effin death row inmates. - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Meta6981 · #1 01-15-2006, 02:06 PM

"Governor denies clemency to killer, 75, set to die Tuesday By Howard Mintz ,Mercury News Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday turned down death row inmate Clarence Ray Allen's bid for clemency, increasing the likelihood the condemned killer will next week become the oldest inmate executed in California history.
In refusing to grant a reprieve, Schwarzenegger rejected Allen's argument that he is too old and ailing to be executed. Barring late intervention from the courts, the 75-year-old Allen will be put to death by injection at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, more than 23 years after he was sentenced to death for orchestrating the shotgun slayings of three people in a Fresno market.
He will turn 76 the day before his execution.
``The depravity of Allen's crimes has not diminished with the years,'' the governor wrote. ``The passage of time does not excuse Allen from the jury's punishment.''
Despite losing the quest for clemency, Allen's attorneys are continuing to press the courts with their argument -- that the execution is unconstitutional because it would be cruel and unusual punishment in view of Allen's age and illness. Allen's legal team has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, as well as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which previously rejected Allen's legal challenges to his 1983 conviction and death sentence.
Allen had a major heart attack last fall, uses a wheelchair, has diabetes and is legally blind. His attorneys also argue that San Quentin Prison's inadequate medical care, the subject of an ongoing class-action lawsuit, has contributed to the deterioration of his condition, another reason they cite for keeping prison officials from executing him.
The California Supreme Court, without comment, earlier this week refused to block Allen's execution based on those factors. A Sacramento federal judge also ruled against Allen. The U.S. Supreme Court has not previously stopped an execution based on the argument that an inmate is too old and sick.
``The governor has chosen not to give any consideration to the devastating impact these unacceptable conditions have had on Mr. Allen, or to the reality of wheeling this elderly and infirm man who cannot walk or see into the death chamber,'' said Annette Carnegie, one of Allen's attorneys.
If the execution goes forward, Allen would be the 13th man to die in San Quentin's death chamber since the state restored capital punishment in 1978. He received the death penalty for ordering three murders in 1980, while he was serving time in Folsom Prison on a previous murder conviction.
Allen recruited Billy Ray Hamilton, a parolee, to kill witnesses who had helped put him behind bars for the murder of Mary Sue Kitts, 17. Hamilton gunned down one of those witnesses, Bryon Schletewitz, 27, at Fran's Market in Fresno, as well as two bystanders at the store, Douglas White, 18, and Josephine Rocha, 17. Hamilton is also on death row for the murders.
Allen was 50 at the time of the crimes. His attorneys and death-penalty opponents have argued that he's now a harmless, feeble old man, and that executing him would serve no purpose. Former San Quentin warden Daniel Vasquez and former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin, who voted to affirm Allen's death sentence in 1986, urged the governor to grant clemency.
``To execute Mr. Allen now, under these conditions, for a crime which he committed more than a quarter-century ago, would itself violate societal standards of decency,'' Grodin wrote in a recent letter to Schwarzenegger.
But Schwarzenegger concluded that the fact that it has taken two decades for Allen to pursue every chance of appeal does not mean he deserves a break now.
``Allen should not escape the jury's punishment because our system works deliberately and carefully,'' the governor wrote. ``Allen's death sentence will be carried out at the age of 76, in part, because he committed these crimes when he was 50. His conduct did not result from youth or inexperience, but instead resulted from the hardened and calculating decisions of a mature man.''
Schwarzenegger has rejected all four clemency petitions he has considered from death row inmates.
The families of Allen's victims have been urging his execution, expressing outrage at the argument that his age should be a consideration.
``If we want to talk about age, let's look at the victims and their age,'' Robert Rocha, Josephine Rocha's brother, said earlier this week. ``As he feels he's too old to die, we put it right back and say Josephine was too young to die.''

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This gets me going that this guy is trying to not get exicuted because he is too old. First off why has it taken the state 23 YEARS to finally get this guy into the damn chamber. This man condemed to death has been supported with food, clothing, medical, etc etc for so long. YOu know how much its costs me to go to the doctor, to get medicine and all the tests i need to remain healthy. They get it for free. FREE!!!!. He is getting diabetes medicine, my father a vietnam vet has to pay for his meds, why can't he at least work it off, or be productive towards something.

Prisioners complain they they are being mistreated and abused while THEY ARE IN JAIL/PRISION!!!!!!!. Its not supposed to be nice, its not supposed to be fun or easy. You are there for punishment. Plain and simple. It is supposed to deter people from breaking the laws. But NO its too fracking easy, too soft.

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