Stanley 'Tookie' Williams: one of the last men to be executed in California

The once-feared leader of the Crips, put to death in 2005, had a warning for UK gangs. Tony Thompson met him in prison

On 13 March 2019, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, placed a moratorium on the death penalty, halting executions for the duration of his tenure. Stanley “Tookie” Williams was among the last people to be executed in the state before the moratorium. The former Crips gang leader died by lethal injection on 13 December 2005, after last-minute appeals by his lawyers and a clemency petition to then governor Arnold Schwarzenegger were unsuccessful. Tony Thompson spoke with Williams in this piece originally published on 27 November 2004.

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