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Death Penalty Questioned for Elderly as New Records
Set in Senior Executions
Oldest in modern era executed last month, California
prepares for state record
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"The 'People of California' are in a morbid race
with God to see who can kill Clarence Ray Allen first. With the
date for his execution only a week away, God may still get there
first. Just four months ago, on Sept. 2, the condemned man
suffered a massive, near-fatal heart attack." - New America
Media, Interview/Commentary, Michael Kroll, Jan 10, 2006 –
click to interview. |
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Jan. 11, 2006 – Is it appropriate to execute the
old and infirm? That is a question asked by attorneys for Clarence Ray
Allen, nearly deaf, blind and wheelchair-bound, who will turn 76 the day
before he is to become the oldest person executed in California on Jan.
17. The plea does not seem to be helping Allen, as it failed to save
John B. Nixon Sr. in Mississippi, as he became, at age 77, the oldest
person executed in the United States since the death penalty was
reinstated in 1976.
The plea by California's Allen, a Choctaw Indian
sentenced for ordering the 1980 murders of three witnesses to the 1974
burglary that he was convicted of committing, is not winning support for
him either. Although, he says he is innocent.
A California online poll on
TheKSBWChannel.com asks "Should Clarence Ray Allen's death sentence
be commuted to life in prison?" Voters have two choices: "Yes. He's too
old and sick to be executed" or "No. He should pay the price for his
crimes."
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Story Update |
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California Sets State Age Record by Executing
76-Year-Old Man
Jan.
17, 2006 - Despite being legally blind, nearly deaf and confined to a
wheelchair, Clarence Ray Allen, was executed by lethal injection this
morning at 12:38 in by the State of California, one day after his 76th
birthday. Allen, convicted in three murders, had pleaded the death
penalty was cruel and unusual punishment for someone so old and frail.
Read more...
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As of this morning, an overwhelming majority – 82%
- say he should pay the price for his crimes.
Allen's plea is winning some public support,
however, and an interview with the condemned senior citizen was
published yesterday by
New America Media. The Idriss Stelley Foundation has set up a
yahoogroup to build support in order to save Clarence Ray Allen, and
to "allow him to die with dignity when his ancestors will call him to
join them."
"Allen 'flatlined' (died) from a heart attack, and
was resuscitated by the medical staff, so he can be executed in January.
The San Quentin Correctional Facility has issued a statement that Mr.
Allen, although wheelchair bound, will have to walk 15 feet to the death
gurney, because the death chamber is not wheelchair accessible,"
according to a report by
Indybay.org.
"The death row population is aging, and prison
conditions are not conducive to good health. 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 executed in February of 2005," reports
Indybay.org.
Yesterday, however, the California Supreme Court
refused to block his execution. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will
not hold a clemency hearing for Allen, but will make his decision on the
basis of written materials. Allen has asked for clemency on grounds of
his age, serious illnesses and the alleged unfairness of his 1982 trial.
Still, California will not claim the U.S. record
for killing the oldest person in this modern era. That record is held by
Mississippi for the execution of Nixon last Dec. 14, who was on death
row for 20 years.
Nixon was convicted in 1985 for the slaying of
Virginia Tucker. Gilbert Jimenez, who later testified against Nixon, and
his sons John B. Nixon Jr. and Henry L. Nixon, also were convicted in
connection to the murder. They were allegedly paid to do the killing by
Tucker's former husband.
Nixon maintained his innocence and said, just
before his execution, that another of his sons committed the murder.
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