One could compare his case, in a way, to Charlie Manson getting his followers to kill the Biancas & Tates, and we'd be more able to accurately gauge a verdict of guilt, but even still, Manson had day to day DIRECT control of his people whereas Tookie Williams Crips were much more loosely affiliated, a much larger, diverse population of "actors", and to say that Mr Williams controlled the Crips the way that "Don Coreleone" controlled his people, or the Medellin drug cartel has control over much of Columbia's drug trade is a false and fear inducing analogy... Which as I've stated previously, is exactly the intended effect of the hysteria created over 2 Los Angeles gangs out of literally hundreds.
Sure, Tookie Williams had a shotgun 5 years before the commision of a crime where it was apparently used by one of the participants turned informer, who it appears had possesion of the weapon long enough to steal a reportedly unique type of ammo in a robbery months before the shotgun was used in the crime that Williams was charged with.
Bragging of a crime normally wouldn't be very good evidence except perhaps as corroboration unless there was an admission of details unknown to the public (and the police should be very protective of that type of information to avoid "contamination", which the LAPD is inherently incapable of...), I don't believe his "brags" were ever tested to evidentiary standards ie. hearsay by a cellmate/informer as opposed to a higher standard that is absolutely required by any Capital case prosecution if the D.A has any interest in seeing the verdict stick.
He should have been charged in relation to THOSE types of crimes, weapons ordinances (state & federal), interfering with criminal investigations (not telling the police what he knew about the crimes), RICO... you could build a hundred pound docket based on all the corollary criminal activities implied when you are the leader of a crime gang, and perhaps the conviction would have been just, in more ways that "just" making sure he's dead.
Leigh