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Life & Times Transcript

11/15/05

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

A violent past put him on death row, but he's also a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Should his execution be stopped?

Lawanda Hawkins>> He's asking for clemency? Don't you think those people begged for their loved ones' life too when he was getting ready to blow them away? You don't think they were in a corner crying and begging him not to do it?

Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> We're asking Governor Schwarzenegger to commute his sentence because we do believe in rehabilitation.

Val Zavala>> And then, think cars and SUVs are to blame for our bad air? Try looking a little closer to home.

It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Sam Louie>> In nearly forty years, no death row inmate has been granted clemency here in California. The last time it was done, the late Ronald Reagan was governor of the state, but now some religious leaders want to re-examine the issue based on the transformation of a convicted murderer and gang leader sitting on death row.

Fifty-one year old Stanley "Tookie" Williams is the co-founder of Los Angeles's infamous Crips street gang known for its vicious cycle of drugs, violence and terror. He was convicted of murdering four people in 1979. Albert Owens, a 7-11 store clerk, was shot and killed while the store was robbed of a hundred twenty dollars. Two weeks later, motel owners, Yin Yang, his wife and their daughter were gunned down for six hundred dollars.

Williams was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to die by lethal injection. After a number of unsuccessful appeals, the execution is now scheduled for this December. But during his twenty-four years in prison, Williams and others say he's gone through a total transformation. He talked about this change in a telephone interview for PBS in 2001.

Stanley "Tookie" Williams>> "In order for me to have experience of redemption, I had to first develop a conscience and then and only then was I able to reach out to others, you know, to make amends."

Sam Louie>> In his time behind bars, Williams has written eight different books teaching kids about the dangers of gangs and encouraging them to stay in school. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and his story was even turned into a made-for-TV movie starring Jamie Foxx.

Jamie Foxx>> "My name is Tookie Williams. I used to be king of the Crips. Look at my kingdom now."

Sam Louie>> When asked if he feels he has earned forgiveness, he defers to a higher power.

Stanley "Tookie" Williams>> "That's up to the Almighty to determine whether or not, you know, I could be forgiven. You'll find some people who'll forgive me and some who won't."

Sam Louie>> His supporters include actor and activist, Mike Farrell. Farrell is president of Death Penalty Focus, a group dedicated to ending capital punishment.

Mike Farrell>> Personally, I think that the death penalty is the lid on the garbage can and, when we remove that, we're going to then have to face this maggot-infested mess that's our criminal justice system.

Sam Louie>> Farrell visited Williams in prison several years ago and truly believes Williams is remorseful for his past.

Mike Farrell>> He talks quite openly about recognizing the need for change in himself, about recognizing the ugliness of the deeds in his past, about the horror of the gang problem, and he began to try and figure out ways in which to pay back society for some of the things he had done.

Sam Louie>> While he does not feel Williams should be released, he is asking the governor to grant him clemency, to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole.

Mike Farrell>> He was an out of control, hugely angry outlaw and there was, you know, involvement with drugs, there was involvement with robbery and there was involvement with gang warfare and there was involvement with all the kinds of things we know happen in our society. He's really not only apologetic, but penitent about it. He understands, I think, the process by which one coming up in those circumstances is faced with that choice and that he made the wrong decision.

Sam Louie>> Farrell believes keeping Williams alive would best serve society, giving him more opportunities to spread his message to children.

Mike Farrell>> Reaching out and making a positive contribution to society, recognizing the threats to them that are involved with making the wrong choice, staying in school, getting away from drugs, staying out of gangs.

Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> I do strongly believe in rehabilitation and everything I know about Tookie Williams' life is that he can continue to do good while living out his life in jail. Nobody is asking for him to be released. I mean, he does have to suffer the consequences of that. That'll never happen.

Sam Louie>> Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills agrees that Williams deserves clemency.

Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> Here we have a case that's measurable. It's not possible to be a good guy from a bad guy overnight. This is twenty-four years, twenty-five years, he's been incarcerated and there's no question that he has had an effect upon the street.

Sam Louie>> As a Rabbi for the past forty years, Jacobs says he's met a number of Holocaust survivors who have learned to forgive some of the worst atrocities committed.

Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> I am so impressed by their belief in humanity even in the most drastic situations where entire families were wiped out and killed and murdered by the Nazis.

Sam Louie>> Jacobs feels that this belief in humanity and forgiveness should also be extended to people like Williams.

Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> Yes, he killed four people. Yes, there are families who are suffering. Yes, there are people who'll only, they say, be at peace when finally he goes to the electric chair or whatever. We're asking Governor Schwarzenegger to commute his sentence because we do believe in rehabilitation. That was part and parcel of what the American system was about in terms of incarceration.

Lawanda Hawkins>> He committed the crime. He went through our judicial system, he was found guilty and that was the punishment for the crime. So, yeah, he should expect to do it. No one should expect anything less.

Sam Louie>> But victims advocates are troubled by the push to soften the sentence. Lawanda Hawkins is with Justice for Murdered Children.

Lawanda Hawkins>> He's asking for clemency? Don't you think those people begged for their loved ones' lives too when he was getting ready to blow them away? You don't think they weren't in a corner crying and begging him not to do it? And did he think twice? He took them out. And now, all of a sudden, he wants clemency and we're supposed to think twice about his life.

Sam Louie>> Hawkins admits that her views are shaped by her own tragedy. She lost her nineteen year old son to gun violence a decade ago. As a result, Hawkins thinks execution is a fitting end to convicted killers like Stanley Williams.

Lawanda Hawkins>> And I know that's harsh, but wasn't it harsh what he did to those four people? And because those four people are not here to speak, do we just forget what happened and look at it today and say, oh, well, we're just looking at Tookie? Well, what about those four people?

Sam Louie>> And to this day, Williams denies being part of those murders.

Mike Farrell>> When you have a capital crime in which the only evidence is circumstantial and the only testimony is given by people who have something to gain from their testimony, I think it's very, very wrong for society to base the taking of a life on such evidence and testimony.

Lawanda Hawkins>> I believe in our judicial system that they would not have been able to convict him of four homicides, four, not just one, four different homicides, if he didn't have something to do with them. And the sentence that he received, he deserved.

Sam Louie>> Unless the governor's office intervenes, Stanley "Tookie" Williams will be put to death on December 13. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> For the past couple of years, believe it or not, Los Angeles has not had the dirtiest air in the country. But guess what? We are now back to number one on the EPA list for smog. Now most of that comes from our tailpipes, but you wouldn't believe how much of it comes from household products. Toni Guinyard takes a look at the pollutants that are right under our noses.

Toni Guinyard>> Take a look at the downtown Los Angeles skyline on a so-called good air day. While you might love days like this, there's a good chance you're unknowingly contributing to smog conditions. Air quality experts say that many household products used every day are to blame. Tim Carmichael is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Clean Air. He says consumer products are second only behind emissions from cars and light trucks as the cause of air pollution in the Los Angeles region.

Tim Carmichael>> Hair spray is number one. Your degreasers, especially those that you're using on your automobile engine. Rubbing alcohol. Your general purpose cleaners that you use in the bathroom or the kitchen. Your disinfectants. Your deodorizers.

Toni Guinyard>> It all comes as no surprise to Dr. Kaye Kilburn. The Professor of Internal Medicine has devoted years to studying the link between environmental issues and health. He's somewhat amazed that, despite the warnings right on the labels of many products, despite the regulations already in place, products containing chemicals affecting both health and air quality are still on the market.

Dr. Kaye Kilburn>> It is appallingly stupid and that I get angry about. We took fifty years to learn about how harmful cigarette smoking is. Is it going to be another fifty years for us to realize that ten common chemicals are now doing about an equal amount of harm to what cigarette smoke did?

