Due Date: Notes and questions for each topic are due Monday
Friday, September 27, 2013
September 27, 2013 - Research Project
See the directions from September 25, 2013 to complete the research project
September 26, 2013 - Research Project
See The Instructions from September 25, 2013 - This is a three day research project
Below I have included more videos of the research topics
Below I have included more videos of the research topics
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
September 25, 2012 - Independent Research - Locating Information
I can conduct a short sustained research project about power.
To be able to do this I must . . .
To be able to do this I must . . .
- Select relevant information that helps me answer the questions
- Skim and scan for pertinent information
- use text features to navigate a website with the purpose of finding information effectively
I will show this by answering three guiding questions about my research on The Beatles, Mcdonald's, and Jim Jones.
Research:
Finding Valuable Information
Directions: Follow
the instructions to help guide you on your research project. Some links will be provided for you. Other times you will have to follow
instructions to conduct “key word searches.”
Please follow all directions and GET INTERESTED. If you really do your best at exploring these
links and examples of power, I guarantee that you will have a different opinion
about research. If you need help discussing what power the example possessed, use
the list of types of powers below. You must also use the note-taking strategy
from class to take notes on the topics before answering the questions.
Types of Power:
authority, choice, military, imagination, strategy,
confidence, respect, influence, strength, education, numbers, spiritual,
confidence, popularity, money, ability, resources
The
Beatles:
Use a keyword search for The Beatles.
Look for information that will help you answer the questions. Search using these keywords: “The Beatles Achievement,”
“The Beatles Impact,” “The Beatles Influence on Music.”
Video
Links:
1.
What do you think were the Beatles
biggest achievements during their career?
2.
What type(s) of power do you think the
Beatles had? Why?
3.
How did they use their power?
McDonalds: Use a keyword search for
McDonalds. Look for information that
will help you answer the questions.
Search using these keywords: “McDonalds World Locations,” and “McDonald’s
Net Worth.”
Video
Links:
1.
What are three foreign McDonald’s
locations that surprised you? Why?
2.
What type(s) of power does McDonald’s
have? Why?
3.
How does McDonald’s use its power?
Jim
Jones (The People’s Temple):
Use the links below to research Jim James with purpose of finding information
to answer the questions.
Links:
1.
Summarize
the major events of Jim Jones’ life.
2.
What type(s) of power does Jim Jones
have? Why
3.
How did he use his power?
September 24, 2013 - Presenting Opinion through Creative Writing
Corey Ryan
Tookie Williams’ Diary
September 23, 2013
Period One
I believe Tookie Williams changed/didn’t change.
Who picks you up: Johnny “Blacky” Smits, Suzy “Q” Collins & Big Smalls Johnson.
What kind of car do they pick you up in: 1979 Cadillac. All black. Tinted windows. Stereo bumping. The bass could be heard from miles.
Where is the first place you go: We’re going to Suzy’s house to try some Angel Dust/PCP, so he thinks.
What did look like, sound like outside the prison when you walked out? People with signs saying “Go Back To Jail” were screaming all around. People were holding up pictures of children killed by gangs. A bunch of people were swinging blue bandannas in the air.
The first five days Tookie/You are out of jail.
No less than half a page for each day; no more than one full page for each day. Min 2.5 pages/Max 5 pages.
Dear Diary:
I never imagined that freedom would taste so good. I can look up at the sky and see blue. No white clouds. Only blue. This is a sign. As I stroll outside holding a pair of pants, a shirt and a pair of shoes that I turned in way back in 1979 I toss them in the garbage can. They don’t fit. People are lined up on the prison’s grass. I walk down the sidewalk and they scream murderer at me. They don’t even know the half of it. There a signs with young kids, killed during gang fights. But that is the way of the streets. They don’t come from the streets so they don’t know. I keep walking.
Then I hear it. A deep, dark, duuuuummmmmm, duuuuuummmmmm. I feel it in my teeth.
