Posted on 01/14/2006 4:27:03 PM PST by Dubya
SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency Friday to California's oldest condemned convict who asked to be spared because of his age and infirmities.
Clarence Ray Allen, 75, who ordered the slayings of three people at a Fresno market while he was behind bars at Folsom State Prison in 1980, told Schwarzenegger that he was too old and frail to be put to death early Tuesday morning at San Quentin State Prison.
"Allen's jury reasonably concluded that life in prison was not the appropriate punishment for someone who orders the killing of witnesses while already serving a term of life in prison," Schwarzenegger said.
Barring a last-minute reprieve by the courts, Schwarzenegger's decision means Allen will become the second-oldest person to be put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Allen, who is legally blind and nearly deaf, has appeals pending in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a reprieve under the same age-based grounds he is seeking clemency.
In his plea to the governor for mercy, Allen's attorneys said poor health, including a recent heart attack, have left Allen in a wheelchair. Executing him, they said, would amount to cruel and unusual punishment -- a position without legal precedent.
Schwarzenegger said Allen's age and health didn't matter.
Allen's attorney, Annette Carnegie, said the government failed to consider "the reality of wheeling this elderly and infirm man who cannot walk or see, into the death chamber to die by lethal injection."
Supervising Deputy Attorney General Ward Campbell welcomed the governor's decision. "The death sentence is the only appropriate punishment for Allen's crimes," he said.
The governor has rejected four clemency petitions that have come before him in his first two years in office. The last time a California governor granted clemency was in 1967 when Gov. Ronald Reagan spared a mentally ill killer.
Allen was serving time in Folsom for murder when he ordered the hits on seven people because he feared their testimony would hurt the success of his appeal, prosecutors said.
Hired hit man, Billy Ray Hamilton, said he was following Allen's orders when he killed Bryon Schletewitz, Douglas Scott White and Josephine Rocha.
The killings put Allen and Hamilton on death row.
Allen would become the 13th condemned inmate executed in California since the state resumed capital punishment in 1977.
If that is the only thing standing in the way, he's as good as dead.
I predict that this time there will be no complaints from Arnold's hometown of Graz, Austria.
Put his finger right on it.
The guy is still capable of ordering further murders from his cell as he has in the past as long as he draws breath.
The reason he's so old and infirm is because he and his lawyers have delayed justice for so long. To not execute him would be to reward frivolous delays.
That sums it up for me.
Hmm, 13 people in 29 years. What's wrong with this picture?
The legislature is planning to pass a moritorium. We need to let Arnold know we support his veto of such a measure.
They considered it. You just wheel him in, hook him up. Simple as can be.
I'm surprised he got the death penalty for indirectly killing people. Usually you have to murder with your own bare hands to get it.
My sentiments exactly.
Say goodnight, Clarence!
Goodnight Clarence!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.