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.
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It says that we haven't forgotten Williams' victims, said Jeff Jacoby in The Boston Globe: Albert Owens, a 7-Eleven clerk, and three members of the Yang family, who ran a motel Williams decided to rob. Executing Williams makes a statement 'œabout the demands of justice' that's 'œas old as Genesis, and as essential as ever.'
San Francisco Chronicle