Update: 12:37 am Stanley "Tookie" Williams is dead. He went to his death at 51 years of age. Rest in peace, Stanley "Tookie" Williams. A press conference will begin shortly, with reports from the warden and the media visitors. Here it is (live blogged):

Steve Lopez, LA Times: He came in without resistence, shortly after 12, he was helped onto a converted dentist's chair. He gave no resistance at any point. He lifted his head several times to look at people. He was declared dead at 12:35.

Reporter Two: There was a problem with the second IV, he grimaced at the difficulty. At 12:22, a female guard announced it would begin. So it was a 13 or 14 minute actual execution. He breathed heavily, his stomach area rose several times, then his breathing slowed, and there was no movement.

Reporter Three: Has witnessed six executions, this one was different. Williams had supporters at the back of the room. When he was still conscious, they gave black power salutes to him. On their way out, they yelled "The state of California just killed an innocent man."

Reporter Four: Supporters blew kisses to him, whispered "I love you," "God bless you." He spoke a lot but they don't know what he was saying.

Countdown to execution.

Bump and Update: The Supreme Court has denied Stanley "Tookie" Williams request for a stay of execution. He will die at 12:01 am tonight (Tuesday Morning).

Update: Mike Petrelis has Schwarzegger's five page statement of denial of clemency.

Beautiful Horizens finds a death penalty dissent by Justice Marshall.

Sean Paul at the Agonist: "What requires more courage: revenge or forgiveness?"

Susan Hu of Booman Tribune at Daily Kos:

What matters for me is that murdering Tookie solves nothing, makes the United States look barbaric to the rest of the world, and destroys Tookie's future chances to influence more young people against entering the gang life. And his execution may cause terrible suffering in Los Angeles, which needs another race riot like it needs another earthquake.

Keep scrolling down below to read updated reactions from organizations, bloggers and others.

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Original Post: Arnold Denies Clemency for Stanley "Tookie Williams":

It's official. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has denied clemency to Stanley "Tookie" Williams. He made the announcement by e-mail. portion:

I could find no justication for granting clemency.....there is no reason to second guess the jury's decision of guilt or raise significant doubts or serious reservations about Williams' convictions and death sentence."

The California Supreme Court has denied Stanley "Tookie" Williams latest request for relief which was filed Saturday morning.

Without a grant of clemency by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, he will be put to death late tonight (12:01 am Tuesday.)

Memo to Arnold: Clemency is about mercy. It is an act of grace. You have the opportunity to stop a needless killing. Tookie's execution will not bring the victims back. It will not heal. The welfare of the people of California is best served by the message clemency would send -- one of hope to the tens of thousands of disadvantaged young people your administration has professed to care so deeply about. A denial of clemency will send a message of despair.

You hold a human life in your hand. We've seen enough killing. Please choose life for Tookie.

Lawyers for Stanley "Tookie Williams" have gone back to the California Supreme Court with a habeas petition to stay his execution. The grounds are:

• Tookie was drugged through his trial as a form of behaviorial management and incompetent to stand trial
• The prosecution withheld critical evidence about one of the witnesses against him who is now serving time for a different murder. Had the proseution disclosed his violent and criminal past, Tookie would have been able to argue that he, not Tookie, was the killer of one of the four victims.

Mexico has abolished its death penalty. While no one has been executed there since 1961, the law was still on the books.

"Mexico shares the opinion that capital punishment is a violation of human rights," [Presidente]Fox said. "Today, the death penalty has been abolished."

Winds of Change. May they blow up north soon.

Executions are planned, down to the smallest detail. Barring a clemency grant or last-minute stay, Stanley "Tookie" Williams will be executed Monday night (12:01 am Tuesday, Pacific time.)

The LA Times today recaps the major major provisions of San Quentin Operational Procedure No. 770, which is 43 pages in length.

