We have to control the animals

MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 10:05 a.m. ET Dec. 13, 2005
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - 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 Tuesday
morning.

Williams, 51, died at 12:35 a.m. PT after receiving a lethal injection at
San Quentin State Prison, officials said. Before the execution, he was
"complacent, quiet and thoughtful," Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry
Thornton said.

The case became the state's highest-profile execution in decades. Hollywood
stars and capital punishment foes argued that Williams' sentence should be
commuted to life in prison because he had made amends by writing children's
books about the dangers of gangs and violence.

In the days leading up to the execution, state and federal courts refused to
reopen his case. Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied Williams' request
for clemency, suggesting that his supposed change of heart was not genuine
because he had not shown any real remorse for the countless killings
committed by the Crips.

"Is Williams' redemption complete and sincere, or is it just a hollow
promise?" Schwarzenegger wrote. "Without an apology and atonement for these
senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption."

Trouble finding vein
At the execution, the people administering the injection had trouble finding
a vein in Williams' left arm. It took about 12 minutes for them to put in
the line, said one reporter.

At one point, according to a reporter who witnessed the execution, it looked
like Williams said to the guards in frustration, "Still can't find it?" Then
he leaned back down, the reporter said.

"He was trying to help them find a vein that would work for them," said said
Steve Ornoski, the prison warden.

When he walked into the room, "all he would do is look at his supporters,
then he made this dramatic turn and looked at all of [the media]," said
MSNBC's Rita Cosby, who saw Williams put to death.

After he was strapped down, he raised his head often, especially to look at
Barbara Becnel, the editor of his books and foremost supporter who helped
bring broad publicity to his case.

Williams' supporters stood at the back of the room and gave what looked like
black power salutes several times, said the reporters.

After his death, Becnel and two other supporters broke the silence in the
witness room, saying: "The state of California just killed an innocent man."
They then walked out.

A relative of one of the victims wept as the prisoner's supporters made
their defiant statement.

Williams declined to give last words at the execution, and instead passed on
a statement to be read by Becnel after his death.

In the days leading up to his execution, Williams' supporters and opponents
appeared to be more occupied with his fate than he was.

"Me fearing what I'm facing, what possible good is it going to do for me?
How is that going to benefit me?" Williams said in a recent interview. "If
it's my time to be executed, what's all the ranting and raving going to do?"

Prison officials said Williams was composed and cooperative and said he did
not request a final meal after eating oatmeal and drinking milk earlier in
the day.

Condemned for 1981 killings
Williams was condemned in 1981 for gunning down convenience store clerk
Albert Owens, 26, at a 7-Eleven in Whittier and killing Yen-I Yang, 76,
Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, and the couple's daughter Yu-Chin Yang Lin, 43, at
the Los Angeles motel they owned. Williams claimed he was innocent.

Witnesses at the trial said Williams boasted about the killings, stating
"You should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him." Williams then
made a growling noise and laughed for five to six minutes, according to the
transcript that the governor referenced in his denial of clemency.

Williams was the 12th person executed in California since lawmakers
reinstated the death penalty in 1977.

Celebrities protest
About 1,000 death penalty supporters and opponents gathered outside the
prison to await the execution. Singer Joan Baez, actor Mike Farrell and the
Rev. Jesse Jackson were among the celebrities who protested.

"Tonight is planned, efficient, calculated, antiseptic, cold-blooded murder
and I think everyone who is here is here to try to enlist the morality and
soul of this country," said Baez, who sang "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" on a
small plywood stage set up just outside the gates.

A contingent of 40 people who had walked the approximately 25 miles from San
Francisco held signs calling for an end to "state-sponsored murder." Others
said they wanted to honor the memory of Williams' victims.

Former Crips member Donald Archie, 51, was among those attending a
candlelight vigil. He said he would work to spread Williams' anti-gang
message.

"The work ain't going to stop," said Archie, who said he was known as
"Sweetback" as a young Crips member. "Tookie's body might lay down, but his
spirit ain't going nowhere. I want everyone to know that, the spirit lives."

"METIS" <m
Among the celebrities who took up Williams' cause were Jamie Foxx, who
played the gang leader in a cable movie about Williams; rapper Snoop Dogg,
himself a former Crip; Sister Helen Prejean, the nun depicted in "Dead Man
Walking"; and Bianca Jagger. During Williams' 24 years on death row, a Swiss
legislator, college professors and others nominated him for the Nobel Prizes
in peace and literature.

"There is no part of me that existed then that exists now," Williams said
recently during an interview with The Associated Press.

"I haven't had a lot of joy in my life. But in here," he said, pointing to
his heart, "I'm happy. I am peaceful in here. I am joyful in here."

Victims' relatives not swayed
Williams' statements did not sway some relatives of his victims, including
Lora Owens, Albert Owens' stepmother. In the days before his death, she was
among the outspoken advocates who argued the execution should go forward.

"(Williams) chose to shoot Albert in the back twice. He didn't do anything
to deserve it. He begged for his life," she said during a recent interview.
"He shot him not once, but twice in the back. ... I believe Williams needs
to get the punishment he was given when he was tried and sentenced."

In denying clemency to Williams, Schwarzenegger said that the evidence of
his guilt was "strong and compelling," and he dismissed suggestions that the
trial was unfair.

The governor noted that Williams dedicated his 1998 book "Life in Prison" to
a list of figures that included the black militant George Jackson - "a
significant indicator that Williams is not reformed and that he still sees
violence and lawlessness as a legitimate means to address societal
problems."

Schwarzenegger also noted that there is "little mention or atonement in his
writings and his plea for clemency of the countless murders committed by the
Crips following the lifestyle Williams once espoused. The senseless killing
that has ruined many families, particularly in African-American communities,
in the name of the Crips and gang warfare is a tragedy of our modern
culture."

Williams and a friend founded the Crips in Los Angeles in 1971. Authorities
say it is responsible for hundreds of deaths, many of them in battles with
the rival Bloods for turf and control of the drug trade.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
etis15@wawadoogoo.fr> wrote in message
news:mn.69f17d5c522f4333.45464@wawadoogoo.fr...

"METIS" <metis15@wawadoogoo.fr> wrote in news:mn.69f17d5c522f4333.45464
@wawadoogoo.fr:

oh! that hurt!!  go put out your car fire and let us control our pest
problem as we see fit frenchie...............