Calif. Inmate, 76, Faces Execution Tonight

By DAVID KRAVETS

The Associated Press
Monday, January 16, 2006; 2:23 PM SAN FRANCISCO --

This, they say, is the execution of a disabled convict, a feeble old man who is legally blind, mostly deaf and confined to a wheelchair.

``It brings us to a new low,'' said Michael Satris, a Bolinas attorney who is part of Allen's legal team. ``It's a pretty sad commentary on the levels of decency in carrying out the death penalty.''

For once, put the guns down Arnold and have a heart.Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected the argument that Allen is too old and ailing to be executed when he denied Allen's clemency Friday. So have the courts -- so far. For this complete article click here

 A 76-year-old convicted killer _ legally blind, nearly deaf and in a wheelchair _ tried to stave off execution early Tuesday by arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to put a feeble old man to death.

Clarence Ray Allen, whose birthday was Monday, was set to die by lethal injection just after midnight. He stood to become the oldest person executed in California _ and the second-oldest put to death nationally _ since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.

Allen raised two claims never before endorsed by the high court: that executing a frail old man would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that the 23 years he spent on death row were unconstitutionally cruel as well.

He was condemned in 1982 for ordering a hit from prison that left three people dead. His heart stopped in September, but doctors revived him and returned him to San Quentin Prison's death row. The Supreme Court has never set an upper age limit for executions or created an exception for physical illness. But some justices have expressed interest in deciding whether a long stay on death row is indeed unconstitutionally cruel.

In 20002, Justice Stephen Breyer said in the case of a Florida inmate who spent 27 years in prison: "It is fairly asked whether such punishment is both unusual and cruel." Justice Clarence Thomas disagreed, writing that the inmate "could long ago have ended his anxieties and uncertainties by submitting to what the people of Florida have deemed him to deserve: execution."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Supreme Court and a federal appeals court refused to spare Allen's life. For complete article click here

Comments

[Yiddish Steel]

Clarence Allen deserves to die! The only problem I see here is that it's taken 23 years to administer justice. If you want to blame someone, forget Governor Schwarzenegger, blame the moonbats on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that have kept this case in the "later" file for far too long. Stop thinking about the rights of the criminal, and start thinking about the rights of the victims and their families for once!