Convicted killer Williams put to death in Calif.

SAN FRANCISCO - 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. 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 injections had trouble finding a vein in Williams' left arm for the injection. 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, said the reporter.

"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 dramatic turn and looked at all of [the media]," said MSNBC's Rita Cosby, who saw Williams put to death.

Williams' supporters stood at the back of the room and gave what looked like black power salutes several times, said the reporters. After he was declared dead, the supporters left and yelled in unison, "The state of California just killed an innocent man," said the reporters.

He declined to give last words at the execution, and instead passed on a statement to be read by longtime friend Barbara 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?”

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.

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