“YO!”
Suzy Q runs up and jumps in my arms. I hold her and squeeze and give her a big kiss. I haven’t felt the sweetness of a girl’s lips in a long time…then Blacky and Big Smalls stroll up behind her. They’re doing some weird dance. They call it Crip walkin’.
Blacky lets me drive.
He gives me directions to Suzy’s house. We pull up. The grass is brown and the front windows have gates over them. There are no windows, just boards. We step in to the house. Every wall is blue. The furniture is also blue. She puts on some rap. She tells me it’s Snoop Dog. It’s chill.
I’m hoping for some PCP. I missed that stuff. I missed that power. They all laughed at me like I was stupid. I punched Blacky real hard. He almost cried. Wimp.
They tell me there’s no more PCP. It’s gone. It’s some new stuff out: Crystal Meth. Suzy unfolds a piece of tin foil and shows me this blue rock that looks exactly like candy. She says this is the Heissenberg special.
I say whatever. She loads the rock in a glass pipe and she lights it for me and I inhale.
I’m back I say as my eyes roll back in my head and I fall back onto the couch. Let’s get some payback…
Dear Diary:
I slept so much while I was in prison; I haven’t slept since I’ve been out. Meth is some good stuff. If they had that around back in 1979 there wouldn’t be a single white person left in Compton.
Oh, well. I got time to make it up.
This morning Suzy Q and me and Big Smalls smoked a bunch and jumped in the Caddy. We all knew where we were headed and
Describe Stop-n-go Scene. Allude to asking for a smoke and sweeping and mopping. But no shooting in the back…
Day 3: Allusion to something “good” that he had done. I’m thinking he goes to the local Barnes & Nobles all cracked out on Meth and signs some books for people and gives a little speech.
Day 4: He has a rough day. They are out of drugs and he has to lay around all day thinking of how they can get money-like before. Only this entry will be more of a flashback to his solitary confinement days.
Day 5: Back to the gang. He has a meeting with the new upper echelons of the Crips. The new guys do not want Tookie in charge. There’s too much heat surrounding him and they’ve been doing just fine without him; however, he starts a new gang-the Tookers. Ha. He starts the new gang to protect his neighborhood...
Corey Ryan
Tookie Diary
September 23, 2013
Period Two
I believe that Tookie did change.
5 days. Min=1/2 page. Max=1 page. Total=min 2.5 or max 5 pages.
What do I see: the sky, people waving books at me, bloods and crips crying and hugging and exchanging bandannas, San Quentin, People holding signs, people selling blue and red sno-cones…
Who picks you up: Reverand Smith and students from his anti-gang foundation.
What are your plans for the first day: Speak at Compton High School about gang life and redemption and eat lunch with the students. Red and blue chips...
Dear Diary:
I look up at the sky. It is clear and blue. Just like the old days. Only today, blue doesn’t mean so much to me anymore. In my hand, I hold the clothes that I went in with. Clothes from 1979. Man, they’re funny. Super pimpin’. But that ain’t me no more.
Kids are everywhere. They’re holding their dad’s hands. Books in the dad’s hands, books in the son’s hands. A girl, a pretty, no a beautiful white girl throws a Sharpie at me and I catch it. Fans hold books out for me to sign. I sign my name: TOOKIE. And I write . And I mean peace. I’ll never let go of my freedom again. I will always fight for peace.
Reverend Smith is waiting next to his van. Compton Cares written in red and blue flies down the side of the van. The letter “o” is my afro. It’s got me laughing until my stomach hurts. Young me, stupid me, with my afro blown out looking all pimp. Man, those days are gone.
The Reverend opens the driver’s side door for me. I haven’t driven in thirty years, but it’s like riding a bike (which I haven’t done in thirty years either). Rolling down the window, I put my arm out and wave at all my fans. Wave at the lives I have saved.
