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A federal judge in San Francisco rejected a stay of execution Friday for a 75-year-old man who is scheduled to be executed next month at San Quentin State Prison. Clarence Ray Allen had asked for the stay so he could be treated for a number of ailments, which would help him prepare for a clemency petition with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said his attorney Michael Satris. In his federal lawsuit, Allen said laser eye surgery would allow him to participate in tests that would determine if he suffers from organic brain damage. His lawyers say Allen is legally blind. In addition,...

Furious politicians from Arnold Schwarzenegger's home city have turned on him over his refusal to stop the execution of a reformed gangster. Councillors in the Austrian city of Graz yesterday voted to remove the California governor's name from the local football stadium. The move comes after the Terminator star denied clemency to convicted murderer Stanley 'Tookie'Williams, 51, the co-founder of Los Angeles' notorious Crips gang. Graz deputy mayor Walter Ferk said: said: 'It is annoying that we are being criticised because of Schwarzenegger's actions in California. 'It is not exactly admirable for us to be connected with the death penalty....

One day after notorious gang leader and vicious killer Tookie Williams was executed in California -- despite weeks of very vocal, vociferous, protests by Hollywood stars, political and civil rights leaders -- another man was executed in Mississippi. John B. Nixon, Sr. was 77 years old when he was executed December 14, 2005. He was the oldest man to be executed since the death penalty was reestablished in 1976 and the oldest to be executed since 1916. Unlike the Tookie Williams execution, there were no protests about this execution. There were no claims about discrimination when imposing the death penalty...

PARCHMAN, Miss. (AP) — A 77-year-old convicted hitman was executed Wednesday, becoming the oldest person in the nation put death since capital punishment was reinstated nearly three decades ago. John B. Nixon Sr. still claimed innocence as he was strapped to the death chamber gurney, and blamed one of his sons for the 1985 murder of a Mississippi woman.

PARCHMAN, Miss. - Hired killer John B. Nixon Sr. was put to death Wednesday by lethal injection, but not before he claimed one of his sons carried out the 1985 murder of a Mississippi woman. "I did not kill Virginia Tucker," Nixon said from the death chamber gurney. "I know within my heart, and it hurts to acknowledge, that it was a son of mine and a Spanish friend and another man from Jackson." Nixon, 77, did not identify which of his sons he was blaming, but said he believed his oldest son, John B. Nixon Jr., did not know...

Prison Officials Say Nixon Calm As Execution Approaches POSTED: 7:20 am CST December 14, 2005 UPDATED: 5:10 pm CST December 14, 2005 PARCHMAN, Miss. -- Convicted hitman John B. Nixon, Sr., spent the final hours before his scheduled execution Wednesday visiting with relatives, and prison officials described him as calm and tranquil. The 77-year-old man ate a breakfast of two eggs, two sausage patties, two pieces of white bread, coffee and milk. Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps said Nixon declined to eat lunch, saving room for a last meal. The execution -- Mississippi's first since 2002 -- was set for 6...

With the failure of a high-profile clemency bid for Stanley Tookie Williams, legal observers say a reprieve seems even less likely for two more death row inmates who are facing execution in coming months -- and the pace of capital punishment could increase in California over the next two years.Hours after Williams was put to death on Tuesday, death penalty opponents vowed to renew their efforts against the execution of 75-year-old Clarence Ray Allen of Fresno, scheduled for Jan. 17, by arguing that no civilized society should kill a prisoner who is elderly, partially blind and confined to a wheelchair.

Even before convicted murderer, Crips gang co-founder and anti-gang activist Stanley Tookie Williams was executed early Tuesday, death-penalty opponents had begun looking ahead to their battle's next phase. Statements issued Monday by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Death Penalty Focus and Amnesty International excoriated Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for denying Williams clemency, but also urged support for a bill to halt California's executions at least until a bipartisan commission reports at 2007's end on the death penalty's fairness. The Assembly Public Safety Committee is scheduled to hear that bill, AB 1121, on Jan. 10 — exactly one week...

December 13, 2005 - San Quentin Prison is now preparing for the execution of its next death row inmate, Fresno's Clarence Ray Allen. Allen was convicted of arranging a triple murder at a Fresno County market. In 1980, three young people were shot to death in the market by a hired hit man as part of an effort to cover a past crime. Now, after a quarter of a century, preparations are underway for his execution. He is 75 years old, has suffered a stroke and has heart problems, but he is still scheduled to be put to death...

