Posted on 01/14/2006 9:26:34 AM PST by Former Military Chick
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."
Allen's death sentence has been delayed by 23 years of appeals. He "should not escape the jury's punishment because our system works deliberately and carefully," Schwarzenegger said.
In his two years in office, Schwarzenegger has denied three petitions for clemency based on claims of innocence, mental incompetence, and good behavior or good deeds in prison. The last time a California governor granted clemency was in 1967, when Gov. Ronald Reagan spared a mentally ill killer.
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.
UPDATE PING
Fry him.
This animal took away his victims' chance for a long life.
When was he put on death row? At age 27?
When are we going to start hitting these people up with the same ruling? Clarence Allen ordered the murdered of Schletewitz and Rocha which amounts to cruel and unusal punishment. It's what we call an eye for an eye.
I say this to his attorney, Annette Carnegie. I volunteer to push his wheelchair into the chamber and being he can't see me, I'll talk to him all the way. However, he might not want to hear what I would say.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Buh-bye!
No, he was in his late 50's or early 60's when he ordered the killing.
The law is the law is the law.
Tookiefy him.
No, he didn't.
Second, let this be a lesson to all those who think that as long as murderers are put away for life, we are safe.
If this man had been executed after one appeal, three other people would be alive right now.
No one is safe until a murderer is dead.
I love the death penalty. NOT ONE person who has been executed has ever been proven innocent.
And the recidivism rate for executed felons is zero.
Lemme see, now.
I'm 74, will be 75 in December. Does this mean I can wait until December, go to CA, kill somebody and NOT be considered for the death penalty? Where do we draw the line?
Maybe they will drop the "age limit" to 70. Then my wife (71) can go with me and SHE can smoke some poor soul and not worry about the death penalty.
What the hell is going on in the State of Fruits, Nuts and Flakes?
Sure, leave this one alive in jail. Maybe he'll order some more killings from his cell.
"My various appeals lasted 26 years, and now I'm too old to be sent to Old Sticky - therefore, this is cruel and unusual punishment"
Baloney. This man's subsequent physical infirmities are utterly and completely irrelevant to his guilt for the crime, and to the need for justice to be done. It's just a matter of degree. If he had a hangnail, would they complain that it's too cruel to execute him? Okay, how about a hangnail and a toothache? And so it goes.
Good idea : )
There should be no resuscitation for those on death row.
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