You may order the autobiography of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, Blue Rage, Black Redemption from Damamli Publishing Company. The book price is $24.99 for United States residents, plus $3.50 for shipping and handling (S&H), totaling $28.49. California residents should add 8.25% state sales tax, for a total of $30.55. The book is in a quality trade paperback format so that prisoners may receive the book via the U.S. mail. Click here to learn more about the book.
NAACP Steps Up Efforts to Save Stanley Tookie Williams California Gov. Schwarzenegger is asked to grant clemency to former gang leader who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Bruce S. Gordon, President & CEO, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said today that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on December 13. Williams, who maintains his innocence, has been nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize and four times for the Nobel Prize for Literature for his series of acclaimed children’s books.
Gordon said: “The NAACP asks Gov. Schwarzenegger to act with courage and exercise the power of his office to grant clemency to Stanley Williams.”
Gordon said the NAACP will lead a multi-city two-week crusade to convince Schwarzenegger that Williams should live to continue his work in helping young people make positive choices and avoid the gang life that he once lived. Williams, a co-founder of the Crips gang, has won international and national recognition for the 10 books he wrote urging youths to stay away from gangs.
In a series of rallies, prayer vigils and news conferences in California from San Diego to Sacramento, the NAACP will focus public attention on the Williams case. Schwarzenegger has agreed to meet Dec. 8 with Williams' lawyers, Los Angeles County prosecutors and others involved in the case to consider whether to grant clemency. He has refused to meet with the NAACP.
Gordon said: “I am convinced that our community is best served if Stan is alive and contributing to the guidance of our youth. He is a one-of-a-kind human asset who needs to exercise his unique ability to touch the lives of young people.”
On Saturday, Gordon met privately with Williams for two-and-a half hours at the San Quentin prison death house where he has lived since 1981. During the meeting, Gordon said Williams committed to working with the NAACP to reach young people who might be influenced to join gangs. Gordon, who became president of the NAACP in August, said reaching out to young people is a key priority in his administration. “He is our new partner,” he said. “He’s our secret weapon in the fight to help young African Americans reject gangs. Williams will have a powerful impact not just in Los Angeles, not just in California, but throughout our nation.”
The NAACP has long opposed the death penalty and has called for a moratorium on executions until questions about the reliability and fairness of capital punishment have been answered and it is certain that the process does not discriminate. There are documented cases that show the death penalty has been applied differently depending on the race of the offender and the victim.
Gordon said that based upon the assessment of the NAACP legal staff; there is sufficient reason to question Williams’ guilt. “We believe that race impacted the trial that convicted Stan and sentenced him to death,” said Gordon. “However, at this point, the NAACP bases its support for clemency on the value of Stan’s life to the communities the organization represents. We want to save Stan’s life so he can save the lives of others.”
The NAACP supports the Petition for Executive Clemency submitted by Williams’ legal counsel on November 8, 2005. Included in the petition is a quote from the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist written in 1998:
“…the heart of executive clemency…is to grant clemency as a matter of grace, thus allowing the executive to consider a wide range of factors not comprehended by earlier judicial proceedings and sentencing determinations.”
Four Nobel laureates, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have called on Schwarzenegger to grant clemency for Williams. "Through his work, gang truces have been mediated and long-standing wounds have been healed. Lives have been saved," the laureates said in a letter to the governor.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Stanley Williams merits clemency,” said Gordon.
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
About Stan Tookie Williams 