Toni Guinyard>> So what are we supposed to do?

Dr. Kaye Kilburn>> You can live clean.

Toni Guinyard>> Living clean, avoiding products that contribute to both indoor and outdoor air pollution, takes effort when stores only stock the big sellers.

Alan Arzonian>> We pretty much use on our shelves whatever the customers ask us to put on the shelves, so wherever the trend goes is where we're following.

Wendy White>> I think I have a choice of what I want to use and that's just what I'd like to use.

Toni Guinyard>> And what would that be?

Wendy White>> Environmentally friendly products.

Toni Guinyard>> Depending on where you shop, those products may be hard to find. As part of its effort to meet federal and state air quality standards, the AQMD has identified categories of products as pollution producers. On the list, detergents, hair products, even perfume. Reformulating these products to emit fewer pollutants is an option, but what's your top concern?

Sissy Lingua>> Mostly that they won't change our products so much as that we can't use them because consumers are still going to buy them whether or not they're hurting the environment or not. Unfortunately, that's really not their biggest concern. Women especially are concerned mostly about getting a good quality product.

Toni Guinyard>> Consumers are being encouraged to at least think about what you're buying and using in your home.

Tim Carmichael>> Take your individual action and multiply it by ten million. That's what's going on and it's not right to say, well, my actions don't make a difference. I'm different, you know. I'm, you know, above the average or better than the average and why should I have to do it if no one else is doing it? That's not an attitude that's going to change the world to make it the better place that we want it to be.

Dr. Kaye Kilburn>> Regard your nose as an important facility for safety. When it smells bad or even smells at all, it's a warning that maybe it isn't good for you.

Toni Guinyard>> Toni Guinyard for Life and Times.

Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times".

Val Zavala>> She was one of Los Angeles's most giving citizens. They called her Mama D and, for twenty years, she fed hundreds of homeless near downtown Los Angeles. Well, Mama D died of cancer at age seventy-two. But a few years ago, Gay Yee spent a day with Mama D and saw why this remarkable woman was so loved.

Gay Yee>> Six thirty Sunday morning. While most people are just getting up, Delia Javier has been up since three a.m. making five hundred servings of her vegetarian stew for the homeless in her tiny apartment kitchen. By seven twenty, the first batch is done and Delia is on to the second.

Delia Javier>> This is around two and a half cabbages. This is lemon grass.

[Film Clip]

Gay Yee>> Her nickname is Mama D. Every Sunday this has been her ritual.

Delia Javier>> For years, eleven years. So I do it in my sleep (laughter).

Gay Yee>> It began over a decade ago. Mama D was working as a set dresser looking for props in downtown Los Angeles. She discovered scores of homeless people living on the streets. A relative newcomer from the Philippines, she was shocked.

Delia Javier>> I almost cried. I said, yeah, there are human beings too here that are suffering. And he's the one that picks me up and brings me shopping.

Gay Yee>> Delia doesn't own a car. She depends on friends to take her shopping. The money that would have gone for gas and insurance is better spent on food for her homeless and hungry.

Delia Javier>> Yeah, this is the bedding.

Gay Yee>> She sleeps on the living room floor these days so there's room to store extra food.

Delia Javier>> My closet has been changed because my bedroom is here. This is my storage place.

Gay Yee>> Mama D has no staff. She's not part of a foundation. It's just her.

Delia Javier>> Most of the time, yes, it's out of my pocket. No big deal. You know, when I eat, I share.

Gay Yee>> Nine fifty six, time to add the pasta. An hour from now, the stew will be ready and friends and volunteers arrive to receive their marching orders.

[Film Clip]

Jules Sorensen>> She has shown me the example of life that, no matter how bad off you are, you can always get better and the most important thing is to serve and it makes you feel good. It makes you feel whole inside.

