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Wed 18 Jan, 2006 07:52 am
SAN QUENTIN, Calif., Jan. 17 -- California's oldest condemned inmate died by injection early Tuesday.
With the help of four prison guards, Clarence Ray Allen shuffled from his wheelchair to a gurney inside San Quentin's death chamber early Tuesday, a day after his 76th birthday. Although legally blind, Allen raised his head to search among witnesses for relatives he had invited.
" Hoka hey , it's a good day to die," Allen said in a nod to his Choctaw Indian heritage. "Thank you very much, I love you all. Goodbye."
Having suffered a heart attack in September, Allen had asked prison authorities to let him die if he went into cardiac arrest before his execution, a request prison officials said they would not honor.
"We would resuscitate him," said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon, then execute him.
But the barrel-chested prisoner's heart was strong to the end: Doctors had to administer a second shot of potassium chloride to stop it.
"It's not unusual. This guy's heart had been going for 76 years," said Warden Steven Ornoski.
Allen, condemned for ordering from behind bars a hit that left three people dead, was the second-oldest inmate executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed nearly 30 years ago. Mississippi executed a 77-year-old last month.
Allen's attorneys had pleaded with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Supreme Court to spare his life, saying that executing a man as old and feeble as he amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, and that the 23 years he spent on death row were unconstitutionally cruel, too.
Allen died wearing a beaded headband, a medicine bag around his neck and an eagle feather on his chest. Two Indian spiritual advisers visited with him in the hours before the execution. His last meal included a buffalo steak and Indian fry bread.
The family of one of Allen's victims, Josephine Rocha, said in a statement that Allen "abused the justice system with endless appeals until he lived longer in prison than the short 17 years of Josephine's life."
I don't know what the fuss was about. A cold blooded murderer is a cold blooded murderer, no matter what his age. He lived 23 years more than the people whom he killed.
Dys- Why is this in the "testing" forum? Those threads disappear after a time.
I find this absurd;
"Having suffered a heart attack in September, Allen had asked prison authorities to let him die if he went into cardiac arrest before his execution, a request prison officials said they would not honor.
"We would resuscitate him," said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon, then execute him.
that sounds like something a texas prision would say.
ass backwards people.
i dont believe there is pain when you get an injection for execution?
But a heart attack CAN be painful..
if it was pain and suffering they wanted to administer for his death / punishement... a heart attack seems the more logical way to go.
besides that, its free..
I found that absurd as well, dys, but like Phoenix, why in the testing forum?
This is a test.
This is a test of the american broadcasting corporation...........
Ok already I did a fubar and have equested that this topic be moved, it's now up to the mods to make it so.
""We would resuscitate him," said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon, then execute him."
Kinda says it all, doesn't it?
Edit:
Oy! You already said that!
I think proponents of the death penalty ought to be in a pool, like a jury pool, and know they may be drawn to kill the person themselves.
Then, somd like it, damn it.
Still....
Wow! Deb, that sounds like the short story, "The Lottery."
ok, maybe I am hallucinating, but when it comes to lethal injection, dont they appoint people to "push the button?" so to speak?
Or is that still done by the warden/ jail employees?
Wolfwoman, the process is automated. The purpose being, ostensibly, to spare the feelings of the crew who does the execution. The person who comes closest to actually executing the victim is he or she who puts the needle in their arm.
Didn't they used to have two buttons, and the folks pushing the button never knew which one activated the injection?
And who knew that Dys was a Klingon?
They could solve the problem easily by banning executions.
I was amused by the fact that Clarence kept his diabetic diet going till the very end. Requesting "diet" pecan pie and "diet" ice cream....................??
Kinda like alcohol swabbing the forearm prior to his IV insertion for the lethal injection.
The ungainly artifacts of denial...
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