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — FOX News correspondent Adam Housley was one of 39 people who witnessed the Tuesday morning execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. Williams was convicted in 1981 for gunning down convenience store clerk Albert Owens, 26, at a 7-Eleven in Whittier, Calif., and killing Yen-I Yang, 76, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, as well as the couple's daughter Yu-Chin Yang Lin, 43, at the Los Angeles motel they owned. Williams claimed he was innocent, but witnesses at the trial said he boasted about the killings, saying, "You should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him." This...

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) -- Convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams, the Crips gang co-founder whose case stirred a national debate about capital punishment versus the possibility of redemption, was executed early Tuesday. Williams, 51, died at 12:35 a.m. Officials at San Quentin State Prison seemed to have trouble injecting the lethal mixture into his muscular arm. As they struggled to find a vein, Williams looked up repeatedly and appeared frustrated, shaking his head at supporters and other witnesses. "You doing that right?" it sounded as if he asked one of the men with a needle. After he was declared dead,...

Stanley Tookie Williams executed Crips gang co-founder put to death for 4 murders Tuesday, December 13, 2005; Posted: 3:38 a.m. EST (08:38 GMT) SAN QUENTIN, California (CNN) -- 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).

If not Death, then what? A personal look at capital crime and punishment December 13, 2005 by John David Powell If not Death, then what? Thoughtful individuals across the social and political spectra ponder this question today as they search for a suitable punishment for history’s longest-running crime. Capital crime and punishment is not a subject I enjoy. It became personal on Oct. 26, 1981. Don’t let anyone tell you time heals all wounds. It does not. And the recent debate over whether a state should execute a convicted murdering thug just keeps open the wound. Sometimes I bring it...

The execution of convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams was a defiant, determined and messy affair -- surprising right up to the bitter end, just like his unfortunate life. From the moment five guards walked him into the death chamber at 11:59 p.m. until 36 minutes later when Williams' heart stopped beating, the 51-year-old former gangster and his supporters tried their hardest to get through his final minutes on earth on their own terms. And they succeeded, as well as could be done under the circumstances -- and certainly more than in any of the 11 other executions since 1992, when...

As we watched the build up to the “Tookie” Williams’ execution last night, I was struck by the amount of bleeding heart liberals who came out pleading for the life of the founder of one of Los Angeles and the Nation’s most notorious gangs. This is a man who was convicted of the brutal slaying of four innocent people twenty five years ago and had a full quarter century to appeal his conviction. I propose a trade with the Left. They obviously care more for the life of convicted murderers than they do unborn children. Therefore, I propose trading capital...

by JR Tookie Williams, the co-founder of the violent Crips street gang, was executed by lethal injection at 12:01 AM for the 1979 robbery murders of four people in Los Angeles. The execution went ahead as scheduled after the U.S. Supreme Court late Monday rejected a last-minute 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...

As a Catholic, I hold a respect for all human life; even that which has not demonstrated itself worthy of such. My case in point is one Stanley Williams (aka. “Tookie”). This man helped form one of the most ruthless and bloodthirsty street gangs in modern history. Although, after roughly an hour worth of searching, I can’t find any solid statistics to back up the vast number of claims circling the internet, from what I gather, the group is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people, not-to-mention the thousands of youths whose lives have been destroyed by...

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...

THEY'RE JUST LOOKING FOR A EXCUSE, NOT A REASON. The California Supreme Court has now had its last say in the case of murderer Tookie Williams. No stay of execution. It's now up to Governor Schwarzenegger. Tookie's supporters are pulling out all of the stops. Now they've even come up with a last-minute witness that can prove Tookie's innocence. Yeah, sure. Don't you just love those "last-minute witness" things? Who is on Tookie's side here? Well, we have pretty much the normal cast of characters. We have the NAACP, of course, and we have actors and rappers. There's also the...

The procedure for executing a prisoner in San Quentin, the only prison in California with a death chamber, is bound by rigid rules dictating when and how each act must be performed -- from the moment the inmate wakes up on his last day of life until the moment he dies. * * * "We try to keep this very professional," said prison spokesman Sgt. Eric Messick. "I can't see it being done any other way -- you have to treat everyone, especially the inmate, with dignity and respect. This is a very somber event." * * * If the...