On 13 December 2005, the State of California plans to execute Stanley “Tookie” Williams, who was sent to death row in 1981 for two separate robbery murders. Stanley Williams has always asserted his innocence of these specific crimes. Amnesty International is not in a position to comment on Stanley Williams’ claim of innocence, but would note the ever-growing evidence of wrongful convictions in capital cases in the USA, and that lingering doubt about guilt is itself a solid ground for commutation of a death sentence.
