Posted on 01/13/2006 3:04:47 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Calif. Governor Has No Mercy for Inmate
By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
California's oldest death row inmate — a 75-year-old who is legally blind and nearly deaf — is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to do something it has never done before: block an execution because of the condemned man's advanced age and infirmity.
Clarence Ray Allen's attorneys contend that executing a feeble old man amounts to cruel and unusual punishment banned by the U.S. Constitution.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday denied Allen clemency. Barring a last-minute reprieve by the courts, the governor's decision means Allen will become the second-oldest person put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.
He is set to die by injection Tuesday for ordering three slayings while behind bars for another murder.
Allen, who turns 76 on the eve of his execution, has been on death row for more than 23 years. He often uses a wheelchair and had to be resuscitated after suffering a heart attack last year at San Quentin Prison.
"The spectacle of Mr. Allen being wheeled into the death chamber, unable to walk and unable to see those who have come to witness his execution, violates all standards of decency and would amount to nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering prohibited by the Eighth Amendment," said Annette Carnegie, one of Allen's attorneys.
Schwarzenegger said Allen's age and health did not matter and noted that he committed his crimes at the age of 50. "His conduct did not result from youth or inexperience, but instead resulted from the hardened and calculating decisions of a mature man."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Way to go Arnold.
Actually, one report I read stated he had in fact ordered EIGHT slayings and only three were carried out.
Nope.
Governor Schwarzenegger only turns a deaf ear to old folks without taxable income, a category into which Mr. Allen fits.
i'm glad... his being "elderly" ought to have nothing to do with it...
Paging Jack Kevorkian, paging Dr. Kevorkian. Please report to the Green Room to begin the prep work. Dr. Kevorkian to the Green Room, stat.
Alright AHNOLD! You're gettin' tough, man. AHNOLD's on a roll!
I don't get this one.
He's dying anyway so he shouldn't be put to death.
While we're on the subject of death, why isn't it humane to starve and dehydrate someone rather than putting them down quickly with an injection -- as in the Schiavo-Schindler debate last year.
Certainly that would be considered an inhumane way for a convicted killer to die -- yet it is considered humane for the innocent. The libs and Dems need to get their shit together on this.
They just seem to be totally confused about everything these days. They've been listening to the ACLU for too long those people are beginning to make sense.
Exactly. It would be nice if he repented and asked God for mercy first, of course - the man was a vicious, totally unrepentant killer who killed people who trusted him and who should have been put to death after his first killing (which would have saved the innocent folks that he killed later or ordered killed from jail).
Tookie was a bigger media star but also unrepentant. Once upon a time, a priest would come and tell people to repent and the true glory was when they repented before being put to death. The real punishment is not just the first death - but the eternal death, Hell.
One never knows: "Between the saddle and the ground, was mercy sought and mercy found." Maybe these guys repented/will repent. We should pray that they do or did. But they still are unfit and too dangerous to live among us, and all we can pray for is their repentance.
The only reason he is old and infirm, is that he sat on death row, being taken care of, for 23 yrs...he got to eat, sleep, read, enjoy his life prison...his victims never had a chance to enjoy anymore of their lives...
Its a travesty that death row inmates sit on death row for decades, while the families of the ones that they killed, suffer all the more, when these death row inmates raise a stink about how unfair it is to execute them...
This guy put out a hit while already in prison. Good enough reason to execute him no matter his age or infirmity. He'll not commit another crime
>but wait I thought Ahnold was a racist.
>He's a racist and hates old people with disabilities. >Obviously.
Especially if they claim to have Indian blood (Allen claims to be part Choctaw and part Cherokee). And Arnold won't let him off. Coincidence? You decide...
David Kravits misses the point. The issue has nothing to do with mercy. It has everything to do with justice. To assume Governor Schwarzenegger has no mercy simply because he did not grant this convicted murderer reprieve is ignorant.
I believe that in this case, justice will be met.
The victims MUST have MINIMUM success, the perps MUST have MAXIMUM success. See? It worked again. And the Guv seconded it.
His 76th birthday is Monday. A few minutes after that day ends, his sentence is scheduled to be carried out.
He is set to die by injection Tuesday for ordering three slayings while behind bars for another murder.
----Where is Jesse? Mike? Sean? Al? Anybody out there gonna defend this murderer?
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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