Tookie's departure

There was no final meal. There was no last message to the world -- at least, not from his lips. There was some consternation as the technician struggled to find a vein to hold the needle through which the poison would soon flow, according to one report. Witnesses said he held his head up for as long as he could, saying at one point, "for shame," and grimacing briefly at another.

In the end, Barbara Becnel, the woman who helped Stanley Tookie Williams get his message to the world stood outside his execution chamber, blew kisses and mouthed, "God bless you," and "We love you." Some reports say he tried to mouth the words back. After he was pronounced dead at 12:35 am PT, she, along with other supporters, turned to the assembled journalists and said, "The State of California just killed an innocent man!"

Lora Owens, the stepmother of the man Tookie said he did not kill, was also on hand. She said that while justice had been done, watching the execution. "was not an easy thing to do." Owens told CNN that she felt she had done what her husband and stepson would have wanted, and that she "respected" Becnel's feelings as a woman's grief for a man she loved. According to CNN, Williams' body was turned over to Becnel.

Williams gave Becnel a statement to be read after his death. While his supporters stood outside 2,000 San Quentin and sang their prayers and protests, some vowed that his anti-gang work would continue. Former Crip Donald Archie, 51, said,

"The work ain't going to stop. Tookie's body might lay down, but his spirit ain't going nowhere. I want everyone to know that, the spirit lives."

Tags: tookie,death penalty