Gay Yee>> Delia grew up among the privileged in the Philippines. Her parents could afford dancing lessons which allowed her to travel the world with a Filipino dance troupe. But she was also a rebel. She ran away to the mountains to live with a primitive tribe. She began meditating and following the teachings of Anonda Mordiji, teachings that considered service an integral part of life.

Delia Javier>> Okay, we have the key. We are the leaders.

Gay Yee>> Mama D reassembles her kitchen on Fifth Street between Towne and San Pedro. It's twelve noon and her regulars immediately fall into line.

[Film Clip]

Gay Yee>> When you get right down to it, most people respond to the homeless problem by reaching for some pocket change or maybe reaching for their checkbook, but for Mama D that was never good enough. It hasn't been for eleven years.

[Film Clip]

>> This is uplifting because this is really a depressing situation. And for me it like gives me hope, you know, and a warm meal. It's great.

Gay Yee>> The food and clothes are gone in less than sixty minutes. By one o'clock, Mama D and her friends give their hugs and get ready to leave.

Delia Javier>> Every person you see is a part of humanity. You are one of this. You are not separate from what is in front of you. So it is your problem. Your problem is your problem and you can only do the best that you can within your limits.

Gay Yee>> At the end of her Sunday, Mama D looks tired but satisfied. I'm Gay Yee for Life and Times.

Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val Zavala>> Imagine being one of California's first settlers. No freeways, no malls and no tract homes. You would have to begin by building your own and that's what one Boston sea captain did back in the 1860's and, believe it or not, his home is now an historic site. It was built in the 1840's on thirty-eight thousand acres of land by a Boston-born sea captain turned Mexican citizen. His story is as fascinating as the home that volunteers are so patiently restoring.

They call it the Dana Adobe after Captain William Goodwin Dana. How did a Boston Yankee end up with thirty-eight thousand acres of what was then Mexican territory? To find out, I asked Captain Dana's great-great grandson, Joe Dana. It all started back in Boston. His great-great grandfather was an orphan. At age eighteen, he took to the sea and, by twenty-six, he was an experienced captain with his own ship.

Joe Dana>> One of the places that he sailed to was California. He was thirty-two at the time. He met the sixteen year old daughter of Don Carlos Carrillo of Santa Barbara. Don Carlos was one of the main men in Santa Barbara.

Val Zavala>> Captain Dana didn't win his wife over easily. After courting Maria Josefa Pedra del Carmen, it still took five months for her father to give them permission to marry in 1828 and he had to make a few adjustments along the way.

Joe Dana>> He had to become a Catholic, had to become a citizen of Mexico, had to learn Spanish and had to assimilate into Mexican California.

Val Zavala>> Then, after waiting seven years for his citizenship papers, Captain Dana finally got a Mexican land grant.

Joe Dana>> He went from being William Goodwin Dana of Massachusetts, Captain, to becoming Don Guillermo Dana of Santa Barbara, California, Mexican California.

Carol Trotter>> This is the bedroom.

Val Zavala>> But the Yankee sea captain in him wasn't lost completely. You can see it in the house that he started building in 1839.

David Dana>> Well, what he wanted to create here was something like the old salt boxes that they had in New England, so what you see is something unique.

Val Zavala>> David Dana is the captain's great-grandson. There's still work to do in the bedroom, but the living room restoration is finished.

Carol Trotter>> You can see that this room is plastered with lime plaster.

Val Zavala>> Carol Trotter is a docent at the Dana Adobe. They were able to preserve some of the original furniture from the 1840's.

Carol Trotter>> That table, for instance, was off a shipwrecked ship called "The Edith". The people who were landing were coming to look for gold, so they think that they ran the ship aground to get to land fast so they could get where they wanted to go (laughter).

Val Zavala>> So that table survived a trip across the ocean from where originally who knows?

Carol Trotter>> Boston.

Val Zavala>> Boston, and it survived them running the ship aground.

