SEVERSON: When she first came to San Quentin eight years ago, Barbara Becnel was researching a book on street gang warfare. She's been coming ever since to visit the co-founder of one of the world's most notorious gangs, the Crips.
His
name is Stanley "Tookie" Williams, and he's been on death
row for 20 years -- since he was 26 years old -- convicted
of murdering four people in cold blood. Now he has been
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. BARBARA BECNEL: He is not being rewarded for the bad things he has done. He is being acknowledged for the good things he is trying to do.
SEVERSON: We were not allowed to interview Stan Williams on camera but we did speak to him by phone.
(To Williams): What was your reaction when you heard you were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?
STANLEY "TOOKIE" WILLIAMS (San Quentin Death Row inmate and author): I couldn't believe that I, a black man on death row, would ever be nominated for anything for that matter.
SEVERSON: Stan Williams started to write children's books with an anti gang message. With Barbara transcribing, he has now written eight books that are used in schools around the country. He started a Web site called "Tookie's Corner" and founded the "Internet Project for Street Peace" that allows at risk kids from as far away as Switzerland to communicate with each other.
The nomination set off a controversy that goes to the heart of the way Americans view justice. If a man commits horrible crimes, and then after years on death row, recommits his life to saving others -- is that redemption? Is he entitled to forgiveness, much less a Nobel Peace Prize?
Nancy Ruhe-Munch is with the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children. Her group has used its Web site to solicit letters condemning the William's nomination.
NANCY
RUHE-MUNCH (National Organization of Parents of Murdered
Children): We don't believe that anybody who has been convicted
of murder should be rewarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.
We just don't think that that is ethical or moral. Consider the robberies -- murders that put Stan Williams on death row. A teenage 7-11 clerk shot in the head twice. One month later a mother, father and daughter shot -- gunned to death. He continues to deny and appeal all four convictions.
MS. BECNEL: I definitely feel and know, and have witnessed that he feels a great deal of remorse for having started the Crips and the horrible destruction. The bloody destructive legacy that it has left.
WILLIAMS: In order for me to experience redemption I had to first develop a conscience. And that enabled me to gradually rectify my many faults. And then, and only then, was I able to reach out to others to make amends.
MS. RUHE-MUNCH: It has nothing to do with forgiveness. It has nothing to do with redemption. And I really believe that society has to say -- no, we are not going to put these people up as heroes.
SEVERSON: Here in north Richmond, California, the wrong side of the San Francisco Bay, where the annual per capita income is $4,500 dollars -- where most everyone knows someone in prison and there are precious few role models -- "Tookie" Williams is a hero.
It's not because he co-founded the Crips. It's because he was one of them, and now he speaks against gangs and violence. This is Joshua Dixon.
JOSHUA DIXON (adolescent): I've learned that being cool is not like trying to bully people around. Like [you] do bad things just because you want to impress somebody.
SEVERSON:
This is the neighborhood house, funded by proceeds from
Tookie's books, the Zellerbach Foundation, and the Justice
department. The door to this place locks automatically so
no one can get in without permission. It's that kind of
neighborhood. The house is filled with books and computers
-- a sanctuary. 
(To
students): By a show of hands, how many people here think
Tookie Williams should have been nominated for a Nobel Peace
Prize -- the majority of the class. 