Reverend tells me to buckle up-there are laws now he says. And I do what he says. I’m not going back to jail for a seat belt. Ha! The Reverend and the kids are all buckled in. I put the van in drive and slowly drive away.
San Quentin is in the rearview mirror. I might miss that place. Sike. I watch the prison recede into nothingness, into the road. A road to freedom, hope and redemption. I glance again in the review mirror and I see the kids. Black, white and brown. All smiling.
I know for sure, no matter what, that I am truly a new person. The proof is in the shine of their smiles and the shine of my (imaginary) Noble Prize medal that hangs around my neck.
Day 2: Continuation of Day One
Him preaching in front of the folks at the Compton Center
Day 3: Opposite/challenge
The Crips come by and try to kill him. A drive by in a blue Caddy
Day 4: Flashback-must use an event in the text; what did he learn; how did it influence him...
Flashback to the point that he first “found” religion or whatever. That epiphany that caused him to enter redemption.
Day 5: Start something that will be continued...
Begins writing a new book. This will be the first lines, maybe an outline-like he’s really writing it and stuff...
Sunday, September 22, 2013
September 23, 2013 - Creative Writing to Argue Opinion
Writing
Assignment: Tookie’s Diary
Directions: Imagine Tookie Williams was
granted clemency and was released from jail for his good behavior. Write five journal entries in Tookie’s
voice to describe what you would do in your first five days outside of jail. I should be able to tell whether or not you
think Tookie had the ability to change and truly redeem himself in the first
few sentences. Use examples from the
text to help prove your opinion. Each journal entry needs to be at least
half a page.
Example:
(Do
not think he can change or be redeemed)
Day 1: I can’t believe they actually let me out of
prison! All I had to do was pretend to
care about ending gangs and maintain my innocence. It was even easier than I thought. I mean they had to have read about the
atrocious things I did to that store clerk. I was laughing when I told my
brother about killing that guy, but I guess they believe the new Tookie because
the evidence against me was definitely substantial. My dude, Easy, is on his
way to pick me up to take me back to his crib, so we can celebrate. We got to
his place and . . .
Example:
(Think
he truly changed and has redeemed himself)
Day 1: Praise the Lord. I owe my new freedom to him
and the guidance he gave me in the last ten years of prison. Through self-reflection and remorse, I
realize that my role in with the Crips was terrible. I’ve spent the last ten years trying to make
amends for having started such a horrible organization. The first stop for me now that I am free is
church then to local youth center to talk to some teenagers who have written to
me while I was in jail. I need to know
that they are truly learning from my mistakes.
At church, I prayed for . . .
*These
examples are probably close to half a page hand-written. You need to have five
diary entries similar to this that show your opinion. You will turn this in. Work for the entire period.
September 20, 2013 - Reading to Re-evaluate an Opinion
I can read and annotate a text with the purpose of re-evaluating my opinion of Tookie Williams based on new perspectives of the topic.
To be able to do this
To be able to do this
- I must visibly mark all details and facts that affect my opinion of Tookie Williams.
- I must show my thinking in the margins.
I will show this by handing in annotated texts with comments and writing that shows my opinion in the margins.
Read the following interview with Tookie Williams with the purpose of re-evaluating your opinion.
Live
from Death Row: An Interview with Stanley Tookie Williams
by Phil Gasper
by Phil Gasper
Stanley Tookie Williams, co-founder of the Crips street
gang in Los Angeles over 30 years ago, is facing execution on December 13. Over
the past 12 years, Williams has publicly apologized for his past, written a
series of award-winningchildren's books to
keep kids out of gangs, initiated a Peace Protocol that has led to gang
truces in cities such as Newark, New Jersey, and beennominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. (For more details, see "Tookie Williams and the Politics of the Death Penalty.")
On November 25, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
announced that he will hold a hearing on December 8 to consider clemency for
Williams. Earlier that day, I spoke to Williams by telephone.
