Schwarzenegger denies clemency hearing to Allen.

[Silverhair]

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/World/2006/01/05/1379477-sun.html

SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday he would not hold a clemency hearing for Clarence Allen, the oldest man on California's death row.

Allen, 75, is scheduled to be executed Jan. 17. He is asking Schwarzenegger for mercy because he uses a wheelchair, is deaf and blind and suffers from other medical conditions.

Allen was serving life for murder, was paroled, then began to murder the people who had testified against him. He was captured, tried, convicted (Evidence leaves no room for serious doubt.) and sentenced to death in the early 1980's and has been on death row for over 20 years. Today he is 75, blind, deaf, and crippled.

[FreedomAngel82]

1. Arnie is truly evil

What a bastard. Must be carrying his fathers legacy as an SS I guess. I thought he was a Catholic and Catholics didn't believe in the death penalty?

[mattclearing]

2. I don't believe in the death penalty...

...but I also don't believe in forgiveness for those who work to thwart the Justice system. Killing witnesses is unforgivable. I wouldn't lift a finger for this individual.

[mrcheerful]

3. A very good friend of mine was a lifer,

the only name he was allowed to use since 1962 was his last name Woody. He passed away in 2000 at the age of 83. Woody was not a saint, he admitted freely that after catching his wife and best friend in bed he killed them. When I met Woody he was in a wheel chair, unable to walk farther then his bunk to the cell door and age had caught up with him, he had very little use of his arms and hands. He applied for the Michigan handi cap lifers release, Woody would have gone to an old folks home as he had no living relatives and was unable to care for himself. Woody died in prison 6 months after applying for the program and was buried in a prison grave yard with just his prison number on a plaque over his grave. So instead of dying with dignity Woody lays forgotten in some prison grave yard and no one mourned or was allowed to attend Woody on his final journey. I can't tell you what Woody was like in 1962 nor in the years that he lived inside with no visitors in over 30 years. The Woody I met was a kind gentle soul that learned his lesson of life and not once did I ever hear him say why me nor did he get angry when his request for the program was turned down. This is american justice at its lowest to make someone suffer for crimes long forgotten and no one remembers. I miss Woody and his sense of humor, I'm not saying what he did wasn't wrong, but when all is said and done Woody was just a human that made a wrong decision and paid for it. We forget that everyone of us has a breaking point and who knows what any of us would have done in Woody's place.

BTW it was Woody that tagged me with the nick name Mr.Cheerful.

[yurbud]

4. his age and handicaps are irrelevant. If they counted, Pinochet and nazis

couldn't be tried if they managed to live to be 70.

[mrcheerful]

5. No war crimes and crimes against humanity are very seperate from

the crimes most are in prison for. Same with serial killers, they are born without any empathy for their victims nor do they feel remorse for their actions. Remind you of someone we see on the news?

[yurbud]

6. yep--I think the death penalty is overused, but in a case like this...

it seems warranted.

You shouldn't get a free pass just because you got old, and killing witnesses is attacking our justice system, the same as killing a cop, judge, or jury member.

[mrcheerful]

7. Tell me whats worse, letting the guy live out the remaining time dwelling

his crimes in isolation that no prison can match or putting the guy out of misery? Think about how isolated this guy is, blind deaf and not able to walk, that means no human contact except for whats going on in his mind. Death would free him more then allowing him to live out whats left of his life in a prison cell.

[yurbud]

8. that only works if people have a conscience

I could see that for someone who kills the mother of his children in a crime of passion, but not for someone who methodically knocked off witnesses.

[goclark]

9. Death Penalty is Barbaric! nt

[yurbud]

10. I think a lot of people support it because we briefly swung so far the

other way, and it was possible for murderers to be paroled after relatively brief sentences, so the death penalty was "insurance" against overly lenient parole boards.

If people believed that life in prison meant life, they would give up the death penalty.

[malaise]

11. Ditto n/t