DAILY GRINDER: Terrance Williams Denied Clemency
Image: Change.org
Convicted, condemned murderer Terrance Williams lost his clemency bid yesterday when the five member clemency board did not vote to unanimously spare his life. Clemens murdered Mt. Airy churchman Amos Norwood in 1984 during, it was then claimed, an alleged robbery. Since then, claims have been made that Clemens had been sexually abused by Norwood and the robbery story was created by police to convict Williams. A Change.org petition had been passed around calling for Gov. Tom Corbett to grant clemency, and noted Williams was a “survivor of sexual abuse.” Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Thomas Dolgenos, arguing for the death penalty, noted that Williams’ allegations of molestation were not made at his trial in the mid-80s or any appeals, until 1998. “He has every motivation to make those allegations [of abuse] now,” he said. Williams is scheduled to die on October 3rd.
Councilman David Oh thinks City Council members should not have to resign their seat if they want to run for another higher office. He calls this “disadvantageous for our city”—what is David Oh running for next?
A video was released yesterday showing Mitt Romney being asked how he was going to win the election. He responded: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”
A little offensive, no? He had a cleanup press conference last night, which didn’t really help the situation. Watch it:
Advocacy groups are working with Pennsylvania colleges to get students identification cards with a photo and an expiration date, since both are required on IDs used to vote in November. Some schools have already begun issuing new IDs.
Another Philadelphia Catholic priest has been suspended for allegedly molesting kids.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick’s foundation is donating $200,000 to help renovate a football field in Hunting Park.
There you go again Grinder … Resign to Run must be under consideration only because Councilman David Oh is trying to run for something else … create bad guys, drama, that’s what sells, right?
It has nothing to do with trying to bring Philadelphia out of an insular and uncompetitive position in the global marketplace and making leadership a continuum from Philadelphia outward … or does it?
Laws and regulations are changed in response to your economic and political situations. With the highest child poverty rate of the top 10 cities in the US, I would think that trying to GROW Philadelphia and give leaders a path to expand influence to the state and federal levels may be considered as timley change. When you take this item in consideration wtih Councilman Oh’s Chairmanship of the Committee on Global Opportunities and the Creative/Innovative Economy, his meetings wtih dozens of Ambassadors, Consul Generals, Councilpeople, and the occasional Prime Minister, all from nations spanning Asia, Europe and South America, you start to see a real story emerging through the mud that you have succumbed to because you lack the talent to make good news interesting.
While you’re busy being the political version of TMZ, Mr. Oh is in Korea, with the CEO of Philadelphia International Airport discussing the possibility of direct flights to and from Philadelphia to Korea.
But you wouldn’t know about that let alone write about it, because as long as PW is a financial success, to hell with the citizens of Philadelphia and their welfare.
Maybe you should call it Philadelphia Weakly instead …