SOME PROSECUTORS, police and prison officials have been trying
to discredit you by saying that you are still an active gang member. What's
your response?
IT'S QUITE a spurious allegation that these people are putting out. The fact of the matter is that
I have a report from the San Quentin Institutional Classification Committee
from 2004, which quotes a lieutenant saying that he hadn't observed anything
that was gang-related about me for the past 10 years. It also commended me
for 10 years of a positive program.
So it's quite contradictory for
a San Quentin spokesperson -- or anyone else, for that matter -- to state that
I'm still involved in gang activity, when that same person's superiors say I've
been programming positively for over 10 years.
SOME OF the same people say that if you were serious about
opposing gang violence, you would allow the authorities to "debrief"
you on what you know about the Crips. Do you have any inside information that
could be used to weaken the Crips or other gangs, and why have you refused to
be debriefed?
THE FACT of the matter is that
"debriefing" is a euphemism for snitching -- telling on people. In my
redemptive transition, I vowed to myself not to participate in any kind of
violence, or anything that would harm other people, and for me to tell on
another person is, in my opinion, harming another individual.
But first and foremost, I have
no information.
Secondly, there's another
contradiction with these individuals who continuously promote this claim about me.
As it stands, the Departmental Operations Manual clearly states that the only
gangs or individuals who will be debriefed are prison gangs. The Crips and the
Bloods are not considered prison gangs. Prison gangs are those that were formed
and created in the prison.
If I were a gang member, and if
there was any iota of data that showed this, I would never have left the hole.
I was in there in solitary confinement for close to seven years. And if
debriefing was necessary -- if it was legal for a street gang -- then they
would have done that to me then.
THE MEDIA has made much of the fact that you have never
apologized to the murder victims' families in your case -- you've said that you
would rather die than lie about something you didn't do. Do you have anything
you would like to say to the victims' families?
IF I had the opportunity to talk
to any victims' family members, I would say that I can empathize and I
sympathize with their loss of a loved one. I would say the same thing to anyone
who has lost a loved one.
However, in regards to me
apologizing, it would be wrong of me to apologize for something I didn't do. I
didn't commit those crimes. I've been averring my innocence since day one, and
it is the truth. So I cannot apologize for something I didn't do.
It would be wrong of me. It
would be a coward's act. I would be craven to proclaim guilt for something I
didn't do. And that's why I say that I'd rather just go on and die than to lie
about something that is so untrue.
WHAT MADE you decide to redirect your life and dedicate yourself
to helping kids?
I'VE LIVED a pathetic life, and
I believe it was education that helped me to change. It was through education
that I was able to create common sense and use reasoning. And it was through
this that I developed a conscience that led to my redemption.
This is something I feel I was
obligated to do as a man, period -- to do something that would help youth out
there. I feel obligated to try to convince them that the life that they wanted
to live or are thinking about living -- the so-called thug life, or the gang
life, or the criminal life, or the drug life -- will ruin their lives forever.
I was motivated to do something in my small way -- to make a contribution.
SOME PEOPLE out there want to blame you as an individual for
pretty much all the gang violence that exists. What do you think are the
underlying causes that result in gangs and street crime and violence?
FIRST AND foremost, it's an
impossibility to blame one person for the ills of society. That's just like
Black people trying to blame one white person for slavery and what followed.
That would be ridiculous.
But I believe the center of the
problem is self-hate, which is a very destructive mechanism that people pick
up, because of the conditions not only of society but the morbid mindset of how
they look at things.
I believe that this is the
motivating factor of gangs. It was to me. That's why I had no qualms about
initiating aggression toward people who looked like me -- in other words,
toward Black folks. It was a sense of trying to erase or obliterate that which
reminded me of myself, in the negative.
WHERE DO you think that self-hate comes from?
