Documentary - Tribute: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005

February 13, 2009

Sacramento State University
Union - Hinde Auditorium

Movie Short @ 6:45 p.m.
Event Feature: 7:00 p.m.

Followed with discussion [Q&A] led by Barbara Becnel
8:40 p.m. clear the auditorium

Tribute: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005
Produced by: Barbara Becnel, Shirley Neal 2008

This 66-minute film--TRIBUTE: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005--is a powerful documentary that examines death row prisoner, Crips gang co-founder, children’s book author and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Stanley Tookie Williams. The international campaign for clemency to save him from death by lethal injection ended on December 13, 2005, at 12:35 a.m., when he was pronounced dead after clemency was denied by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

TRIBUTE includes scenes from a staged reenactment of that execution. The reenactment--as well as TRIBUTE--were produced and directed by writer Barbara Becnel and producer Shirley Neal, longtime friends of Stanley Tookie Williams. It was based on their real-life experience at San Quentin’s death chamber witnessing his botched execution--it took him 35 minutes to die. The two women filmed the staged reenactment, enabling TRIBUTE to offer a very intimate view of capital punishment. ‘We created and staged a play that replicated the execution because we wanted people to see exactly what the State of California does in the middle of the night in the name of the people of the State of California,’ explains Barbara Becnel.

TRIBUTE includes provocative eulogies by Snoop Dogg, Tony Robbins and Louis Farrakhan--speaking at the memorial service of Stanley Tookie Williams--and never-before-seen footage of his ashes scattered by Becnel and Neal in Soweto, South Africa. This was his last wish.

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/stanley_tookie_williams_1953_2005/local/Calendar?oid=900113&preview=1

Sponsors:

Stanley Tookie Williams Foundation
Sacramento Progressive Alliance
CAP Capitol Area Progressives
DPF Death Penalty Focus - Sacramento
CEDP Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Bay Area
AI Amnesty International - California
California People of Faith
Green Party of Sacramento
Justice Reform Coalition
ACLU Sacramento