Californians Conflicted on Williams’ Fate

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is feeling conflicted as he weighs life or death in the case of Stanley Tookie Williams, he is not alone.

Bill Knox opposes capital punishment because he believes it has not “been handled fairly over the decades ... especially in the minority communities.”

Still, the law is the law. If Schwarzenegger believes, after Thursday’s clemency hearing, that Williams deserves to die for the 1979 murders of four people, “then he has to carry out the sentence,” said Knox, a 57-year-old retired corporate executive in Danville, an affluent suburb east of San Francisco.

“I don’t personally like it, but I have to separate myself from a bigger system,” he said.

Just over Altamont Pass, dotted with churning windmills and grazing cows, Joe Cisneros is equally torn.

He supports the death penalty “to a certain extent.” But the Williams case is a hard one, he says.

“What he’s doing, writing books, trying to keep future generations out of gangs -- that type of a figure kids might want to listen to,” said the 58-year-old Cisneros, who has operated a hair salon in downtown Tracy for nearly 30 years. On the other hand, he said, “You’ve got to show these gangbangers if you do the crime, you’ve got to pay for it.”

Cisneros finally threw his hands in the air, literally, his palms facing the ceiling. “When you’re in that position like Arnold is, it’s a tough one,” Cisneros concluded. “I can’t make that judgment call. I just can’t.”

Deciding whether someone should live or die with the sanction of the state cannot be an easy thing. Schwarzenegger has already said he dreads deciding whether to let the Dec. 13 execution go forward. But although the judgment will not hinge on politics, the choice is particularly fraught for Schwarzenegger as he seeks to recover from last month’s disastrous special election and runs for a second term next year.

Abandoned by a large swath of the state’s Democratic-leaning electorate, Republican Schwarzenegger has worked to reclaim his centrist image by aggressively reaching out to old adversaries, even going so far as naming a longtime Democratic activist, Susan Kennedy, as his new chief of staff.

Granting clemency to Williams “would fit in with that kind of new characterization” of the governor as a more “humane, caring individual,” said Larry N. Gerston, a San Jose State political scientist.

And yet blocking Williams’ execution could further antagonize conservatives already outraged by Kennedy’s appointment and Schwarzenegger’s talk of huge new borrowing to pay for improved roads, ports and other infrastructure projects. “If he blinks on this issue, does he perhaps add more fuel to that fire and open the possibility for a primary fight?” Gerston asked.

But public opinion on the matter appears shaded with nuance. In polls taken over roughly the last decade, a majority of Californians have consistently said they support the death penalty for serious crimes. At the same time, some surveys have also found strong support for an alternative sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A series of random interviews around the state last week -- in politically competitive areas reflecting California as a whole -- found similar ambivalence among nearly four dozen individuals who agreed to discuss their views on Schwarzenegger, capital punishment and the choice the governor faces.

Supporters of the death penalty expressed concern about its application, citing cases of innocent men being freed from death row on the basis of new DNA evidence. Opponents questioned whether it was fair that Williams’ fame -- Jamie Foxx starred in a movie based on his life and has joined other celebrities in taking up his cause -- has given him a shot at clemency that others were denied.

Lance Leber seemed to be a walking embodiment of on-the-one-hand, on-the-other sentiment.

“If someone hurt my family, I’d be quite upset. I don’t know what kind of reaction I’d have,” said the lanky 33-year-old, a wine shop owner and part-time disc jockey in Livermore, on the far eastern reaches of the San Francisco Bay Area.

“It matters if he’s 100% guilty or not. There’s some things I’ve heard that this guy’s done some major repentance. But even with that

Weighing vengeance and mercy as he stood in the middle of a strip mall parking lot on a cold, blustery day, Leber finally said, “I just don’t think the death penalty would be the right solution in this case. There’s too much controversy.”

There were plenty of people who had no doubt, one way or the other -- among them Marie Retti, a 56-year-old cattle rancher who was slinging 20-pound bags of cat food into her faded red pickup nearby.

“Didn’t he kill four people? Didn’t he influence a lot of people to kill a lot of other people?” Retti said of Williams, co-founder of the Crips street gang. “I think evil is evil, and I don’t think people change.”

Four hundred miles to the south, in the bluff-top suburbs north of San Diego, Marge Benton said much the same thing. “Right is right and wrong is wrong, and an eye for an eye,” the 81-year-old retiree said after a worker at Solana Beach’s Dixieline Lumber loaded starter logs into the trunk of her white Lexus. “If you kill somebody, you have to pay the price.”

Mention of that Old Testament injunction brought a smile to John King’s face. The 50-year-old air traffic controller was navigating the crush of holiday shoppers at an upscale mall in Pleasanton, east of San Francisco. “I guess those people must believe in the Bible,” he said of the eye-for-an-eye adherents. “So therefore, if they believe in the Bible, they should believe that God is the only one who has the power over life and death.”

Although Benton is a fan of the governor and King opposed the recall that carried Schwarzenegger to office, opinions about Williams did not always divide neatly along partisan lines.

Around the corner at the Pleasanton mall, Democrat Jesus Romero questioned the sincerity of Williams’ jailhouse crusade against violence. “I’ve seen him in interviews. I’ve seen the books that he’s written,” Romero, 31, a juvenile counselor, said as he strained to keep an eye on his rambunctious 2-year-old, Isaac. “He’s done a lot of bad. He’s trying to do good, but in a way I think he’s just trying to save himself.”

Conversely, although Republican Chris Rudd was hazy on the facts in Williams’ case, he confessed to being “a little ambivalent” when it comes to the death penalty in general.

“Without really solid evidence, I know that juries make mistakes,” the 72-year-old retired metal parts salesman said as he waited to meet a buddy for breakfast at an International House of Pancakes in Glendale. “Sad to say, we all do.”

Whatever Schwarzenegger’s decision, there was little sense among voters questioned last week that it would haunt him politically.

Many said they empathized with the difficulty the governor faces, and more than a few said they were glad it was his responsibility and not theirs.

Even some of those who felt strongly one way or the other said they could understand the governor’s reaching a different conclusion.

“The death penalty is like abortion,” said Sherry Cain, 61, as she stopped by Dixieline Lumber to pick up some poinsettias. “It’s a real personal issue and it’s very difficult.”

Although opinions were decidedly mixed on whether Schwarzenegger deserves reelection, not one of those interviewed said they would base their decision on his actions in Williams’ clemency case.

Kathy Kindred, the 43-year-old owner of K2 Knits Yarn Salon in Tracy, is a staunch Schwarzenegger backer and proponent of the death penalty.

“If he did take the lives of four, I think he should pay for it, no matter how good,” Kindred said of Williams as she smoked a cigarette in front of her shop on a downtown side street.

“I think there is a trend in our society now where we make excuses for things. This gentleman, Tookie Williams, obviously reacted by turning over a new leaf. But he still should be responsible for what he did,” she said.

That said, if Schwarzenegger allows Williams to live out his life behind bars, Kindred still plans to vote to give the governor a second term.

“I elect somebody not to have to watchdog them. I elect them on their overall campaign,” Kindred said. “Some things Schwarzenegger has done I don’t agree with. But I’m going to do things that people don’t agree with.”