IT COMES from conditioning. And
when I say conditioning, we're talking about conditioning that's propagated not
only on television and on the radio, but through encounters with the police
department, with people in economic positions, and in almost any institution --
the prisons, the juvenile halls, the police stations, the youth authorities,
etc.
There's an inveterate form of
racialism that exists, and it perpetuates a negative stereotype. These things
are out there.
As a youngster growing up, I had
the unenviable experience of digesting the most negative stereotypes about
Black folks being illiterate, being criminals, being violent, being
promiscuous, being indolent, etc. When you're spoon-fed these things on an
incessant basis, you eventually morph into those negative stereotypes,
unwittingly. That's what happened to me. I became the stereotypes that I was
spoon-fed.
As far as amending the problems,
I believe that education is the key. I know I consistently talk about this, but
I believe it, because it's what woke me up. It was my form of an awakening --
though over a period of time, because I've never had an epiphany or anything
like that. I had to undergo years of battling my demons.
What I did was I picked up parts
of the most negative aspects of society, and I built my character, I built my
persona. And I became what I built -- a monster. That became my identity.
WHAT ACHIEVEMENT in your life are you most proud of?
MY REDEMPTIVE transition --
being able to alter myself from one extreme to the other.
If you would have told me 15
years ago that I was going to change my life, that I would write children's
books, that I would be helping thousands upon thousands of children, that I
would eventually be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and that they would
eventually make a movie about
me, I would have looked at you as if you had lost your mind.
The reason is because, being a
Crip, so-called "cripping" was all that I knew. I felt that would be
what I would do for the rest of my life. It was all I knew. I felt that was my
reason to exist.
So quite naturally, I thought that was how I would die. I would
live until a bullet to the back of the brain, or what have you. I never
expected to do anything else, because that was my raison d'etre. There was
nothing that could penetrate that armor of the gang life at that time. That's
what I thought -- until, to my amazement, something did. What happened was that
I was slowly but surely becoming human.
MANY OF the people who are campaigning around your case are
opposed to the death penalty in general and are fighting to end it. I wonder if
there's anything you'd like to say to the anti-death penalty movement in this
country?
I'M VERY grateful that they
exist, for one thing -- because as you and I both know, there wasn't any type
of anti-anything for many years.
I'm very grateful that there are
people out there who possess the goodness to be willing to help save the lives
of many of us they don't even know. They know nothing about our backgrounds,
but yet they know that killing is wrong, and that the death penalty isn't a
deterrent, and it's not solving any problems.
Throughout this nation, the
death penalty population and the overall population within prisons are getting
larger and larger. If there were a deterrent effect, then prisons would be
empty. We're talking about over 600 on death row in California alone. If a
person can deduce from this that the death penalty is working, then something
is wrong with their reasoning.
But the death penalty has become
a pawn that politicians use all the time. You have politicians who didn't used to
be supporters of the death penalty, but once they get into the political arena,
they alter their position. They become proponents of the death penalty, because
that is the zeitgeist of the moment -- the politically correct way to be.
Some people can do it. I
couldn't do it. What they're doing is what many people expect me to do in
regards to apologizing for crimes I didn't commit -- just to save my life. Of
course I want to live, but not by having to lie.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
September 19, 2013 - Reading and Annotating to Re-evaluate an Opinion
I can read and annotate a text with the purpose of re-evaluating my opinion of Tookie Williams based on new perspectives of the topic.
To be able to do this
After reading the trial transcript and the biography of "Tookie" Williams, is your opinion of "Tookie" changing? Why or why not? Support your opinion with textual evidence. (Write at least one paragraph)
Example: My opinion of Tookie Williams is changing because I believe his upbringing made it difficult for him to see right from wrong. In the text it says, "Williams was paid to box other young boys to unconsciousness." This shows that Tookie was taught to be rewarded for violence. This is important because it makes me feel sympathy for him because he did not get to choose his childhood.
To be able to do this
- I must visibly mark all details and facts that affect my opinion of Tookie Williams.
