Time has almost run out
Today is Clarence Ray Allen's 76th birthday. According to reports, he will be visited by his grandchildren and can look forward to a 'hefty meal'. It will be his last. Allen will be executed tomorrow.
Clarence Ray Allen has been on death row for a long time. Almost my entire life actually. You cannot deny he was a criminal; and of the really nasty kind. It seems he organised the burglary of an old friend's supermarket, then murdered his son's girlfriend when she informed the old friend that it was Allen who was behind the burglary. That got him life imprisonment initially. The act that moved him onto death row was when he persuaded a fellow inmate to murder the old friend and a couple of witnesses. Yes, he was not a good man.
It also cannot be denied however that he has served a very long time on death row now, and the man who was 'proven' to be 'beyond rehabilitation' presents absolutely no danger to society today.
The whole issue of capital punishment is one topic, but particular to this case is the issue of capital punishment when it involves a very old, very sick man.
What will happen tomorrow does indeed sound grotesque. The death chamber is not wheelchair accessible so Allen will be dragged or carried to the chair for his lethal injection. The lethal injection works by knocking him out, collapsing the lungs and stopping his heart.The same heart that stopped a few months ago after a heart attack and was made to beat again through medical intervention. It's all a bit sick.
Following Stanley 'Tookie' Williams' execution last months there has been relatively little discussion about Allen's case. He is an elderly, disabled, native American but pressure groups representing these groups of society have been pretty quiet on the issue.
There are questions relating to the adequacy of his trials, but even among those people who are utterly convinced of his guilt and who support the death penalty for the worst crimes, there must surely be some having doubts about this one. Or maybe not. Arnie certainly isn't.
posted by Becca @ 1:23 pm
2 Comments:
Believe me, I think the death penalty is disgusting. But what is shocking is that 'The death chamber is not wheelchair accessible'... That's discrimination, innit?
Er, could you clear something up for me?
I kind of see how you could make the leap from pro-choice to killing children; I even think I get the twisted logic behind the 'supporting the rights of all people including Muslims' becoming killing Jews, but please enlighten me about the ways in which this 'idiotic crowd' supports killing disabled people??
Incoherence isn't going to win you any favours.
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