Stanley Tookie Williams

Stanley Tookie Williams, whose self-described evolution from gang thug to antiviolence crusader won him an international following and nominations for a Nobel Peace Prize, was executed by lethal injection early today, hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to spare his life. His death was announced at 12:35 a.m.

IN the manner of tribal origin myths, stories about the beginning of the street gang known as the Crips have been set down with varying degrees of authority by academics, journalists and a slew of former gangsters, members of the last usually claiming to have been integral to the gang's formation. In the most common version, the Crips started as an offshoot of the Black Panthers, the name CRIP an acronym for Community Revolution in Progress.

Community activists plan to hold a protest today against KFI-AM (640) for what they contend is the local station's race-baiting in airing a popular afternoon talk radio show that has turned the execution of former gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams into entertainment.

Re "Problems Alleged in Williams' Execution," Sept. 6 This puts another nail in the coffin of the death penalty. Let's face it -- there is no humane way to execute someone. And why should our government be in the business of executing its citizens? Another crucial nail is how many cases there are of wrongfully accused people on death row. Let's join the world's more civilized countries and quit this barbaric and immoral practice. JOYCE KOHL Altadena Lawyers for another death row inmate claim that Stanley Tookie Williams may have felt horrible pain when he was executed.

IN the manner of tribal origin myths, stories about the beginning of the street gang known as the Crips have been set down with varying degrees of authority by academics, journalists and a slew of former gangsters, members of the last usually claiming to have been integral to the gang's formation. In the most common version, the Crips started as an offshoot of the Black Panthers, the name CRIP an acronym for Community Revolution in Progress.

The California attorney general's office Friday asked the state Supreme Court to deny a motion from attorneys for Stanley Tookie Williams seeking information they believe would cast doubt on the validity of his 1981 convictions on four murder charges. Williams, 51, co-founder of the Crips gang, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 13 at San Quentin State Prison. His lawyers have asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency because of Williams' anti-gang work in recent years.

Attorneys for four-time convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams are trying to get access to a wide array of trial evidence in a longshot bid to stop his execution on grounds that his convictions were unconstitutional. Williams, 51, a co-founder of the Crips gang, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 13. This week, his attorneys asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant him clemency for his work as an anti-gang activist on death row.

Attorneys for four-time convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday to grant clemency to the co-founder of the Crips, who became an anti-gang activist years after he went to death row in 1981. Williams, 51, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison on Dec. 13, unless Schwarzenegger commutes his death sentence to a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Tune in to the afternoon "John and Ken Show" on talk radio's KFI-AM (640) and you get a highly personalized take on Stanley Tookie Williams and those who are lobbying for the commutation of his death sentence. NAACP President Bruce S. Gordon is "a lunatic." Los Angeles journalist/progressive political advocate Jasmyne Cannick is a "black racist" and a "crackpot activist trying to make a name for herself." Williams himself? A conman in a murderer's prison jumpsuit.

A federal appeals court said Wednesday that Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a founder of the Crips street gang who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, can be executed for killing four people in 1981. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant Williams another hearing based on his claim that he was a victim of racially biased jury selection in his 1981 trial. The prosecutor in that case struck all three blacks who might have served on the jury. Unless the U.S.

Prison officials allowed the execution of convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams to proceed, even though a nurse had failed to hook up a backup intravenous line minutes before authorities delivered the lethal injection drugs, according to court filings made public Tuesday. Defense attorneys for a man on death row at San Quentin cited the problem as part of a legal challenge to California's lethal injection procedure. Later this month, U.S.

The ashes of executed Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams were spread in a lake in Soweto, South Africa, in accordance with his will, friends and associates said last week. Barbara Becnel, who was coauthor of books with Williams and witnessed his Dec. 13 execution, said in a statement released Friday that she and Williams' longtime friend Shirley Neal sprinkled the ashes in the lake June 25 in Soweto's Thokoza Park, as Williams had requested.

Re "State Halts Execution to Review Procedure," Feb. 22 The San Quentin State Prison warden wants to make sure that killer and rapist Michael Morales will feel no pain at his execution. Did the young woman he choked, beat with a hammer, raped and stabbed in the heart feel no pain? Am I the only one who thinks there is something wrong here? DON WAGNER Santa Monica For those of us unsure of the merits of the death penalty, the indefinite postponement of Morales' execution is encouraging.

Re "The death penalty doesn't pay," Opinion, Jan. 13 Until you have stood knee-deep in the wreckage caused by people like Stanley Tookie Williams, Clarence Ray Allen and others who have blasted their way through innocent human lives, you have no reference point in the debate concerning whether the penalty fits the crime. People like Elisabeth Semel have the ability to view murder like a day at the library. No body fluids or protruding body parts, no retching smells, no emotions, no wailing relatives and no urge to vomit.

Re "Funeral Service Celebrates Williams' Conversion From Violence to Peace," Dec. 21 The Rev. Jesse Jackson said, "We are not safer, we are not more secure, we're not more humane." He could have added that Albert Owens is still dead, having been shot in the back with a shotgun, witnessed by three of Stanley Tookie Williams' fellow thieves. Snoop Dogg said, "Another black king will be taken from the scene." He did not mention the Asian Americans removed from the scene by the "king."

RE "These Walls Do Talk" [Dec. 8]: While Los Angeles was heatedly debating whether Stanley Tookie Williams should be executed, The Times ran a story about an African American couple who is living the American dream and preserving African and American history. An upshot of the story is that an American family of color can acquire wealth and use those resources to advance the culture from whence they came. As the article notes, the Kinseys use their home to raise money for worthy causes.

The inmate's eyes soften when he talks about his work with children. Stanley "Tookie" Williams, co-founder of the notorious Crips, regrets--regrets big--that he can't do more, teach more, save more children. He takes as an insult the query whether rescuing one youngster's life is enough. It's not nearly enough for him. His time is limited, and he knows it. Williams, 45, has spent the last 18 years on San Quentin's death row for killing four people during two robberies.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to review the case of California death-row inmate Stanley "Tookie" Williams, setting the stage for his possible execution in December. Without comment or recorded dissent, the justices denied the appeal of Williams, founder of the Crips gang in Los Angeles and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee who won acclaim for a series of books he co-wrote from prison urging children to reject gang life.

Stanley Tookie Williams was remembered Tuesday as a man who transformed himself after an early life of violence into a redeemed peacemaker and advocate for children. More than 2,000 people waited in line outside the Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles to attend his funeral service, which included tributes from friends and dignitaries, messages from Williams recorded shortly before his execution and a passionate call for peace from his son.

For many of the mourners filing past the casket Monday, the gray-bearded gentleman in the tailored gray suit and silk tie bore little resemblance to the man they remembered as the muscle-bound, fearsome Crips co-founder, Stanley Tookie Williams. "When I was a kid, Tookie was the most dangerous man in South-Central Los Angeles," recalled Najee Ali, 42, director of Project Islamic Hope, a Los Angeles-based civil rights group.