Clarence Ray Allen Watch: California Governor Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency
Death penalty opponents, from left, Shayna Gelender, Bill Babbitt and Lucas Nevarez hold signs during a rally in opposition of the scheduled execution of San Quentin death row inmate Clarence Ray Allen in San Francisco on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2006. Allen, 75, California’s oldest condemned inmate, lost another legal battle to stay alive when a federal judge on Thursday dismissed his claim that executing him next week would be unconstitutionally cruel and unusual because of his age and health problems.
The ASSociated Press is reporting that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has DENIED Clarence Ray Allen clemency.
Updates to follow.
Update #1
Reuters: Schwarzenegger denies clemency to aged murderer
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Friday he would not spare the life of the state’s oldest condemned man, Clarence Ray Allen, who is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, a day after he turns 76.
Allen, who is legally blind, uses a wheelchair and suffers from chronic heart disease and diabetes, would be the second-oldest man executed in the United States in recent decades.
“His conduct did not result from youth or inexperience, but instead resulted from the hardened and calculating decisions of a mature man,” Schwarzenegger said in statement explaining why he denied clemency.
A Fresno, California businessman who turned to crime in middle age, Allen was sentenced to death for ordering in 1980 the killings of three people while serving a life sentence for murder. Allen says he is innocent and his lawyers have filed last-ditch appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay his execution.
Update #2
Los Angeles Times: Governor Denies Allen Clemency
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today 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.
BIG JAB for Clarence on the 17th.
Justice for his victims…….
Previous:
Clarence Ray Allen Watch: California Supreme Court Refuses to Block January 17 Execution
Clarence Ray Allen Watch: NO Clemency Hearing Vs. NO PUBLIC Clemency Hearing
Clarence Ray Allen Watch: NO Clemency Hearing
Clarence Ray Allen Watch: Americans With Disabilities Act – The Latest Excuse
Clarence Ray Allen Watch: Asks for STAY of Execution
Clarence Ray Allen Watch: Petitions California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency
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