Crips Gang Co-Founder Executed in Calif.

Crips Gang Co-Founder Executed in Calif.
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. Dec 13, 2005
By KIM CURTIS Associated Press Writer
— Convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams, the Crips gang
co-founder whose case stirred a national debate about
capital punishment versus the possibility of redemption,
was executed Tuesday morning.
Williams, 51, died at 12:35 a.m. after receiving a lethal
injection at San Quentin State Prison, officials said.
Before the execution, he was "complacent, quiet and
thoughtful," Corrections Department spokeswoman
Terry Thornton said.
The case became the state's highest-profile execution in
decades. Hollywood stars and capital punishment foes
argued that Williams' sentence should be commuted
to life in prison because he had made amends by writing
children's books about the dangers of gangs and violence.
In the days leading up to the execution, state and
federal courts refused to reopen his case.
Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied
Williams' request for clemency, suggesting that his
supposed change of heart was not genuine because
he had not shown any real remorse for the countless
killings committed by the Crips.
"Is Williams' redemption complete and sincere, or is
it just a hollow promise?" Schwarzenegger wrote.
"Without an apology and atonement for these senseless
and brutal killings, there can be no redemption."
Williams was condemned in 1981 for gunning down
convenience store clerk Albert Owens, 26, at a
7-Eleven in Whittier and killing Yen-I Yang, 76,
Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, and the couple's daughter
Yu-Chin Yang Lin, 43, at the Los Angeles motel
they owned.
Williams claimed he was innocent.
Witnesses at the trial said Williams boasted about the
killings, stating "You should have heard the way he
sounded when I shot him." Williams then made a
growling noise and laughed for five to six minutes,
according to the transcript that the governor
referenced in his denial of clemency.
Williams was the 12th person executed in California
since lawmakers reinstated the death penalty in 1977.
Some witnesses said the nurse who delivered the
injection appeared to have trouble finding a vein in
Williams' muscular arm. At one point, he uttered
something to the nurse and offered to help, said
Steve Ornoski, the prison warden.

Did he make a final confession?
I hope the youth out there can see crime does
not pay. While I am not prepared to judge this
man, we have to realize when someone takes
a persons life, they must expect to eventually
give up theirs. I don't know if this man was quilty
but ...... what about the victims? If he is not and the
true killer is out there still. Then may god have mercy
on their souls as one more death has been added to
their black list. The state has done their job.

link:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1400222