Free Republic

Large crowd expected at Tookie's funeral 20/12/2005 - 14:02:42 Few condemned inmates have generated as much public support as Stanley Tookie Williams, and so much post-execution attention. The final send-off for the former gang leader executed last week promises to be no different. A funeral normally reserved for a dignitary or religious leader was scheduled for today, almost exactly a week after Williams was executed by lethal injection for murdering four people during a pair of 1979 robberies. Among those expected to attend the funeral in Los Angeles were the US civil rights leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who visited...

About 2,000 people turn out to view the body of the killer and writer executed last week despite a high-profile campaign to save his life. 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. "Looking at him today, I'm reminded that...