Tookie Williams was executed this morning.

The results?
Nothing.

If anything Tookie was doing while in the joint made society a better place, if he was making partial restitution to society for the harm he caused... well, that's over. Justice can no longer be served.

No one is any safer. Execution does not deter violent crime.

The families of the victims do not have their loved ones back. At least one, mentioned in the LA Times article, understood ahead of time that retaliatory killing was an empty promise, if it was to provide solace. She is paraphrased this way: "Lora Owens said she did not expect the execution to end the ache over losing her red-haired stepson, Albert, who was killed with a shotgun at the age of 26 while working at a Pico Rivera 7-Eleven late one February night in 1979. But watching the killer take his last breath, she said, might help her 'let it go' just a bit."

So far, no riots. No "aspiring rappers and NBA stars", looking for "an excuse" to riot, as Neal Boortz predicted.

All that money, the risks of putting innocent people to death... all those messages we send about how we treat white lives as more valuable than black ones... were for absolutely nothing. It's hard to think of a greater waste.

Governor A. believed Tookie should die because he wouldn't confess to the crimes. John Cole agrees. I side with TalkLeft - his refusal to confess is only a crime if he was truly guilty - and we can never know for sure - in any case, really, but especially in this one. TalkLeft cites this report on the problems of using testimony from sources with "incentive to lie".

Another grim summary. Who's better off with Stanley Williams dead? No one. Except maybe,... ironically..., Stanley Williams.