Gang co-founder executed in Calif.
Schwarzenegger, Supreme Court deny clemency bid
SAN FRANCISCO -- Stanley ''Tookie" Williams, the founder of the murderous Crips gang and the focus of a national debate on capital punishment, was put to death this morning at San Quentin Prison.
The path to his execution was cleared when California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday refused to block the action, rejecting the notion that Williams had atoned for his crimes and found redemption on death row.
The US Supreme Court also rejected his final appeal. Williams, 51, was found guilty of murdering four people during two holdups in 1979.
Williams's case became one of the nation's biggest death row cause célèbre in decades. In addition to traditional arguments against capital punishment, the case generated debates and protests 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.
But Schwarzenegger suggested that Williams's supposed change of heart was not genuine, noting that Williams had not owned up to his crimes or shown any real remorse for the countless killings committed by the Crips.
''Is Williams's redemption complete and sincere, or is it just a hollow promise?" Schwarzenegger wrote less than 12 hours before the execution. ''Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption."
Williams's supporters were disappointed with the governor's refusal to commute the death sentence to life in prison without parole.
''The governor's 96-hour wait to give an answer was a cowardly act and was tortuous," said former ''M*A*S*H" star Mike Farrell, a death penalty opponent. ''I would suggest that had he the courage of his convictions he could have gone over to San Quentin and met with Stanley Williams himself and made a determination rather than letting his staff legal adviser write this garbage."
Williams was the 12th person executed in California since lawmakers reinstated the death penalty in 1977.
He was condemned in 1981 for gunning down convenience store clerk Albert Owens, 26, at a
Williams has maintained his innocence.
Just before the governor announced his decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied Williams's request for a reprieve, saying there was no ''clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence."
Later in the evening, additional last-ditch requests to halt the execution were rejected by the US Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit, and Schwarzenegger.
The last California governor to grant clemency was Ronald Reagan, who spared a mentally infirm killer in 1967. Schwarzenegger -- a Republican who been criticized by members of his own party as too accommodating to liberals -- rejected clemency twice before during his two years in office.
In denying clemency, Schwarzenegger said the evidence of his guilt was ''strong and compelling," and he dismissed suggestions that the trial was unfair.
Schwarzenegger also pointed out the brutality of the crimes, noting that Williams allegedly said about one of the killings, ''You should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him." According to the governor's account, Williams then made a growling noise and laughed for five to six minutes.
In addition, the governor noted that Williams dedicated his 1998 book ''Life in Prison" to a list of figures that included the black militant George Jackson -- ''a significant indicator that Williams is not reformed and that he still sees violence and lawlessness as a legitimate means to address societal problems."
Schwarzenegger also noted that there is ''little mention or atonement in his writings and his plea for clemency of the countless murders committed by the Crips following the lifestyle Williams once espoused. The senseless killing that has ruined many families, particularly in African-American communities, in the name of the Crips and gang warfare is a tragedy of our modern culture."
Williams and a friend founded the Crips in Los Angeles in 1971. Authorities say it is responsible for hundreds of deaths, many of them in battles with the rival Bloods for control of the drug trade.
Among other people who took up Williams's cause were Jamie Foxx, who played the gang leader in a 2004 cable television movie; rapper Snoop Dogg, himself a former Crip; and Sister Helen Prejean, the nun depicted in the movie ''Dead Man Walking."
