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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...

SAN QUENTIN, United States (AFP) - US authorities have executed convicted killer Stanley "Tookie" Williams after one of the biggest anti-death penalty campaigns in the country for decades. Williams, executed by lethal injection at San Quentin prison, was declared dead at 12:35 am (0335 GMT) on Tuesday, a prison spokeswoman said. Several thousand people gathered outside the prison south of San Francisco raised their voices in anger when the news was announced. "It's over, but it's not," said civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, one of several high-profile figures to have supported Williams in his quest to avoid execution. "He came...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Convicted killer and former Crips gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams is scheduled for execution just after midnight on Tuesday (3:01 EDT/0801 GMT) for the murders of four people in 1979. Here are key facts surrounding the case and execution: -- Williams was convicted of killing Albert Lewis Owens with a shotgun as the convenience store clerk lay face down during a February 28, 1979, robbery and murdering a family of three while robbing their motel on March 11, 1979. -- Williams, who claims to have co-founded the Crips street gang, maintains his innocence, saying that he...

THE CASE AGAINST STANLEY WILLIAMS by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher December 12, 2005 Barring the unexpected wherein Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) (right) grants clemency to convicted capital murderer and Crips co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams, Stanley will get up close and personal with the death chamber just before midnight tonight as he is strapped to a gurney. At 12:01, the lethal cocktail of chemicals will flow into his veins and end - once and for all - the life of this barbarian, and like Timothy McVeigh and others of his ilk, he, too, can ride the Highway to Hell, where...