Excerpts from NY Times Interview with Tookie Williams

Here.  Williams was executed earlier today, providing temporary satisfaction to all those with insatiable bloodlust.  A number of his remarks in this interview, two weeks ago, are rather interesting:

On His Years as a Crip:
"I have a despicable background. I was a criminal. I was a co-founder of the Crips. I was a nihilist."

On His Transformation:
"People forget that redemption is tailor-made for the wretched."

On the Case Against Him:
"I always ask the question: Can a black man in America receive justice? I can say to you or anybody else that the answer is absolutely no. There’s a myriad of things that bring me to this conclusion — prosecutorial misconduct, the biased selection of juries, the issues of informants, the exclusion of exculpatory evidence, illegal interrogation of witnesses. It’s commonplace. It’s deeply ingrained in the California criminal justice system."

On His Work With Children:
"They can empathize with me. I pretty much experienced all the madness they’re going through."

On Death Row:
"I’ve never seen a millionaire here."

"The longer I sit in this animalistic cage, the more human I become. I’ve learned not to allow the negative ambience to control me. I’ve risen above all of that, like a phoenix, a black phoenix."

On the Prospect of Execution:
"They have the audacity to ask, 'Do I want a last meal?' Absolutely not. 'Do I want anyone present?' Absolutely not. 'Do I want a preacher?' Absolutely not. I want nothing from this institution."