- I must show my thinking in the margins.
I will show this by handing in annotated texts with comments and writing that shows my opinion in the margins.
Read the following Biography of Tookie Williams with the purpose of re-evaluating your opinion.
CRIMINAL OR HERO? CAN HE REDEEM HIMSELF AFTER COMMITTING SUCH A VIOLENT CRIME?
Stanley
Tookie Williams - Biography
EARLY LIFE
Born Stanley "Tookie"
Williams III on December 29, 1953, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Williams' mother,
who was only 17 at the time of his birth, was left to care for Williams alone
after his father abandoned the family. In 1959, Williams and his mother left
New Orleans and headed to Los Angeles, California, by Greyhound bus in the
hopes of achieving a better way of life. Williams later recalled the
affluent-looking South Central neighborhood where they rented their first
apartment as "a shiny red apple rotting away at the core."
Finding the street "more
interesting than being at home," Williams began wandering the neighborhood
at age six. As the new kid on the block, Williams had to quickly learn how to
defend himself from neighborhood bullies, and was often thrown into the middle
of physical conflicts. "As a member of the black male species living in
the ghetto microcosm, circumstances dictated that I be either prey or
predator," Williams later said about his adolescence. "It didn't
require deep reflection to determine which of the two I preferred."
Immersed in a culture of
violence and drugs and without a strict parental influence, Williams grew up
idolizing criminals and "mimicking pimps and drug dealers." During
his early teens, Williams was paid a few dollars to water, feed and patch up
dogs that had been mauled in illegal dogfights. Later, these dogs would be shot
or beaten to death by the gamblers and hustlers in his neighborhood. The
betting progressed to fights between young boys, and Williams was paid to box
other young boys to unconsciousness. The experiences hardened Williams, who kept
the horrors he saw—and performed—from his mother.
THE CRIPS
Williams rarely attended school,
believing that he was destined to be "dys-educated"—a term he coined
to describe the impaired and diseased knowledge he received in school and on
the streets. Instead, he was convinced he could do better in the streets, and
earned his reputation with his fists. Through fighting he made several friends,
with whom he frequently stole and made quick money as a bootblack. One of these
new friends was Raymond Washington, who Williams met in 1969.
The two boys formed an alliance
that became known as the "Crips," a group they initially founded in
order to protect their neighborhood from other, larger gangs. The original
Crips consisted of approximately 30 members, but they soon divided into the
Westside and Eastside Crips. By 1979 the Crips had evolved into a statewide
organization, and Williams and Washington lost control of the group.
This
division led ultimately to both Williams' and Washington's downfalls. In 1979,
Washington was shot and killed in a shooting in Los Angeles. His murder was
blamed on the Hoover faction of the Crips, which led to a war between the
Hoover and other Crip factions. No one was ever arrested for his murder, but
theories state that Washington knew his killer well.
GANG VIOLENCE
That same year, Williams and
three fellow gang members, under the influence of PCP-laced cigarettes, drove
to a convenience store with the intention of robbing the clerk. According to
later police reports, 26-year-old store clerk Albert Owens was walked into a
back room by Williams while the other members of the gang took money from the
register. Williams then shot out the security monitor in the back room and
killed Owens with two execution-style shots to the back. The group made $120
from the transaction. Williams later denied killing Owens.
On March 11 of that same year,
prosecutors say Williams broke into the office of the Brookhaven Motel in Los
Angeles. Once inside, he allegedly killed three members of the Taiwanese family
who owned and operated the motel. A ballistics expert linked the shotgun shell
at the motel to Williams' gun, and several gang members testified that Williams
had bragged about the crime. Williams denied this shooting as well, claiming
that he was framed by other Crips members.