Carol Trotter>> Yes, and that organ was also in this house.

Val Zavala>> And what about Senora Dana? Well, she had twenty-one children.

Joe Dana>> That would be single births, no twins. The sad thing is, only thirteen lived past infancy.

Val Zavala>> And for ten of those births, she made a long trip, forty miles to her mother's home in Santa Barbara, and how did she get there?

Barbara Watson>> "Do you want to be on TV, Polly?"

Val Zavala>> Barbara Watson is a docent with a soft spot for the burros.

Barbara Watson>> When she was expecting a child, she would go to Santa Barbara by riding in a cart.

Val Zavala>> In a cart pulled by --

Barbara Watson>> -- pulled by burros, yes.

Val Zavala>> All the way down to Santa Barbara?

Barbara Watson>> Yes, and had the baby down there.

Val Zavala>> And what role do they play in the Rancho?

Barbara Watson>> Well, right now, they're retired. They're each twenty years old and they were donated to us because they are no longer breeding animals.

Val Zavala>> And, of course, that helps make Rancho Nipomo more authentic.

Barbara Watson>> It does and it's so important to us to have this feel of the past which we want to share with children so they will be as interested in preserving this when they grow up as we adults today are.

Val Zavala>> Well, you've got it good, Polly and Darlene. Retiring on the central coast, not a care in the world.

Barbara Watson>> (Laughter) That's right.

Russ Cochiolo>> We will have a working rancho.

Val Zavala>> You may wonder where they cooked back then. Unless you wanted to burn down your house, you did it outside.

Russ Cochiolo>> This is my baby.

Val Zavala>> Russ Cochiolo was a volunteer, an historian, and an horno builder. Horno means oven.

Russ Cochiolo>> Captain Fremont in 1846 when he came through here wrote in his journal something like, "I bought bread from Captain Dana and it was the very best bread that my men or I had had in over a year."

Val Zavala>> This horno bakes differently than most. There's no flame or fire actually baking the bread.

Russ Cochiolo>> You fire it. You load it.

Val Zavala>> You put the fire right into it?

Russ Cochiolo>> You put the fire right in it. You can feel it. It's still hot.

Val Zavala>> So you just put the wood, start the fire --

Russ Cochiolo>> -- you put the wood in and you fire it for three or four hours. The temperature comes up to about five fifty. When it gets to five fifty, shovel out all the coals, mop out the inside of it and then you cook with the residual heat. This is firebrick and six inches of adobe mud over the top of it. We close it up and the first batch of bread takes about ten minutes. So after ten minutes, you open it up, pull those loaves of bread out, put some more bread in and close it up.

Val Zavala>> Now how did you do with your first batch of bread that you ever tried in the oven?

Russ Cochiolo>> The very first batch of bread was on my birthday. It was a disaster. It looked as black as this part of it (laughter).

Val Zavala>> A commemorative quilt shows the adobe as a working ranch, but it was also an official mail stop, polling place and stagecoach stop. Captain John C. Fremont was a guest here as he marched south towards Los Angeles in the Mexican-American War in 1846. It also survived the big earthquake in 1857. Not bad for a house that was built without a single nail.

Carol Trotter>> From the 1930's until about the 1970's, it was just empty and vandalized.

Val Zavala>> Oh, I'm surprised it survived.

Carol Trotter>> I am too.

Val Zavala>> Today, it's a California landmark owned by a nonprofit organization. And what ever happened to Captain Dana after the Mexican-American War when his land became part of the United States?

Joe Dana>> He went from being a Yankee from Massachusetts to Mexican to being Yankee again and he died in 1858 at the age of sixty-one. His house survived and we're trying to preserve this for posterity and we're trying to spread the word to today's generation about Captain William Goodwin Dana.

Val Zavala>> If you'd like more information on the Dana Adobe, just go to their website at danaadobe.org. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Sponsored in part by:


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