POSTED: 2:41 pm PST January 10, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block the Jan. 17 execution of Clarence Ray Allen after the inmate claimed the punishment would be cruel and unusual because of his age and health problems.
In a two-sentence order signed by Chief Justice Ronald George, Allen's request for a reprieve was "denied on the merits."
An attorney for Allen said the 75-year-old condemned man, whose request for clemency to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pending, would ask the federal courts to stop the execution.
On Dec. 23, Allen's attorneys petitioned California's justices to stop the execution, saying it would be inconsistent with "civilized behavior." Allen, the oldest person on California's death row, uses a wheelchair, suffered a stroke in September and is virtually deaf and blind.
State prosecutors rejected that position when they urged Schwarzenegger two weeks ago not to grant clemency. They said age and infirmities were irrelevant, and Allen "deserves to die for his monstrous crimes."Prosecutors argued that, because Allen had ordered killings from inside prison, keeping him alive could be a security risk.
While serving time for murder at Folsom State Prison in 1980, Allen was sentenced to death for hiring a hit man who killed three people at a Fresno market. Allen had the trio killed because he feared their testimony would hurt his chances of prevailing at overturning his murder conviction on appeal, prosecutors said.
The convicted hit man, Billy Ray Hamilton, also is on death row. Prosecutors said Hamilton was following Allen's orders when he killed Bryon Schletewitz, Douglas Scott White and Josephine Rocha. more at link:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/5983618/detail.html