Notable people asking for clemency in the Tookie Williams case are not a new phenomenon. Moreover they don’t give a shit about Williams; they are merely against the death penalty.
Quite a long time ago, San Quentin death-row convict Caryl Chessman was defended by the anti-death-penalty crowd of the day:
The unusual case, along with the popularity of [Chessman’s four] books [he wrote while on death row], led to an outpouring of pleas on his behalf from throughout the world. Among those who wrote: Eleanor Roosevelt, Pablo Cassals, Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury, William Inge, Norman Mailer, Dwight MacDonald, Christopher Isherwood, Carey McWilliams, Billy Graham, and Robert Frost.
These people were from both ultra-left and religious-right anti-death penalty groups. They also didn’t give a shit about Chessman.
Ironically, the Governor of California who finally allowed the execution saying his hands were tied, was an avowed opponent of capital punishment, [Democrat] Edmund G. Brown.
Governor Schwarzenegger needs to follow the law and and let the execution proceed, just as Governor Brown did.
See Caryl Chessman page in the University of Southern California archives.