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Stanley Tookie Williams executed
Stanley "Tookie" Williams poses for an undated photo at California's San Quentin State Prison. He was put to death early Tuesday for four 1979 murders.
Convicted killer and Crips gang co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams was executed early Tuesday at the California state prison at San Quentin.
The 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, 51, who received a lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday (3:01 a.m. ET).
Pro-death penalty protester Rod Warner of Orange County, Calif., left, clashes with anti-death penalty protesters outside of San Quentin State prison.
The unofficial time of death was 12:35 a.m. (3:35 a.m. ET), a prison spokeswoman said.
In denying Williams' bid for clemency, Schwarzenegger said there was no reason to "second-guess" the jury's verdict.
"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.
Williams was convicted of killing four people in two 1979 robberies in Los Angeles.
Before Williams went to the execution chamber, the stepmother of one of the men Williams was convicted of killing said she felt "justice is going to be done tonight."
Williams was convicted of killing Albert Owens, above, at a 7-Eleven in Whittier, Calif. He was also convicted of killing a couple and their daughter in Los Angeles.
"I had faith that when Governor Arnold looked at the facts of the case that he was going to decide not to do clemency," said Lora 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. It was an evidence decision."
Williams had maintained his innocence since his arrest and conviction in the brutal 1979 slayings. He had denounced gang violence and written children's books with an anti-gang message, donating the proceeds to anti-gang community groups.
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."
His lawyers late Monday filed another request for clemency from Schwarzenegger, citing the statements of three new witnesses Harris said could provide exculpatory evidence. That request was also denied.
"He's at peace, but we're fighting, and he knows it," Harris said of his condemned client.
Protesters for and against the death penalty gathered outside the gates of San Quentin early Monday evening.
Winnie Mandikizela-Mandela visits Williams in 1999. Prominent supporters range from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Snoop Dogg.
Celebrities, activists and anti-death-penalty advocates had spoken out on Williams' behalf. 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."
And Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and a 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."
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency to Williams Monday. Family members of the victims had urged him not to grant it.
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."
Williams was sentenced to death in 1981 in the killing of Owens, a 26-year-old Los Angeles convenience store clerk, in February 1979. The clerk was shot twice in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun while face-down on the floor.
Less than two weeks later, jurors concluded, Williams killed an immigrant Chinese couple and their 41-year-old daughter while stealing less than $100 in cash from their motel. Part of the daughter's head was blown off in the shooting.
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."
Williams authored several anti-gang children's books, including 'Gangs and the Abuse of Power.' Proceeds from the books go to anti-gang community groups.
"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."
Williams' lawyers went to the Supreme Court after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an affidavit that suggested the one-time gang leader was framed for the four killings.
Gordon Bradbury von Ellerman, a jail trusty who had been held with Williams in the Los Angeles County Jail from 1979 to 1980, stated he was the cellmate of another trusty, identified as George "Roger" Oglesby. Von Ellerman states that Los Angeles Sheriff's Department personnel provided Oglesby with documents to aid him in testifying against Williams in return for reduced or dropped charges.
"I was personally aware that Los Angeles Sheriff's Department personnel would often provide information to these inmates so that they could help frame defendants for crimes," he said in the statement.
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit rejected that petition Monday afternoon, arguing that Williams and his lawyers failed to present enough evidence of innocence to block the execution.
Source: CNN
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