No clemency hearing for inmate, 75

SACRAMENTO
No clemency hearing for inmate, 75
Governor to review written arguments for and against it
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, January 5, 2006

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will not hold a clemency hearing for Clarence Ray Allen, the 75-year-old Death Row inmate who is scheduled to be executed Jan. 17 for ordering three murders from his prison cell in 1980, the governor's office said Wednesday.

Schwarzenegger will review written arguments for and against clemency before deciding whether to spare Allen's life, spokeswoman Julie Soderlund said. Allen's lawyer had hoped to speak to the governor about why the state should not kill a seriously ill, blind prisoner who uses a wheelchair.

"Not to be personally heard adds to our concern about the fairness of the whole process,'' said the attorney, Michael Satris. "Where a person's life is at stake, there ought to be some minimum elements of due process.''

Schwarzenegger has denied clemency for three other condemned prisoners. He held no hearing before approving the execution of Kevin Cooper, who later won a reprieve from a federal appeals court and is now appealing a new court order upholding his death sentence. The governor ordered a public hearing before the state parole board for Donald Beardslee, who was executed last January, and met privately with opposing lawyers in the case of Stanley Tookie Williams, who was put to death Dec. 13.

The governor's office did not explain his decision to forgo a hearing on Allen.
(snip/...)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/05/BAG51GHLQF1.DTL

who are probably going to die of natural causes within 5 years anyway.

Much more than if they stayed in prison for their entire life.

Merely implying that executing an invalid is moronic. Then again, executing anyone is moronic, just doubly so with someone who can't even move under their own power.

It is extremely moronic indeed.

Then the real punishment begins.

That will definately kill him.

I absolutely don't want California to become another Texas.

He decided to commit a crime, was convicted and his sentence should be carried out. Maybe if he writes some childrens books that would help.

Governing the largest state in the country, action movie style...