Clarence Ray Allen Watch: Petitions California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency
The Los Angeles Times has Oldest Inmate on Death Row Petitions Gov. for Clemency
The state’s oldest death row convict asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for clemency Tuesday, a day after the governor rejected a bid for mercy from Stanley Tookie Williams, allowing the Crips co-founder to die by lethal injection.
Clarence Ray Allen, 75, said he was too frail to be put to death Jan. 17 as scheduled. In 1980, while serving at Folsom State Prison for arranging the 1974 murder of his son’s girlfriend, Allen ordered the killings of eight witnesses against him in a related market burglary case in Fresno. His hit man killed a witness and two market employees.
n his petition, Allen claims that his physical infirmities, including a recent heart attack, have left him nearly deaf and blind and warrant a reprieve.
“He prays for that mercy because he is aged and infirm, suffering from chronic diseases that have been aggravated by the grossly inadequate medical treatment he has received at San Quentin and that have left him unable to walk, nearly blind, hard of hearing, and so physically incapacitated that his execution for the purpose of incapacitating him from the commission of further crime is manifestly unnecessary,” his attorney, Michael Satris, wrote to Schwarzenegger.
Although Satris also questions Allen’s guilt, the petition presents Schwarzenegger — who has rejected all three petitions for clemency that have come before him — with a far different claim: that physical infirmities are grounds for clemency.
Clarence Ray Allen’s crimes are summarized here.
The Los Angeles Times has Aging, Ill Inmate Is Next in Line for Execution
His situation is dramatically different from that of Williams, a co-founder of the Crips gang, who has been the subject of an unusual, highly visible clemency campaign. Full-page newspaper advertisements and speeches from clergymen, celebrities and activists proclaimed that Williams has redeemed himself through his anti-gang activities.
In contrast, Allen has not displayed any visible public support, and the last appeals court to review his case characterized his crimes as the very type the death penalty was designed to address.
But Allen’s attorneys have raised a question that is likely to recur, with the “graying” of death rows around the country and the concomitant health problems afflicting many elderly inmates: Is it appropriate to execute someone who is old and infirm?
There are now five condemned men in California who are over 70 and nearly three dozen in their 60s. Since California reinstated capital punishment, 31 men have died on death row of natural causes and 11 have been executed. The oldest person executed in California in the modern era was 62-year-old Donald Beardslee, who was killed earlier this year.
Though there has been sharp debate in recent years over the execution of individuals for crimes committed as juveniles, there is no law anywhere in the country setting an upper age limit for execution. And although governors and parole boards have occasionally granted clemency to condemned inmates because of mental illness, no death sentence has been commuted based solely on age or illness.
It is the moronic and idiotic delay in the legal process that has allowed this criminal to live all of these years so he could become infirm.
This is another NO-BRAINER for Governor Schwarzenegger.
Justice for Allen’s victims and carry out the law – BIG JAB – on January 17th.
11 Comments
Aaron
Oh mama, this is absurd and funny at the same time!
BTW: Would you like to join the Western Alliance?
Bob
Yup, this one’s a no-brainer too. I say bump off that mean old nasty injun before he goes berserk in the jailhouse with a tomahawk or something!
James
I say… Get rid of him before he orders Injun Bob to run around the jailhouse with a tomahawk and kill everyone off! Hmmm or was that Injun Joe. Naw that was in Tom Sawyer. The mention of him being a Choctaw is an obvious race card ploy. If he was from Poland no one would be saying please save the poor Polock, Clarence Ray Allenski. Of course if he was to convert to Islam, then we would have all sorts of weirdos climb out of the woodwork to support a clemency plea. Then he could have his pick of terrorists to act as hit men too. Heck this is so obvious that I am surprized that all you geniuses here didnt beat me to it! Or did you and this is all a test to see how long the rest of us would take to figure it out? (BIG grin)
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Bill Mogenson
Can you hear that? Its the worlds smallest violin playing for Clarence Ray Allen.
SEEEE YAAAA!
Mike
No one seems to mention his original victim
vec be me
being that he feels that he is too frail to be executed and he has aaaaaaaall these physical problems, I think that this should put him out of his misery. Hey, taking his life is doing HIM a favor.
rick
The Indians refer to Ray Allen as “Running Bear”. Pretty soon we can refer to him as “DEAD” Bear!
Oslo Jeffers
Maybe the guy will clock out with a heart attack before he enters the chamber saving the state the money for the lethal drugs. Finally the victims will get their justice that is long overdue.
vec be me
i agree. It would have saved alot of money if they just got a paid for a tub of water $0.99 and a toaster $10.00. drop that puppy into the water and voila!BARBEQUED INJUN
Vandar Strauss
Bye Clarence! Ok, its a shame that people on both sides of this issue like playing the race card. Lets forget that he’s an indian. Lets forget that the victims were white. The facts are that he is a murderer and the victims are dead. He personally killed his son’s girlfriend and ordered the killings of others. Now granted an Appeals Court has stated that he lacked adequate legal representation after he was found guilty. And this same Appeals Court found that the trial court committed errors during the sentencing phase of the trial. But the crackerhead was still found guilty of the murders no matter which side of the cookie you look at. He has been in prison since at least the early 1980’s, he didn’t give a crap about the health and welfare of his victims. Just because he’s sickly doesn’t mean that he isn’t evil minded enough to see that the rest of his “hit list” isn’t carried out. Roll him up the ramp and strap him down, let justice be served.
Now as far as “Tookie” is concerned. It seems to me that he performed more harm to people by starting the CRIPS (cowards run in packs) than he ever did good in writing childrens books. Justice was served. If redemption was deserved, let the “Final Justice” do the decision making on the value of his heart because he deserved none from us.