Posted on 01/11/2006 7:18:47 PM PST by Former Military Chick
A Native American death row inmate in California with Oklahoma roots has had a stay of execution request denied. That means that barring a reprieve from a higher court or from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clarence Ray Allen will die later this month.
Allen, 75, says his mother is part Choctaw and his father is part Cherokee. He was born in Blair, Oklahoma. The 75-year-old is imprisoned for a series of crimes that resulted in the deaths of multiple people.
In their appeal, Allen’s lawyers said their client is elderly and afflicted with health problems including diabetes, and that executing him would be cruel and unusual punishment that is not consistent with “civilized behavior.” Allen also recently suffered a stroke and is now confined to a wheelchair.
Allen received a sentence of life in prison in 1974 after he ordered the slaying of his son’s girlfriend because he believed she had told police about a burglary he carried out. Eight years later he commissioned a hit man he met in prison to kill the witnesses in the 1974 case. The hit man, Billy Ray Hamilton, killed one of the witnesses, along with two other people unrelated to the case.
Hamilton was arrested a short time later and implicated Allen. Allen was sentenced to death.
“Evidence of Allen's guilt is overwhelming,” wrote the California Supreme Court in 1987. “Given the nature of his crimes, sentencing him to another life term would achieve none of the traditional purposes underlying punishment. Allen continues to pose a threat to society, indeed to those very persons who testified against him.”
Allen was recently interviewed in his San Quentin cell by Michael Kroll, an anti-death penalty advocate. Kroll reported that Allen wears an “abalone shell necklace strung with blue beads given to him by Indian inmates.”
During the interview Allen spoke about growing up in Oklahoma and performing the Eagle Bone Whistle Dance at the age of six.
"Everybody who knows me calls me Running Bear," Allen told Kroll. "It's the name my mother gave me, Yea-Nu-Ai-Dasi."
Even though several courts have affirmed Allen’s guilt, he maintains his innocence.
"I'm terribly sorry for all that happened,” he said. “But I can never express remorse for this crime because I didn't do it. I'm remorseful about many things, but not for a crime I didn't commit. I'm so sorry it all happened. I hope to meet the victims in the afterlife and explain to them I never plotted to harm them and I never wanted them to be harmed."
He also told Kroll that he was tired of prison and ready to die.
"Being in here is like living in hell. It's time to go to a better place. If it comes to that, the last words I'll speak is an old Indian saying, Hok-Ah-Ei, it's a good day to die,” he said.
The scheduled execution has reignited another debate over capital punishment just weeks after gang leader Stanley Williams was put to death.
“If ever there were a case that reduces capital punishment to its essence, this is it. Ray Allen lost his liberty and his future 32 years ago. We can’t deprive him of his ability to communicate; his sight and hearing are gone. We can’t take his mobility, that’s gone too. Good health? Gone, swept away by diabetes and hypertension,” wrote Rick Wise.
Prosecutors in the case, however, said Allen "deserves to die for his monstrous crimes."
You can reach Sam Lewin at sam@okit.com
Books are easy to write in crayon after a liter of Stoly.
If one is anti-death penalty, then one should want as much for Clarence Ray Allen as for Tookie Williams.
But, evidently, affirmative action among the anti-death penalty crowd does not extend to Native Americans...
Sad that there's not a crime out there that Jesse and the gang will not support if a black person committed it. Murder, child molestation, etc.--none of it is too bad for Jesse.
Last ditch effort--hoping to rile up the Ward Churchills of the world. This one is not camera worthy so Ward ain't interested.
Excellent observations. You know the folks in the media should also be called on the carpet for not going after this as a story.
Seems quite legit to ask the tough questions of "where are you" because to the common folks it looks like "race" and a white man isn't good enough to save.
I did not know I would need to clarify but after reading what I wrote perhaps folks might misunderstand
----I understood you just fine.
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