Brutuskend
Lifer
Death Nears for Aging California Inmate
By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 15, 9:12 AM
This is an undated photo of death row inmate ...
FRESNO, Calif. - Dusk had just fallen on the night of Sept. 5, 1980, when Jack Abbott heard gunshots at the general store next door. He grabbed his shotgun and vaulted the wall separating their properties.
"I could see them in there, someone with a gun in their hand. I could see somebody lying on the floor," Abbott recalled during a recent interview.
Inside, he found the bodies of two clerks, Douglas Scott White, 18, and Josephine Rocha, 17. The owners' son, Bryon Schletewitz, 27, was dead in the stockroom. Abbott was shot in the back, but he still managed to shoot the fleeing intruder in the foot.
The killings at Fran's Market that night put two men on death row: a 32-year-old newly paroled convict named Billy Ray Hamilton, and Clarence Ray Allen, the man who ordered the attack from prison.
Barring a last-minute reprieve, Allen will become the oldest inmate put to death in California if he is executed as scheduled at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, just after his 76th birthday.
Allen's attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that executing a feeble old man amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Allen has gone blind and deaf and uses a wheelchair. His heart stopped in September, but doctors revived him and returned him to death row. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency on Friday.
Allen already was serving life in prison for murder when he gave Hamilton a hit list of seven people who had testified against him. He wanted them dead so they couldn't testify during his appeals.
It was the culmination of a violent history between Allen and the market, known in the community for its friendly service to farmers and their migrant workers in the San Joaquin Valley.
Allen grew up poor in Oklahoma in the Dust Bowl era and turned to preaching as a young man.
"From my earliest childhood memories, Clarence Ray Allen imparted the most loving, giving and generous grandfatherly spirit," Paula Allen of Fresno wrote in a statement, remembering her grandfather in happier times.
"He was always selfless with his time and devoted his undivided attention to me and my siblings through special occasions, his many gifts and our family outings. His gifts of humor and spontaneous frivolity could turn my dreariest days into the brightest at the drop of a hat," she wrote.
But in the San Joaquin Valley, Allen founded a private security firm and one photograph from those days shows him brandishing a machine gun, which he used to threaten workers during grape strikes organized by Cesar Chavez.
He owned an airplane, luxury cars and horse stables _ a lifestyle authorities have said was supported largely through criminal activity by his family and employees.
Prosecutor say he arranged a burglary of Fran's Market in 1974.
When his son's girlfriend, 17-year-old Mary Sue Kitts, told Bryon Schletewitz what had happened, Allen had her strangled, her weighted body dumped in a canal. Bryon Schletewitz and his father, Raymond, were among the witnesses at Allen's trial.
Bryon Schletewitz had planned to take over the family store. After the murders there, his parents sold it, said his sister, Patricia Pendergrass.
She intends to witness the execution to represent her late parents, who had hoped to live long enough to see Allen die. "They never saw justice served," she said.
Josephine Rocha's family is not swayed by Allen's appeals that he is too old and frail to be executed.
"He's too old to die? Josephine was too young to die," said her brother, Robert Rocha.
Allen and his family declined requests for interviews.
Link
By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 15, 9:12 AM
This is an undated photo of death row inmate ...
FRESNO, Calif. - Dusk had just fallen on the night of Sept. 5, 1980, when Jack Abbott heard gunshots at the general store next door. He grabbed his shotgun and vaulted the wall separating their properties.
"I could see them in there, someone with a gun in their hand. I could see somebody lying on the floor," Abbott recalled during a recent interview.
Inside, he found the bodies of two clerks, Douglas Scott White, 18, and Josephine Rocha, 17. The owners' son, Bryon Schletewitz, 27, was dead in the stockroom. Abbott was shot in the back, but he still managed to shoot the fleeing intruder in the foot.
The killings at Fran's Market that night put two men on death row: a 32-year-old newly paroled convict named Billy Ray Hamilton, and Clarence Ray Allen, the man who ordered the attack from prison.
Barring a last-minute reprieve, Allen will become the oldest inmate put to death in California if he is executed as scheduled at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, just after his 76th birthday.
Allen's attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that executing a feeble old man amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Allen has gone blind and deaf and uses a wheelchair. His heart stopped in September, but doctors revived him and returned him to death row. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency on Friday.
Allen already was serving life in prison for murder when he gave Hamilton a hit list of seven people who had testified against him. He wanted them dead so they couldn't testify during his appeals.
It was the culmination of a violent history between Allen and the market, known in the community for its friendly service to farmers and their migrant workers in the San Joaquin Valley.
Allen grew up poor in Oklahoma in the Dust Bowl era and turned to preaching as a young man.
"From my earliest childhood memories, Clarence Ray Allen imparted the most loving, giving and generous grandfatherly spirit," Paula Allen of Fresno wrote in a statement, remembering her grandfather in happier times.
"He was always selfless with his time and devoted his undivided attention to me and my siblings through special occasions, his many gifts and our family outings. His gifts of humor and spontaneous frivolity could turn my dreariest days into the brightest at the drop of a hat," she wrote.
But in the San Joaquin Valley, Allen founded a private security firm and one photograph from those days shows him brandishing a machine gun, which he used to threaten workers during grape strikes organized by Cesar Chavez.
He owned an airplane, luxury cars and horse stables _ a lifestyle authorities have said was supported largely through criminal activity by his family and employees.
Prosecutor say he arranged a burglary of Fran's Market in 1974.
When his son's girlfriend, 17-year-old Mary Sue Kitts, told Bryon Schletewitz what had happened, Allen had her strangled, her weighted body dumped in a canal. Bryon Schletewitz and his father, Raymond, were among the witnesses at Allen's trial.
Bryon Schletewitz had planned to take over the family store. After the murders there, his parents sold it, said his sister, Patricia Pendergrass.
She intends to witness the execution to represent her late parents, who had hoped to live long enough to see Allen die. "They never saw justice served," she said.
Josephine Rocha's family is not swayed by Allen's appeals that he is too old and frail to be executed.
"He's too old to die? Josephine was too young to die," said her brother, Robert Rocha.
Allen and his family declined requests for interviews.
Link