IMPRISONMENT AND REHABILITATION
In 1981, Williams was tried and
convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court of all four murders plus two counts of
robbery, and was sentenced to death. On April 20 of that year, he was sent to San
Quentin to sit on death row. Williams did not adjust well to prison life, and
by the mid-80s he was given a six and a half year stay in solitary confinement
for multiple assaults on guards and fellow inmates.
After two years in solitary,
Williams started to examine his life choices and repented for his past actions.
He attributed his transformation to God, and began speaking out against gang
violence. He filed for a federal appeal in 1988, and told court officials he
was a changed man, but his appeal was denied. In 1994, he was released from
solitary. With his new mindset, he began writing a book and in 1996, with the
help of co-author Barbara Cottman Becnel, he published the first of eight Tookie
Speaks Out Against Gang Violence anti-gang books aimed at children.
The next year, Williams wrote an apology for his role in creating the Crips.
"I am no longer part of the problem. Thanks to the Almighty, I am no
longer sleepwalking through life," he wrote. He also wrote the book Life
in Prison, a short non-fiction work explaining the horrors of jail.
ANTI-VIOLENCE WORK
In 2002 Mario Fehr, a member of
the Swiss Parliament, nominated Williams for the Nobel Peace Prize in
recognition for his work against gang violence. Although he did not win the
award, many supporters spoke out in favor of the former gang member's
transformation into social reformer. He would be nominated for the honor six
times in total.
That same year, Williams
appealed again for a commuted death sentence. The appeals panel urged the judge
to consider commuting Williams' death sentence to life behind bars, citing the
former gang member's efforts toward anti-gang education. The appeal failed once
again.
In 2004, Williams helped create
the Tookie Protocol For Peace, a peace agreement for one of the deadliest and
most infamous gang wars in the country between the Crips and their rival, the
Bloods. Williams received a letter from President George W. Bush commending him
for his actions. That same year, his book Blue Rage, Black Redemption:
A Memoir (2004) was published. The book was written with the intention
to warn kids away from following Williams' life of crime. His story was also
turned into a TV movie,Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story (2004),
starring Jamie Foxx.
EXECUTION
Despite protests from the NAACP
and various supporters who turned out to fight the decision, Williams was
executed by lethal injection on December 13, 2005, at San Quentin State Prison.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
September 18, 2013 - Reading to Form an Opinion
I can read and annotate a court document with the purpose of forming an opinion about "John Doe"
To be able to do this
To be able to do this
- I must visibly mark all details and facts that affect my opinion of "John Doe"
- I must write my thinking in the margins
I will show this by handing in an annotated article with comments in the margins that show my opinion
Read through the document below and answer the question in the reading and at the end of the reading.
The 7-Eleven Robbery-Murder of Albert Owens
On
February 28, 1979, a man (John Doe1) murdered Albert Lewis Owens
during a robbery of a 7-Eleven convenience store in Whittier, California. Here
are the details of that crime from the the Los Angeles County District
Attorney's response to the man’s petition2 for executive clemency3.
Late on the evening of February
27, 1979, a man ( introduced his friend Alfred Coward, a.k.a.
"Blackie," to a man named Darryl. A short time later, Darryl, driving
a brown station wagon, drove John Doe to the residence of James Garrett. Coward
followed in his 1969 Cadillac. (Trial Transcript (TT) 2095-2097). John Doe
often stayed at the Garrett residence and kept some of his belongings there,
including his shotgun. (TT 1673, 1908).
At the Garrett residence, Doe
went inside and returned carrying a twelve-gauge shotgun. (TT 2097-2098).
Darryl and Doe, with Coward following in his car, later drove to another
residence, where they obtained a PCP4-laced cigarette, which the
three men shared.
Doe, Coward and Darryl then went
to the residence of Tony Sims. (TT 2109). These four men then discussed where
they could go in Pomona to make some money. (TT 2111). The four men then went
to yet another residence where they smoked more PCP. (TT 2113-2116).
