‘Tookie’ Williams Executed

last updated 8 January 2015

Stanley “Tookie' Williams, the former L.A. gang leader who sparked an international anti'“death penalty campaign, was executed by lethal injection this week, after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down an 11th-hour request to grant him clemency. Williams, 51, founder of the notorious Crips street gang, was on death row for the shotgun killings of four people in two 1979 holdups. In prison, Williams crusaded against gangs and violence, though he always claimed he was framed in the four murders. 'œWithout an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal murders,' Schwarzenegger said, 'œthere can be no redemption.'

Williams refused a last meal and made no statement as he was escorted into the death chamber in San Quentin State Prison and strapped down. Outside, some 2,000 protesters held vigil. Folk singer Joan Baez sang 'œSwing Low, Sweet Chariot.' Witnesses said the execution team struggled for nearly 15 minutes to insert the intravenous lines into Williams' muscular arms.

What a 'œmacabre spectacle,' said Los Angeles Times reporter Steve Lopez. I witnessed the execution, and one need not believe in Williams' innocence to be struck by the brutality of what was done on our behalf. Williams' legacy is 'œterrorized neighborhoods and a chorus of weeping mothers.' But what does it say about a 'œnation that preaches godly virtue to the world' that we continue this 'œmedieval practice'?