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SAN FRANCISCO — A 76-year-old convicted killer — legally blind, nearly deaf and in a wheelchair — tried to stave off execution early Tuesday by arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to put a feeble old man to death.
Clarence Ray Allen, whose birthday was Monday, was set to die by lethal injection just after midnight. He stood to become the oldest person executed in California — and the second-oldest put to death nationally — since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.
Allen raised two claims never before endorsed by the high court: that executing a frail old man would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that the 23 years he spent on death row were unconstitutionally cruel as well.
He was condemned in 1982 for ordering a hit from prison that left three people dead.
His heart stopped in September, but doctors revived him and returned him to San Quentin Prison's death row.
The Supreme Court has never set an upper age limit for executions or created an exception for physical illness. But some justices have expressed interest in deciding whether a long stay on death row is indeed unconstitutionally cruel.
I love the fact that his heart stopped and they revived his so we could kill him! That is very beatiful!
Clarence Ray Allen, whose birthday was Monday, was set to die by lethal injection just after midnight. He stood to become the oldest person executed in California — and the second-oldest put to death nationally — since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.
Allen raised two claims never before endorsed by the high court: that executing a frail old man would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that the 23 years he spent on death row were unconstitutionally cruel as well.
He was condemned in 1982 for ordering a hit from prison that left three people dead.
His heart stopped in September, but doctors revived him and returned him to San Quentin Prison's death row.
The Supreme Court has never set an upper age limit for executions or created an exception for physical illness. But some justices have expressed interest in deciding whether a long stay on death row is indeed unconstitutionally cruel.
I love the fact that his heart stopped and they revived his so we could kill him! That is very beatiful!
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