- SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Crips
co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams was executed Tuesday for four 1979 murders
after appeals courts refused to reopen his case and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
rejected the notion he had found redemption on death row.
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- Williams, 51, died around 12:35 a.m. by lethal injection
at San Quentin State Prison, as supporters and death penalty foes rallied
outside the gates of the prison during the state's highest-profile execution
in a generation.
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- Williams' case became one of the nation's biggest death-row
cause celebres in decades. It set off a nationwide debate over the possibility
of redemption on death row, with Hollywood stars and capital punishment
foes arguing that Williams had made amends by writing children's books
about the dangers of gangs.
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- In the days leading up to the execution, state and federal
courts refused to reopen Williams' case. At midday Monday, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger denied Williams' request for clemency.
-
- Later in the evening, additional last-ditch requests
to halt the execution were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Schwarzenegger.
-
- Williams became the 12th person executed in California
since lawmakers reinstated the death penalty in 1977.
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