The Death of Tookie Williams

Stanley "Tookie" Williams was poisoned to death earlier this morning at San Quentin. Without getting into the morality of state executions, I would like to ask death penalty supporters (and Californians for that matter):

How is California (or the U.S. or the world) better now that Tookie Williams is dead (as opposed to sitting in a jail cell)?

The coverage of this story yesterday evening was simply creepy. The ritualistic protocol for "execution eve" made me feel a great deal of sympathy for someone who was most likely a brutal murderer—sympathy I wouldn't have felt had Williams instead faced the prospect of dying in prison of natural causes in 2031. Last night Williams was taken through a series of rigidly scheduled procedures that would ultimately result in his scheduled death by poisoning. The thought of one knowing exactly when and how one will die just gives me the willies.