Merlin the Magician
At the Start
FINAL APPEALS DENIED
Also on Monday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the latest appeal by lawyers to reconsider the case. Pondering their fifth habeas corpus petition on the case over the past quarter century, the state Supreme Court also rejected the petition on Sunday night.
Ronald George, the California Supreme Court's chief justice, told Reuters last week that there was "something wrong" with a system in which judges must routinely ponder last-minute death row filings after two decades of decisions.
Williams' lawyers said they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and ask Schwarzenegger anew for a stay of execution.
The scheduled execution comes just over a week after a double murderer became the 1,000th prisoner to be executed in the United States since the reimposition of capital punishment in 1976.
Williams was convicted in 1981 of killing Albert Owens as he lay facing downward on the floor of a 7-Eleven convenience store in a $120 robbery. Two weeks later, Williams shot dead an elderly Taiwanese immigrant couple running a motel.
"I am not the kind of person to sit around and worry about being executed," Williams told Reuters in an interview last month. "I have faith and if it doesn't go my way, it doesn't go my way."
Williams has said he did not commit the murders, but said he hurt many people as leader of the notorious Crips street gang in the Los Angeles area.
Williams has attracted a number of high-profile backers, including Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx, who starred in a sympathetic made-for-TV movie about the case.
The impending execution has mobilized death penalty opponents and drew pleas for his life from prominent figures such as South Africa's Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and rapper Snoop Dogg.
Opponents of clemency said Williams continues to have ties to the Crips gang he says he co-founded, and say his lack of remorse made him worthy of society's harshest punishment.
Also on Monday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the latest appeal by lawyers to reconsider the case. Pondering their fifth habeas corpus petition on the case over the past quarter century, the state Supreme Court also rejected the petition on Sunday night.
Ronald George, the California Supreme Court's chief justice, told Reuters last week that there was "something wrong" with a system in which judges must routinely ponder last-minute death row filings after two decades of decisions.
Williams' lawyers said they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and ask Schwarzenegger anew for a stay of execution.
The scheduled execution comes just over a week after a double murderer became the 1,000th prisoner to be executed in the United States since the reimposition of capital punishment in 1976.
Williams was convicted in 1981 of killing Albert Owens as he lay facing downward on the floor of a 7-Eleven convenience store in a $120 robbery. Two weeks later, Williams shot dead an elderly Taiwanese immigrant couple running a motel.
"I am not the kind of person to sit around and worry about being executed," Williams told Reuters in an interview last month. "I have faith and if it doesn't go my way, it doesn't go my way."
Williams has said he did not commit the murders, but said he hurt many people as leader of the notorious Crips street gang in the Los Angeles area.
Williams has attracted a number of high-profile backers, including Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx, who starred in a sympathetic made-for-TV movie about the case.
The impending execution has mobilized death penalty opponents and drew pleas for his life from prominent figures such as South Africa's Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and rapper Snoop Dogg.
Opponents of clemency said Williams continues to have ties to the Crips gang he says he co-founded, and say his lack of remorse made him worthy of society's harshest punishment.
so they keep monitoring until they're sure the person is dead. 
h34r: )