The death chamber will be equipped with 12 rolls of adhesive tape, 20 syringes, 10 needles, 15 tubes of varying sizes, four bags of saline solution, scissors, six tourniquets, two boxes of surgical gloves and one box each of surgical masks and alcohol wipes. There will be handcuffs and leg irons. Nothing is left to chance.

As for Tookie:

Radley Balko at the Agitator is creating a much-needed storm over Cory Maye:

Maye today sits on Mississippi's death row, convicted of capital murder for shooting police officer Ron Jones. It's probably worth mentioning that Jones is white, and Maye is black. It's probably also worth mentioning that at the time of his death, Jones' father was police chief of Prentiss, Mississippi, where the shooting took place. It's probably also worth mentioning that the jury who convicted Maye was white.

The facts are also riveting: A no-knock search warrant executed on a duplex -- a drug dealer lived on one side and Maye on the other.

Update: South Central LA hopes for clemency.

Update: At HuffPo, Bianca Jagger writes about her meeting with Tookie Williams last week and why Gov. Schwarzenegger should give him clemency. No decision yet.

Los Angeles leaders are pleading for calm if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decides against clemency for Stanley "Tookie" Williams. The Governor could decide as early as tonight. LA media outlets are preparing for an announcement this evening.

Cheers for California Assemblyman Joe Nation (D-San Rafael) who urged Arnold to grant clemency.

"The upcoming execution offers the state of California an opportunity to take an internationally recognized leadership role by calling for a moratorium on the death penalty," Nation wrote in a letter to Schwarzenegger sent Thursday. "It is a bold step that is fiscally responsible, judicially prudent and morally right."

I'm told that Gov. Schwarzenegger will release his decision on clemency for Stanley "Tookie" Williams tomorrow between 6:30 and 7:30 pm, Pacific Time. I'll be discussing it on KABC Los Angeles radio, with host Al Rankel at 7:00pm PT. You can listen online here.

The LA Times reports:

His attorneys are expected to file a motion with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, perhaps today, seeking permission to file a new habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

At San Quentin on Thursday, officials began altering Williams' conditions in preparation for the possible execution, exchanging his clothes for sweats and shackling him and bolting him to a chair during his visits. Guards also removed most personal possessions from his cell, and will allow him only one item at a time — whether it's a toothbrush, a book or anything else — until the execution, corrections officials said.

Prison officials say this is their standard procedure for the period beginning five days before an execution.

Defense lawyers and prosecutors in Stanley Tookie Williams' case got 30 minutes to argue their case for and against clemency to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today. He is not expected to decide today.

Clemency is an act of grace and mercy, provided to the executive branch. It is a process by which the Governor can consider information not available to the court or jury at the time it determined guilt and sentence.

Newsweek today examines the Governor's dilemna. TalkLeft's position is here and here.

Nguyen Tuong Van, the Vietnamese-Australian hanged in Singapore on Friday had an American father from the Vietnam War period. Van met his father for the first time in 2002, just one month before his ill-fated trip to Singapore when he smuggled drugs to pay off his twin brother's accrued debts.

The twins were born in a refugee camp in Thailand while their mother, Kim, was on her way to Australia from Vietnam. Nguyen stated after his arrest that he did not know his father until a month before he was caught at Changi International Airport in December 2002.

"He came from America to look for my brother and I," he said. "My mother married in 1987 to a Vietnamese Australian. M

Nguyen Tuong Van is now the first individual of American lineage to be hung in Singapore.

by TChris

The bad news is that Kevin Boyd was executed this morning, making him victim 1,000 of the death penalty since its reinstatement in 1976. The good news is that the nation appears to be falling out of love with death.

Amid the refinement of DNA techniques and the sporadic release of inmates from death row because of uncertain guilt, a growing number of people tell pollsters they believe that innocent prisoners have been executed. Although the majority of cases over the past three decades have been upheld, legal errors and sometimes poor defense work revealed during layers of appeals have convinced many Americans that the system is imperfect.