Free Republic

(Demonstrators outside the gates of San Quentin State Prison protest at the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams.) (John G Mabanglo/EPA) Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the co-founder of the notorious Crips street gang, whose apparent rehabilitation in prison opened a bitter debate over the death penalty in America, was executed this morning in California. The 51-year-old died by lethal injection at 12.35am local time (8.35GMT) at San Quentin prison in front of about 50 witnesses, including relatives of the four people he killed in 1979. He asked his own family not to attend. Williams was denied a stay of execution by...