Crips gang co-founder put to death for 4 murdersSAN QUENTIN, California (CNN) -- Death did not come quickly for Stanley Tookie Williams, the co-founder of the violent Crips street gang who was executed by lethal injection early Tuesday for the 1979 robbery murders of four people in Los Angeles.
Witnesses and prison officials said Williams appeared to grow impatient as prison staffers searched for several minutes for a vein in his muscular left arm.
Authorities began the process to administer the lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. (3:01 a.m. ET) in the execution chamber at San Quentin. His death was announced 34 minutes later.
"He did seem frustrated that it didn't go as quickly as he thought it might," said San Quentin State Prison Warden Steven Ornoski.
Williams, 51, acknowledged a violent past but maintained he was innocent of the slayings. He became an anti-gang crusader while on death row.
It was the second execution in California this year, and the 12th since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s.
"He had a just punishment," said Lora Owens, stepmother of one of Williams' victims and a witness to the execution. "Now I just want to get on," she told CNN on Tuesday.
Williams' case set off intense debate over capital punishment and redemption, with celebrities, activists and anti-death penalty advocates saying his initiatives and anti-gang message from behind bars meant his life was worth saving.
Williams had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature by an array of college professors, a Swiss lawmaker and others.
Difficulty inserting needleSeventeen reporters witnessed the execution and gave their accounts afterward.
They said inserting the IVs to administer the lethal chemicals took nearly 20 minutes, with staff having particular difficulty getting a needle into Williams' left arm.
Witness Crystal Carreon of the Sacramento Bee said Williams was restless during the preparations.
Another witness, Kim Curtis, a reporter for The Associated Press, said Williams appeared to say, "You doing that right?" as prison staffers searched for a vein.
Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez said Williams offered "no resistance," but raised his head several times and looked toward his supporters and the press gallery.
Some witnesses said Williams appeared to wince when the needle found its mark.
Three of Williams' invited supporters shouted in unison, "The state of California just killed an innocent man," as they exited the gallery after his death.
Minutes earlier, reporters said, at least one of the three had given Williams a raised fist salute.
Clemency, appeals deniedThe execution went ahead as scheduled after the U.S. Supreme Court late Monday rejected a last-ditch appeal.
The high court's ruling followed California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to deny clemency for Williams.
"Based on the cumulative weight of the evidence, there is no reason to second-guess the jury's decision of guilt or raise significant doubts or serious reservations about Williams' convictions and death sentence," Schwarzenegger said in a five-page statement explaining his decision.
Before Williams went to the execution chamber, Owens said she felt "justice is going to be done tonight."
"I had faith that when Governor Arnold (Schwarzenegger) looked at the facts of the case that he was going to decide not to do clemency," said Owens, whose stepson, Albert Owens, was shot to death in a convenience store holdup.
"I don't like it being said it's a political decision," she added. "It was an evidence decision."
Williams had maintained his innocence since his arrest and conviction in the 1979 slayings. He denounced gang violence and wrote children's books with an anti-gang message, donating the proceeds to anti-gang community groups.
One of his lawyers, Peter Fleming, called the governor's decision to deny clemency "wrongheaded."
As Williams was being moved to a holding cell next to the death chamber Monday evening, his lead attorney, John Harris, had said the convict was "at peace."
Protesters outside the gates
A crowd of demonstrators gathered outside the gates of the prison Monday evening, with celebrities, activists and anti-death-penalty advocates pleading for Williams' life to be spared.
"I am saddened that we are continuing to demean human life by pretending that we are God and making determinations to kill other individuals for what it is claimed they have done," former "M*A*S*H" star and death penalty opponent Mike Farrell told CNN.
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who visited with Williams, said Schwarzenegger decided "to choose revenge over redemption and to use Tookie Williams as a trophy in the flawed system."
"To kill him is a way of making politicians look tough," Jackson said. "It does not make it right. It does not make any of us safer. It does not make any of us more secure."
Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and prominent death penalty opponent, compared the death penalty to "gang justice."
"Gang justice is, if you kill a member of our gang, we kill you -- and don't tell me anything about how you changed your life or what you're going to do," she said. "You kill, and we kill you. And that's what the United States of America is doing with this."
But Schwarzenegger questioned the sincerity of Williams' conversion to nonviolence.
"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."
He added: "In this case, the one thing that would be the clearest indication of complete remorse and full redemption is the one thing Williams will not do."
Barbara Becnel, the editor of Williams' books, pledged that his supporters would not give up their fight to prove Williams' innocence.
"We are going to prove his innocence, and when we do, we are going to show that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is, in fact, himself a cold blooded murderer," Becnel said.
Prosecutor: Evidence 'rock solid'
Williams was sentenced to death in 1981 in the killing of Owens, a 26-year-old Los Angeles convenience store clerk. The clerk was shot twice in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun while face-down on the floor.
Less than two weeks after Owens' February 1979 slaying, jurors concluded, Williams killed an immigrant Chinese couple and their 41-year-old daughter while stealing less than $100 in cash from their motel. Robert Martin, one of the prosecutors who sent Williams to prison, said the courts "have scrutinized this from every angle and they've found that the evidence is rock solid."
He questioned whether there was any moral equivalence "between co-authoring some children's books and the senseless murder of four people in cold blood."
"The books will live on," Martin told CNN. "We have many authors who have died, and their books are still in print. And if they have any good effect, that can continue. So I don't believe that that is a conclusive argument."
CNN's Ted Rowlands, Kareen Wynter and Bill Mears contributed to this report.http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/13/williams...tion/index.html
