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Capital Punishment in California

At 12:36 this morning, Stanley "Tookie" Williams died by lethal injection at San Quentin Prison. The twelfth man executed in California since the death penalty was reinstituted in the late 1970's, Williams' case won international attention because he campaigned from death row against the violent gang life he once lived. The next San Quentin inmate scheduled to die is Clarence Ray Allen, who is legally blind and confined to a wheelchair. The last court to review his case said his crimes are the very type the death penalty was designed to address, three murders he ordered while he was behind bars. Allen's execution date is January 17, the day after his 76th birthday, and one week after the Assembly Committee on Public Safety will consider a proposed moratorium on executions in California. We hear from Steve Lopez, a witness to today's execution, and hear debate between two California assemblymen about a proposed moratorium.