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Death row inmate nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

williams
Stanley "Tookie" Williams  

In this story:

Gang was for protection

'Prison is hell'

Solitary confinement

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed killer?

The possibility is remote, but Stanley Williams, a founder of Los Angeles' feared Crips street gang, has been nominated for the prize.

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CNN's Greg Lefevre reports on the anti-gang literature written by Crips founder Stanley Williams

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Williams, who turns 47 this month and has been on death row for 20 years, writes children's books with an anti-gang message and donates the proceeds to anti-gang community groups.

In addition to his books, Williams promotes the Internet Project for Street Peace, an anti-gang Web site. The work has earned Williams, known as "Tookie," a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

He says he is trying to keep young people from making the choices he did years ago.

"The only thing that I was doing was destroying my own kind," Williams told CNN in an interview from his cell.

Swiss Parliamentarian Mario Fehr nominated Williams for the prize after learning about Williams' Web site, and the fact that Somali youth immigrants in Zurich were using the site. The Web site links anti-gang counselors and youth in at least five countries.

Gang was for protection

Williams said he was humbled by the nomination, but does not expect to win the prize. The Nobel Foundation, which does not acknowledge receiving nominations, said publicity about nominations sometimes works against the nominee.

Williams was convicted in 1979 for killing a 17-year-old Los Angeles convenience store clerk. A prosecutor told the San Francisco Chronicle that Williams had bragged about the shooting.

Later, Williams murdered an immigrant Chinese couple and their daughter while stealing petty cash from their motel. Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in 1981.

In photographs, Williams looks like the tough guy that he is. Experts say that attracts the kids, and makes them pay attention. Then Williams lays on the anti-gang rap.

In his book "Gangs and Violence," Williams writes, "We started the Crips to protect ourselves and our families from other gangs. We used violence against their violence. But starting the Crips only made things worse."

"It's no fun being a gangbanger. Gangbangers are always looking over their shoulders because they're afraid someone may hurt them. Gangbangers also worry about getting caught by the police for doing something wrong like stealing," he wrote.

Williams' most recent book is aimed at middle school students. Called "Life in Prison," Williams says it is a plain spoken, graphic account of life in the abyss of a death row cell.

'Prison is hell'

"Prison is a place where grown men have gone insane. It is a place where men have been killed and where some have even killed themselves. Prison is hell. This I know," Williams writes in "Life in Prison."

Williams lives, for now, in San Quentin's East Block with more than 400 other condemned inmates. His cell, smaller than most bathrooms, contains a steel bed frame and a toilet. He has to roll up his mattress to use his bed as a desk.

He exercises with about 50 other death row inmates in a rooftop yard that is enclosed by a chainlink fence.

"In prison, violence is like an active volcano -- it can erupt at any time. Violence can come from someone you hardly know, or even from someone who is very close to you. You can have a friend today, and tomorrow he can become your No. 1 enemy. It's crazy in here," Williams writes in "Life in Prison."

Williams was under tight restrictions, even for Death Row, eight years ago when he was approached by author Barbara Becnel, who was researching a book on the Crips and Bloods gangs in Los Angeles.

Solitary confinement

Williams wanted no part of it at the time. He suggested another way to keep youth from making the choices he did. Becnel thought about Williams' idea before agreeing to participate in the project.

Becnel, also executive director of Neighborhood House of North Richmond, California, said Williams is sincere.

"Oh, he feels a great deal of regret and he feels that's not the legacy, the destructive, bloody legacy of the Crips is not the legacy that he wants to keep out there in the world," she said.

San Quentin Spokesman Vernell Crittendon said Williams had a history of trouble at the prison. Williams spent 6 1/2 years in solitary confinement in the late 1980's. The prison says Williams has not had an infraction since 1993.

"The violations are usually involving batteries on inmates, batteries on staff. But we have also received information that has identified him as an active member of the Crips," Crittendon said.

"The particular set is known as the Blue Note Crips, and that information we have received since his arrival here in April 1981 and as recent as June of 2000," Crittendon said.

Law enforcement sources say Williams still has considerable influence over other gang member inmates. But Williams insists the gang life is history. "They (prison officials) are being mendacious when they say those things," he said.

Becnel blames that on an institutional reluctance to believe someone can change, especially someone with a gang history like Williams.

That history, Becnel said, only makes Williams' message all the more potent.

"He may not be the messenger that many adults want, but he has the message that many kids need. So are we going to throw away an effective message because we don't like the messenger?" asks Becnel.



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