Posted on 12/21/2005 10:27:35 PM PST by Former Military Chick
State prosecutors urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today to deny clemency to a 75-year-old condemned inmate, saying that the prisoner was a cold-blooded killer and his advanced age is no reason for mercy.
Clarence Ray Allen is scheduled to be executed at San Quentin State Prison on Jan. 17 for masterminding the murders of three people at a Fresno market in 1980 while he was in prison for another murder.
The execution date is the day after Allen's 76th birthday.
In a clemency petition submitted to Schwarzenegger last week, his lawyers asked the governor to commute the death penalty to life in prison without parole on grounds of Allen's age and ill health and alleged unfairness in his 1982 trial.
But lawyers from the state attorney general's office said in opposition papers that Allen's victims never had a chance to age and he survived for the past quarter-century only because he used a lengthy appeal process to delay his execution.
State attorneys wrote, "The fact that Allen has been able to live his life after depriving so many innocent people of theirs is no reason to show him mercy now."
Allen, a former security company owner, was given the death penalty for hiring a hit man to carry out the murders at Fran's Market in Fresno while he was in Folsom State Prison for the 1974 murder of his son's girlfriend. The girlfriend, Mary Sue Kitts, 17, had revealed Allen's role in a previous robbery of the market.
The victims of the 1980 murders were Bryon Schletewitz, 27, who had testified against Allen in the earlier murder case, and two store employees, Josephine Rocha, 17, and Douglas White, 18.
The state attorneys also contended that Allen remains a threat to the outside world because his record has shown he can manipulate events outside of prison.
The attorneys wrote, "Given that Allen had successfully conspired to commit murder while already serving a life sentence for murder, death was and is the only appropriate penalty."
The prosecutors said the evidence of Allen's guilt is "overwhelming" and his claims of an unfair trial have been rejected by state and federal courts.
If executed as scheduled, Allen would be the second-oldest person put to death in the United States since the 1950s.
The oldest inmate was 77-year-old John Nixon, a contract killer executed in Mississippi on Dec. 14, according to the attorney general's papers.
Allen's lawyers said in his clemency petition that he suffers from diabetes and heart disease and is nearly blind and unable to walk.
His lawyers wrote, "The prospect of state officials wheeling a blind, lame and enfeebled 76-year-old man into the execution chamber would chill even grim supporters of capital punishment and would subject California to embarrassment in the national and international communities."
Allen's lawyers have until Dec. 27 to submit a reply to the opposition papers.
In 1974, Clarence Ray Allen planned a burglary of Fran’s Market in Fresno, California and solicited the involvement of two men who worked for him at his security guard business. Allen also arranged the help of a young woman to get the keys to the store and its burglar alarm from Bryon Schletewitz, son of the market owner.
Following the burglary and after stolen money orders were cashed, the young woman told Schletewitz it was Allen who had robbed the market. Schletewitz confronted Allen’s son, who denied it, and Allen himself also denied it. Allen said that something would have to be done to the young woman and he arranged her death. Allen was arrested. He was convicted of burglary, first-degree murder and conspiracy and sent to prison to serve a life sentence on March 16, 1978.
He was incarcerated at Folsom State Prison and knew Billie Ray Hamilton in prison. While in prison, Allen plotted to kill the people who had informed on him and gotten him prison time.
Three days after Hamilton was paroled, he was picked up by Allen’s son at the bus station where he also asked for weapons to carry out the crimes.
On Sept. 4, 1980, Hamilton and his girlfriend, Connie Barbow, went to Fran’s Market and purchased some meat from Joe Rias. Rias went into the storeroom with Douglas White. Since it was after the market’s closing time, the front door was locked. Bryon Schletewitz and Josephine Rocha came into the storeroom followed by Hamilton who was holding a sawed-off shotgun. Barbow followed behind. Hamilton ordered them to lie down. They all sat down. He asked Schletewitz for the keys to the safe, ordered him out, and told Barbow to watch the others. She pulled out a handgun. They went to the safe. Schletewitz told Hamilton he would give him all the money. Rias later testified that when Schletewitz and Hamilton went to the safe area, he heard shuffling and a bang. It was later learned that Hamilton shot Schletewitz at close range with the shotgun.
Hamilton went back to the room and asked Douglas White where the safes were kept; White did not know and Hamilton shot him at close range in the chest and stomach.
Another shot was heard and it was later learned that a shotgun blast at close range killed Josephine Rocha.
Hamilton attempted to kill Rias, but Rias covered his face with his left arm. The blast hit his arm, blowing off most of the tissue and shattering his elbow. Hamilton and Barbow checked on the other three victims to make sure they were dead.
Hamilton was later arrested as a suspect in a Modesto robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. Among his possessions was an address book with the name of Clarence Ray Allen. Because of the listing of Fran’s Market and the names of some of the victims, investigators believed there was a connection with the murders and the Fran’s Market burglary for which Allen had been convicted. The investigation of this matter led to the arrest of inmate Clarence Ray Allen. Allen was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and was received onto California’s death row at San Quentin State Prison on December 2, 1982.
PING ...
A long time and waiting for him to receive his punishment.
I thought the Libs were all for mercy killing? Maybe the Governator can change Mr Allen's name to Terri Schiavo.
Soon to ride the Tookie Express, the gurney to hell.
"...received onto California’s death row at San Quentin State Prison on December 2, 1982."
1982.
1982.
1982.
Where are the FRers who will say we ought to commute his sentence? Whining about how he's old and infirm and killing him won't bring anyone back and life in prison is a better punishment and this brings us down to the killer's level and what if he's innocent and we can't bring him back from execution and the DP is not a deterrent and it's for the children and blah blah blah yada yada yada.
I'll be surprised if they don't appear after the ramblings over that dirthole gangster wasted last week.
2005-1980=too long.
This turd's hook for the leftist media is that he's allegedly Choctaw Indian. This will be pitched as the white man (Ahnold) is killing the red man.
I guess we won't be hearing from Snoop Dogg, Mike Farrell, Je$$e Jackson, or Tony Robbins anytime soon.
Thank goodness and you know that says a damn lot of their character doesn't it. Hey I do not agree with these guys.
However I would have at least some, can't get out the respect word, just something if they were consistent with all those on death row and not picking those who fit their agenda.
They to, seem to decide who lives and dies, don't they?
Thanks for comment, friend.
Makes no sense to be against the criminal death penalty and flat-out for the killing of innocent human beings, be it a baby or a 30-something "useless eater".
But, I have to say, I bust a gut laughing when I heard Tony Robbins was up to his neck in the "Save Tookie" fiasco. If there ever was a poster child for scam artists, he's it.
No protests with this one, He is WHITE. People only have sympathy for minority death row inmates...
The really sad thing about this story is the fact that this SOB has been allowed to live as long as he has. If California is going to employ the death penalty they really should do so in a timely fashion. No one should get any more than 10 "free years" for their appeals.
Oh, sh*t, half the folks in this state are Choctaw or Cherokee (the Five Civilized Tribes, ya know) and we've had to execute Native Americans and I don't ever remember that being used as an excuse to commute. He better come up with something better than that.
Most Native Americans I know are as in favor of the death penalty as I am.
----Execute him. He is no different than any other murderer. Any celebs coming out to save him? Jesse? Snoop Dog? Anyone?........
R
If they had executed him in a more timely fashion, this wouldn't even be an issue. Twenty-three years on death row!
Move it up a day and you'll have an interesting tombstone.
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