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| Calif. Inmate Seeks Clemency |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/02/2006 |
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The California Supreme Court last week ordered state prosecutors to respond to attorneys of Clarence Ray Allen, the oldest man on death row who claims his looming Jan. 17 punishment would be cruel and unusual because of his age and health problems. The justices, in ordering a response by Jan. 3, did not comment on the petition from Allen, who also is making similar arguments to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a petition for clemency that asks that his death sentence be commuted to life without parole. In his Supreme Court petition, Allen's lawyers say their 75-year-old client uses a wheelchair, suffered a stroke in September and is deaf and blind. Executing him would serve no purpose, they said. State prosecutors have already rejected that position, when they urged Schwarzenegger last week not to grant clemency. The attorney general's office argued that because Allen had ordered killings from inside prison, keeping him alive could be a security risk. While serving time for murder at Folsom State Prison in 1980, Allen was sentenced to death for hiring a hit man who murdered three people at a Fresno market. Allen had the trio killed because he feared their testimony would hurt his chances of prevailing at overturning his murder conviction on appeal, prosecutors said. The convicted hit man, Billy Ray Hamilton, also is on death row. |
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