While at this location, Doe left
the other men and returned with a .22 caliber handgun, which he also put in the
station wagon. (TT 2117-2118). Doe then told Coward, Darryl and Sims they
should go to Pomona. In response, Coward and Sims entered the Cadillac, Doe and
Darryl entered the station wagon, and both cars traveled on the freeway toward
Pomona. (TT 2118-2119).
The four men exited the freeway
near Whittier Boulevard. (TT 2186). They drove to a Stop-N-Go market and, at
Doe’s direction, Darryl and Sims entered the store to commit a robbery. At the
time, Darryl was armed with the .22 caliber handgun. (TT 2117-2218; Tony Sims'
Parole Hearing Dated July 17, 1997).
Opinion: What is your opinion of John Doe so far?
Johnny Garcia Escapes Death
The clerk at the Stop-N-Go
market, Johnny Garcia, had just finished mopping the floor when he observed a
station wagon and four black men at the door to the market. (TT 2046-2048). Two
of the men entered the market. (TT 2048). One of the men went down an aisle
while the other approached Garcia.
The man that approached Garcia
asked for a cigarette. Garcia gave the man a cigarette and lit it for him.
After approximately three to four minutes, both men left the market without
carrying out the planned robbery. (TT 2049-2050).
He Would Show Them How
Doe became upset that Darryl and
Sims did not commit the robbery. Doe told the men that they would find another
place to rob. Doe said that at the next location all of them would go inside
and he would show them how to commit a robbery.
Coward and Sims then followed
Doe and Darryl to the 7-Eleven market located at 10437 Whittier Boulevard. (TT
2186). The store clerk, twenty-six year old Albert Lewis Owens, was sweeping
the store parking lot. (TT 2146).
1.
Joh Doe: A general name given to a person whose name
is not identified.
2.
Petition:
A formal request made for something desired. The request is often made to someone of
higher authority.
3.
Clemency: The act of showing forgiveness, mercy, or
leniency.
4.
PCP: A drug that causes
over-aggressive, schizophrenic behavior.
Albert Owens Killed
When Darryl and Sims entered the
7-Eleven, Owens put the broom and dust pan down and followed them into the
store. Doe and Coward followed Owens into the store. (TT 2146-2152). As Darryl
and Sims walked to the counter area to take money from the register, Doe walked
behind Owens and told him "shut up and keep walking." (TT 2154).
While pointing a shotgun at Owens' back, Doe directed him to a back storage
room. (TT 2154).
Once inside the storage room,
Doe, at gunpoint, ordered Owens to "lay down, mother f*****." Doe
then chambered a round into the shotgun. Doe then fired the round into the
security monitor. Doe then chambered a second round and fired the round into
Owens' back as he lay face down on the floor of the storage room. Doe then
fired again into Owens' back. (TT 2162).
Near Contact Wound
Both of the shotgun wounds were
fatal. (TT 2086). The pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Owens testified
that the end of the barrel was "very close" to Owens' body when he
was shot. One of the two wounds was described as ". . . a near contact
wound." (TT 2078).
After Doe murdered Owens, he,
Darryl, Coward and Sims fled in the two cars and returned home to Los Angeles.
The robbery netted them approximately $120.00. (TT 2280).
'Killing All White People'
Once back in Los Angeles, Doe
asked if anyone wanted to get something to eat. When Sims asked Doe why he shot
Owens, Doe said he "didn't want to leave any witnesses." Doe also
said he killed Owens "because he was white and he was killing all white
people." (TT 2189, 2193).
Later that same day, Doe bragged to his brother Wayne about
killing Owens. Doe said, "you should have heard the way he sounded when I
shot him." Doe then made gurgling or growling noises and laughed
hysterically about Owens' death. (TT 2195-2197).
After annotating the text, answer the complete the following sentences
1. One important annotation I made was . . .
2. This line affected my opinion about John Doe because . . .
Exit Ticket
Can John Doe do anything to change your opinion of him? Why or why not?
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