Children’s Books Can’t Make Up for 4 Brutal Murders

The California Constitution gives a governor the power to commute a death sentence on any “conditions the governor deems proper.”

Well, almost. “He can’t flip a coin,” notes Nathan Barankin, communications director for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer. “He has to think it through.”

For any commutation -- and there haven’t been any on California’s death row for 38 years, since Gov. Ronald Reagan spared the life of a brain-damaged child-killer -- a governor must explain “the pertinent facts and reasons” to the Legislature, which is powerless to block it.

“A governor’s power is virtually limitless,” Barankin says.

What this means, incidentally, is that there is no such thing as life in prison “without possibility of parole.” It’s disingenuous to claim there is. Sure, there’s the sentence. But a governor can commute any sentence or pardon anybody, anytime.

Well, again, not exactly. One little-known provision of the Constitution states that a governor must obtain permission from the state Supreme Court to “grant a pardon or commutation to a person twice convicted of a felony.” That’s what hung up Gov. Pat Brown in his failed and politically debilitating attempt to save “Red Light Bandit” Caryl Chessman from the gas chamber 45 years ago.

In the current case of Stanley Tookie Williams, there is no prior felony conviction. So Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could cancel Williams’ scheduled execution Tuesday for any reason he “deems proper.”

Conceivably that could include Tookie’s writing of at least two children’s books for each cold-blooded murder he committed. Toss in some anti-gang sermonizing -- by this co-founder of the evil Crips -- and a governor could even call it redemption.

I’m not sure about Schwarzenegger, but it seems to me that redemption for merciless murderers is a godly role, not an exercise for mortals. We mortals adopt codes of societal conduct and establish punishments for violators. For the most heinous killings -- and Williams’ murders certainly qualify -- Californians have decreed the death penalty.

Writing anti-gang children’s books is wonderful, and it shows Williams’ capacity to understand right from wrong, and to lead a productive life. God can take these good deeds into consideration. Problem for us is, he didn’t show these qualities before he brutally snuffed out the lives of four innocent people, forever scarring two families. Now, 26 years later, it’s long past time for just punishment.

People who contend no state has a right to take a life just haven’t been paying attention, or have paid attention to history only selectively.

Rich defendants get off because they can afford better attorneys? So fix the system. Make sure every accused murderer gets quality representation.

Death penalty opponents who point to innocent people being executed don’t point to California, you’ll notice. Other states, yes. Not here.

“It’s totally fine for individuals to be ambivalent or opposed to the death penalty,” Barankin says, “but it’s totally dishonest for them to suggest that we’ve come even close to executing someone who was innocent.”

California has many safeguards -- extraordinary appeals procedures, experienced appellate defense attorneys and the liberal U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The process is so lengthy that by far the biggest cause of death on death row is advanced age.

Since 1978, when California voters reinstated capital punishment, only 11 have been executed in San Quentin’s death chamber. There currently are 649 condemned murderers stacked on the row. One more was added this week.

I’d be very surprised if Schwarzenegger commuted Williams’ death sentence after holding today’s clemency hearing with prosecutors and defense attorneys. He supports capital punishment and previously denied the clemency requests of two other murderers.

He hasn’t hinted one way or the other on Williams, however, say insiders. And Schwarzenegger constantly has surprised us, not always with smart moves. He has lurched from one extreme to another: for example, attacking the Democrats’ core constituency -- labor -- then recruiting a Democratic political pro, Susan Kennedy, to be his chief of staff.

The consensus of political gurus I’ve talked to is that Schwarzenegger would gain little by allowing Williams to be executed, because it’s what voters expect of a Republican governor. But if he granted clemency, that would further enrage conservatives -- on top of the Kennedy hiring -- and disappoint many other death penalty supporters, who remain a majority of voters.

But there is only one question Schwarzenegger should be asking himself: Is it iron-clad certain that Williams killed those people.

The governor shouldn’t be asking about politics -- and he hasn’t and won’t. He shouldn’t really care whether Williams co-founded the Crips. That’s not a capital offense. He shouldn’t be swayed by some children’s books. They’re long after the fact.

Did Williams, as the jury found and the Los Angeles County D.A.’s office contends, shotgun to death, execution style, store clerk Albert Owens, the father of two daughters? Did he a few days later use a 12-gauge to kill motel owner Yen-I Yang; his wife, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang; and their daughter Yu-Chin Yang Lin? Both times during cheap robberies.

Williams never has admitted the murders, but there isn’t any real doubt that he committed them. The killer’s main argument for mercy, as expressed through attorneys, is that he since has become “a messenger of hope, and of the futility and waste of violence.”

Too late for his victims, however. Sparing Williams just wouldn’t seem “proper.”

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George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.