With all appeals exhausted, California executed gang co-founder and convicted murderer Stanley 'Tookie' Williams by lethal injection early Tuesday. The execution at San Quentin just after midnight took longer than usual, as the execution team spent 12 minutes trying to find a vein in the muscular 51-year-old`s arm, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to grant him clemency, saying Williams was unworthy because he had not admitted his brutal shotgun murders of four people during two robberies 26 years ago. Williams, co-founder of the Crips street gang, has denied guilt since being sentenced to death in 1981.

As well, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant Williams a stay of execution and the U.S. Supreme Court also refused to block it. He was the 12th inmate put to death in California since the state`s death penalty was reinstated in 1978, The San Diego Union-Tribune said.