Tribute: Stanley Tookie Williams Comes to DVD

A new tribute dvd for Stanley Tookie Williams is coming to DVD. This DVD program chronicles the tribute paid to Stanley Tookie Williams upon his execution on December 13, 2005.  While telling the powerful and moving story of his life, his execution is reenacted and interwoven throughout the film.  

The world media was outside San Quentin State Prison, watching and awaiting the outcome: Would Stanley Tookie Williams—Crips  co-founder, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, children’s book author and condemned prisoner—be executed or spared? Early in the morning of December 13, 2005, Stanley Tookie Williams suffered a botched  execution. It took him 35 minutes to die. He had been denied clemency, hours earlier, by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

TRIBUTE: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005, a provocative and moving documentary, examines the life and death of an extraordinary person whose journey—from New Orleans to South Central Los Angeles, from San Quentin to South Africa—encompassed triumph and tragedy; praise and controversy; redemption and doubt.

TRIBUTE includes a filmed reenactment of that execution, based on what the two creators of this film actually witnessed. Barbara Becnel, longtime friend and editor of Stanley Tookie Williams, was in the San Quentin death chamber when he drew his final breath. So was television producer Shirley Neal, another close friend. These two women are the directors and producers of TRIBUTE.

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

The DVD also includes “In Living Memory” a four page memorial booklet, replica from December 20, 2005 Bethel A.M.E. Church Memorial Service. The DVD special features include: (run time approx 30 minutes)

• Stanley’s Historic Message to Gang Members 04/29/1993
• Read In for Peace (Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg) – Never-before-seen!
• Public Service Announcement/Photo Gallery
• “Criminal Mind” Music Video Featuring Maestro, Infinite and Gowan
• Trailer