Clarence Ray Allen Executed

Friday, February 10, 2006

January 17, 2006 -- Clarence Ray Allen was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 12:38am Tuesday morning at San Quentin State Prison. In the end, he wasn't as feeble and frail as his attorneys portrayed him in their efforts to spare his life.

With the help of four large correctional officers, Clarence Ray Allen shuffled from his wheelchair to a gurney inside San Quentin State Prison's death chamber early Tuesday morning, a day after his 76th birthday.

Though legally blind, Allen raised his head to search among execution 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 minutes before he died. "Thank you very much, I love you all. Goodbye."

Anticipating a possible replay of his September heart attack, 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.

"At no point are we not going to value the sanctity of life," said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon. "We would resuscitate him."

Crittendon explained that executions are scheduled for one minute after midnight because the death warrant is only valid for that day, giving authorities time to treat an inmate's ailments, then kill the prisoner without having to seek another order.

In Allen's case, his heart was strong to the end, forcing doctors 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 Stephen Ornoski.

He was pronounced dead at 12:38 a.m.

His attorneys had sought clemency from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and reprieves from state and federal courts, claiming the man, who was mostly blind and deaf and suffered from diabetes, was too old and sick to be put to death, that a lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

Medical records show he was indeed ailing, and prison officials don't dispute his condition. However, some observers saw a man in better condition that he had been portrayed.

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, witnessed the execution as a member of a legislative committee debating a moratorium on the death penalty.

"He did not appear to be as infirm as news accounts portrayed him. For 76 years-old, he looked to be in remarkably good shape," Spitzer said.

Allen died wearing a beaded headband, a medicine bag around his neck and a ceremonial eagle feather on his chest. Two American Indian spiritual advisers visited with him in the hours before the execution.

He released a last statement read by Ornoski saying he enjoyed his last meal -- a buffalo steak, fried chicken, Indian pan-fried bread, a pint of black walnut ice cream and sugar-free pecan pie. But Allen had proclaimed his innocence, and his final words never mentioned the 1980 hit job that resulted in the murders of a 17-year-old girl and two men, ages 18 and 27.

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."

Allen was serving a life term at Folsom State Prison when he gave a recently paroled convict a list of seven witnesses who had helped put him behind bars for the 1974 murder of Mary Sue Kitts, his son's teenage girlfriend who helped him burglarize a Fresno grocery store. He wanted the seven killed so they couldn't testify during his appeals.

Among those targeted was Bryon Schletewitz, whose family owned Fran's Market. Schletewitz and two clerks -- Rocha and Douglas Scott White -- were slain.

The killings landed Allen and hit man Billy Ray Hamilton on death row. No execution date has been set for Hamilton.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Allen's last-minute appeal.

One of Allen's attorneys, Annette Carnegie, blamed "prison authorities' deliberate neglect of his medical needs" for his physical condition.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected similar arguments in denying Allen clemency Friday.

Allen was the second-oldest inmate executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed nearly 30 years ago, behind only a 77-year-old in Mississippi last month.

His was California's 13th execution since state lawmakers restored capital punishment in 1977 and the third in the last 12 months.

"It went smoothly, it went as it was planned, and I believe ultimately, Mr. Allen received the justice he deserved for the murders he committed," state prosecutor Ward Campbell said.

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