Not because he's been naughty, though. Yes, it's another story involving a rapper and the law, in a round about kind of way. Snoop Dogg is to attend a rally at the San Quentin State Prison in California this weekend to protest about the upcoming execution of former gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams. Williams was sentenced to death back in 1981 for the murder of four people and has been in prison ever since, subsequently earning a series of Nobel Peace Prize nominations for his work in urging young people to stay out of gangs.
Snoop plans to attend the rally on Saturday organised by Death Penalty Focus, and to be held outside the gates of San Quentin, though the rapper's continued requests to visit Williams in prison have thus far been refused, because of his arrest history, according to the prison's spokesman. Snoop will find out if his latest appeal to the facility has been successful on Friday. The rapper, as you may already know, has been arrested several times over weapons and drug offences, and was sentenced to four years in prison, later suspended, back in 1990. He was also once associated with The Crips, the LA street gang co-founded by Williams.
Williams' case has provoked an enormous amount of publicity and support; especially following an award-winning TV drama about Williams, starring Jamie Foxx. Rallies similar to that organised at San Quentin are to take place all over the state of California, and a documentary film about the condemned man is to be screened in San Francisco, hosted by actor Danny Glover. The San Francisco Chronicle recently opined: "Williams is of more use alive than dead. His continued work against gangs benefits us all."
I'm not entirely clear on whether Snoop's opinion on this is that the death penalty is wrong full stop (and clearly, it is deeply wrong), or whether the death penalty is wrong only in the case of Williams, on account of his gang-busting 'redemption'. I believe Williams' future is now up to state governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but no state governor has granted clemency since the death penalty was restored in California in 1978. If the rallies fail to make a difference, and it's pretty likely that they will fail to make a difference, Williams, now 51, will be killed by lethal injection on 13 Dec.