As news of the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams spread Tuesday, reaction poured in from around the world.

• Catholic Cardinal Renato Martino, the Pope’s top official on justice issues: “This is terrible because you know the death penalty is a penalty where there is no alternative, there is no possibility for the human being who happens to be a criminal–to be corrected, to reform, to become a good citizen. With the death penalty you don’t give that alternative and that not taking into account the many many mistakes and errors, judicial errors that we discover from time to time were committed and innocent people were executed.”

In Austria, birthplace of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, opposition politicians proposed stripping Schwarzenegger of citizenship and removing his name from a sports stadium in his hometown. One group suggested it be re-named “Stanley Tookie Williams Stadium.”

In Britain, Amnesty International director Kate Allen said: “This is yet another sad milestone in the history of the US justice system. Williams’ violent past was well known but he had become a textbook version of rehabilitation and his execution was a travesty of justice.”

Williams was executed early Tuesday after California Governor Schwarzenegger denied his bid for clemency. He had spent 24 years on death row for the murder of four people in 1979 — crimes he maintained he did not commit. After the execution, Lorna Owens, the stepmother of one of the victims, said: “I believe it was a just punishment long overdue.”

Family and supporters announced they would hold a large public funeral service for Williams in Los Angeles. At his request, Williams will be cremated and his ashes will be spread in South Africa.

Barbara Becnel, a close confidante of Williams who attended his execution, vowed to clear his name. Bechnel said: “We are not going to forget… I am going to prove that Stan was innocent and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a cold-blooded murderer.”