Posted on 10/03/2005 4:46:09 PM PDT by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO - A leader of a Fresno crime ring who ordered killings from Folsom State Prison where he already was serving time for murder will likely be executed in January, authorities said Monday.
Clarence Ray Allen, 75, is likely to become the 12th inmate executed since California's voters restored capital punishment in 1977. The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear his final legal challenge, 25 years after a hit man Allen hired murdered three people at a Fresno market. Allen feared the trio could hurt his chances of successfully appealing his murder conviction.
Hours after the high court's decision, state prosecutors petitioned a judge to set a Jan. 17 execution at San Quentin State Prison.
The nation's highest court declined to review a decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which concluded in January that Allen should die despite the poor performance of his attorney during the stage of trial when jurors decide a sentence of life or death. The appeals court said his defense "fell below an objective standard of reasonableness."
The court, however, said Allen's viciousness, not his attorney's ineffectiveness, was what mattered.
The appeals court said it was inconsequential that Allen's attorney did little to prepare for the trial's penalty phase and failed "sufficiently to investigate and adequately present" evidence to sway jurors to render a judgment of life without parole.
It was "not reasonably probable that even one juror would have held out for a life sentence over death," Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the appeals court. She added that Allen was convicted of conspiring from prison to murder seven people, "all to retaliate for their prior testimony against him and to prevent future damaging testimony."
Wardlaw added that, "If the death penalty is to serve any purpose at all, it is to prevent the very sort of murderous conduct for which Allen was convicted."
Ward Campbell, supervising California deputy attorney general, said the appellate court's decision "reflects our office's sentiments for this case."
Michael Satris, Allen's appellate attorney, declined comment.
The man convicted of carrying out Allen's murder orders, Billy Ray Hamilton, also is on death row. Prosecutors said Hamilton was following Allen's orders when he killed Bryon Schletewitz, Douglas Scott White and Josephine Rocha.
Allen suffered a heart attack last month, underwent surgery, and is recovering.
The case is Allen v. Brown, 04-10556.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Justice delayed is justice denied. He should have been executed 25 years ago.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
This is not Capital Punishment, its Euthanasia.
Spare Gramps.
Another travesty. Many hardworking, upstanding but poor citizens cannot afford health insurance, let alone the taxes used to pay for this scumbags pre-execution heart surgery. IMO Yet another example of the injustice of the justice system, especially as it is implemented in CA.
Fry Mumia...
The great thing about the death penalty is that you also get life imprisonment along with it!
Does anyone know what ended him up in jail in the first place?
This is one guy that should have died YEARS ago. I am so happy to see this! Evil personified!
Agreed.
But don't forget he is being saved for a good cause.
I agree.
Allen suffered a heart attack last month, underwent surgery, and is recovering
They saved him a month ago and now thay are going to put him to death after wasting the taxpayers money on surgery for him ? Just doesn't make sense to me.
I'm not for the death penalty. In my view, it ENDS the punishment. But, really, what's the point of executing a 75-year-old man? At 75 years of age, being put to death is even more of a blessing.
Screw heart surgery. The sooner he's executed the better.
I look at this jerk like I do a Nazi death camp guard. Execute him as long as there is any chance to do so, take away even his last chance at a gasp of free air. The guy is a monster.
Send him to Texas. We know how to take care of his needs - quickly.
I remember this case. I was getting my bachelor's degree when this scum did the first murder here and I was in my master's degree when he did the second one. I remember thinking at the time this sucker needs to fry hugely! It just ticks me off that we have to wait 25 years for this piece of human garbage to be executed.
Thanks to the libs in this state we will never have justice.
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