Reply #209: this is very interesting information. please read the whole piece, thanks. [View All]

Clemency bid to include claims of errors in trial
By John Simerman
Knight Ridder Newspapers

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13339771.htm

-snip-

Who they heard it (supposed eye witness accounts) from: an alleged accomplice granted immunity, a jailhouse informant, an acquaintance with a checkered criminal past, a friend who later claimed police beat him into testifying (including another suspect in the murders, never investigated for them).

A police expert tied a shell casing from one crime scene to a slide-action 12-gauge shotgun owned by Stanley "Tookie" Williams, but there were no fingerprints, no pictures, no bystanders to finger him. And no DNA that could bolster or silence his claim of innocence.

-snip-

The appeals court rejected Williams' claim that he was incompetent to stand trial. Recently, he said he was involuntarily drugged in jail while awaiting trial - a claim that the state Supreme Court declined to entertain.

The trial record shows that Williams was barely responsive to questions from the judge.

-snip-

(emphasis mine)
***