Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today rejected clemency for Stanley Tookie Williams, convicted murderer and one of the founders of the Crips.

The decision was announced moments after a federal appeals court in San Francisco turned down Williams"s request for a stay of execution.

Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. The state Supreme Court rejected a last-minute plea Sunday night, and today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the stay at 11:30 a.m.

It is possible that a larger panel of judges from the circuit could consider the case if a judge on the court asks for what is known as "en banc" review. If a majority of the circuit"s 25 active judges votes for a rehearing, a panel of 11 judge will then consider the case.

If Williams is not granted relief by the 9th Circuit, his lawyer Verna Wefald already has papers prepared for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.

On Sunday night, the California Supreme Court voted 6-0 to deny Williams a stay of execution. Wefald then filed a 150-page habeas corpus petition and request for a stay with the 9th Circuit.

The federal petition raised a host of issues, including the assertion that Williams is "actually innocent" of the four 1979 murders for which he has been on death row at San Quentin for 24 years.

Under federal law, courts are required to dismiss what are known as "successor" habeas corpus petitions dismissed unless the defendant can demonstrate:


That his claim relies on a new interpretation of constitutional law, made retroactive by the U.S. Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable;
That the factual predicate for the claim could not have been discovered previously through the exercise of due diligence;
That the facts underlying the claim, if proven and viewed in light of the evidence as a whole, would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that, but for constitutional error, no reasonable fact finder [jury or judge] would have found the petitioner guilty of the underlying crime.
The 9th Circuit panel ruled today that Williams did not assert a "new rule of constitutional law."

The court also said that to the extent that Williams" claims are not subject to mandatory dismissal because they were previously presented, he "has not made a prima facie showing that his claims, whether viewed individually or in the aggregate, could meet the statutory requirements of both due diligence and clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence."

Consequently, the judges denied his request to have the petition considered in full and denied the stay of execution.

The order was issued in the names of Judges Proctor Hug, T.G. Nelson and Ronald Gould, the same panel that in 2002 rejected Williams"s request to have his conviction and death sentence overturned. That panel, in a rare move, suggested that Williams might be a worthy candidate for clemency because of his anti-gang activities while on death row.

So far, Governor Schwarzenegger has not acted on Williams clemency request and a spokesperson for his office said no timetable for when a decision would be released was available.

The appeal to the governor was considered Williams" best chance, but the decision on clemency was personally and politically difficult for Schwarzenegger, who has rejected two pleas for clemency in other cases.

The last Californian to be given mercy was a mentally ill killer, spared in 1967 by Ronald Reagan.

The governor, whose career has been based on his popularity, was soundly rebuffed by voters in the recent special election. Recently, the governor named a Democratic Party activist, Susan Kennedy, as his new chief of staff sparking outrage from his Republican and conservative supporters.

Schwarzenegger met with Williams" lawyers last week to hear arguments for and against clemency. Williams, 51, sent a personal letter to the governor, seeking clemency.

The campaign to save Williams has been the fiercest of any recent effort to halt an execution. Hollywood luminaries including Jaime Foxx and influential groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People campaigned on behalf of Williams.

Schwarzenegger was seen as Williams" last chance to avoid execution and instead serve life in prison without parole. A last-minute plea filed Saturday is also pending in the state judicial system.

In 1981, Williams was convicted of four murders during two robberies.

Albert Owens was killed during a robbery of a 7-Eleven store on Feb. 27, 1979, and motel owners Yen-I Yang and Thsai-Shaic Yang and their daughter, Yee Chen Lin, were killed at the Brookhaven Motel on South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles 12 days later.

Williams has maintained that he is innocent. His plea for clemency was based on his transformation while in prison for almost a quarter-century. He and his supporters argue that he has changed his life since his gang days, writing children"s books and warning youths about the perils of the gangster life.

Law enforcement officials, including Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, strongly opposed clemency, calling Williams a coldblooded killer who has "left his mark forever on our society by co-founding one of the most vicious, brutal gangs in existence, the Crips."

On Oct. 11, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Williams" last appeal.