Former LA Gang Boss Executed

Former gang boss Stanley "Tookie" Williams has been executed in California after Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to grant clemency.

Williams received the lethal injection at 8.35 this morning (GMT) at San Quentin Prison, just north of San Francisco, 24 years after being convicted for murdering four people. He denied the killings and while imprisoned became a famous campaigner against gang violence.

But Governor Schwarzenegger doubted the former Crips gang leader's claims of redemption and the execution went ahead as planned this morning.

The campaign to save Williams' life attracted a number of celebrity supporters, including Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg, a former Crip himself.

JH