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http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=80932006
A CONVICTED killer, who was blind, nearly deaf and wheelchair-bound, was today executed by lethal injection after losing a last-ditch appeal last night.
Clarence Ray Allen, was put to death at 12.38am (local time), less than an hour after his 76th birthday, for a triple murder he ordered from behind bars to silence witnesses to another killing.
Allen became the oldest person executed in California - and the second-oldest put to death in the United States - since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.
He made two claims never before endorsed by the high court - that executing a frail old man would violate the US Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that the 23 years he spent on Death Row were also unconstitutionally cruel. However, the high court decided to reject Allen's requests for a stay of execution yesterday, about ten hours before he was put to death.
Allen, whose last meal was chicken from KFC, a buffalo steak, whole milk, sugar-free pecan pie and black walnut ice cream, went to prison for having his teenage son's 17-year-old girlfriend murdered for fear she would tell police about a grocery-store burglary.
While behind bars, he tried to have witnesses in the case wiped out, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to death in 1982 for hiring a hit man who killed a witness and two bystanders.
Allen's heart stopped in September, but doctors revived him and returned him to San Quentin Prison's Death Row. Two guards assisted a frail Allen, wearing an Indian headband, from a wheelchair into San Quentin's cramped death chamber and on to the gurney where he would die.
Allen breathed heavily as a team of guards restrained his arms and legs to the table and set about methodically preparing him for a lethal combination of drugs. He turned his head to witnesses he had requested attend his execution and appeared to say "I love you".
Five minutes passed from the time the first of two needles was inserted until a guard read his death order. Within minutes the lethal drugs were administered and Allen breathed heavily for a moment and then was motionless until pronounced dead.
Fifty witnesses, including members of Allen's family and members of the families of his victims, had squeezed into the small room housing the death chamber, a small cell painted mint green.
Ahead of Allen's execution a prison spokesman described him as resigned to his fate but in good spirits after celebrating his birthday with his family.
Prison spokesman Eric Messick said Allen had never shown remorse for his crimes and Allen's final statement did not mention them. California Assistant Attorney General Ward Campbell said Allen's execution was long overdue. "Allen received the justice he deserved," Mr Campbell said.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to grant clemency to Allen on Friday despite his failing health because he committed his crimes when he was 50 years old. Allen's clemency petition was the fourth the Hollywood icon has rejected as governor.
Allen's crimes reflected the "hardened and calculating decisions of a mature man," Schwarzenegger said in a written statement explaining his decision.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=80932006
A CONVICTED killer, who was blind, nearly deaf and wheelchair-bound, was today executed by lethal injection after losing a last-ditch appeal last night.
Clarence Ray Allen, was put to death at 12.38am (local time), less than an hour after his 76th birthday, for a triple murder he ordered from behind bars to silence witnesses to another killing.
Allen became the oldest person executed in California - and the second-oldest put to death in the United States - since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.
He made two claims never before endorsed by the high court - that executing a frail old man would violate the US Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that the 23 years he spent on Death Row were also unconstitutionally cruel. However, the high court decided to reject Allen's requests for a stay of execution yesterday, about ten hours before he was put to death.
Allen, whose last meal was chicken from KFC, a buffalo steak, whole milk, sugar-free pecan pie and black walnut ice cream, went to prison for having his teenage son's 17-year-old girlfriend murdered for fear she would tell police about a grocery-store burglary.
While behind bars, he tried to have witnesses in the case wiped out, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to death in 1982 for hiring a hit man who killed a witness and two bystanders.
Allen's heart stopped in September, but doctors revived him and returned him to San Quentin Prison's Death Row. Two guards assisted a frail Allen, wearing an Indian headband, from a wheelchair into San Quentin's cramped death chamber and on to the gurney where he would die.
Allen breathed heavily as a team of guards restrained his arms and legs to the table and set about methodically preparing him for a lethal combination of drugs. He turned his head to witnesses he had requested attend his execution and appeared to say "I love you".
Five minutes passed from the time the first of two needles was inserted until a guard read his death order. Within minutes the lethal drugs were administered and Allen breathed heavily for a moment and then was motionless until pronounced dead.
Fifty witnesses, including members of Allen's family and members of the families of his victims, had squeezed into the small room housing the death chamber, a small cell painted mint green.
Ahead of Allen's execution a prison spokesman described him as resigned to his fate but in good spirits after celebrating his birthday with his family.
Prison spokesman Eric Messick said Allen had never shown remorse for his crimes and Allen's final statement did not mention them. California Assistant Attorney General Ward Campbell said Allen's execution was long overdue. "Allen received the justice he deserved," Mr Campbell said.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to grant clemency to Allen on Friday despite his failing health because he committed his crimes when he was 50 years old. Allen's clemency petition was the fourth the Hollywood icon has rejected as governor.
Allen's crimes reflected the "hardened and calculating decisions of a mature man," Schwarzenegger said in a written statement explaining his decision.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=80932006