By Don Thompson ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:01 a.m. January 17, 2006
SAN QUENTIN – Four months after he was revived from a nearly fatal heart attack and returned to death row at San Quentin State Prison, California's oldest condemned inmate needed an extra dose of a lethal chemical to end his life early Tuesday. Clarence Ray Allen was put to death the day after his 76th birthday amid controversy over whether the state should kill a diabetic old man who, his attorneys said, could barely see, hear or walk. Supported by four large correctional officers, he shuffled from his wheelchair to the gurney where he was executed for arranging a triple murder at a Fresno grocery store 25 years ago.
"My last words will be, 'Hoka Hey, it's a good day to die,' " Allen said in a nod to his Choctaw Indian heritage. "Thank you very much, I love you all. Goodbye."
Allen was pronounced dead at 12:38 a.m., hours after he exhausted legal appeals that his life should be spared because of his advanced age and infirmities. Though legally blind, Allen raised his head to search among execution witnesses for relatives he had invited, mouthing "I love you."
Anticipating a possible replay of his September heart attack, Allen had asked prison authorities to let him die if he went into cardiac arrest before his execution. In the end, doctors had to administer a second shot of potassium chloride to stop the barrel-chested prisoner's heart.
"It's not unusual, this guy's heart had been going for 76 years," said Warden Stephen Ornoski.
Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, witnessed the execution as a member of a legislative committee debating a moratorium on the death penalty.
"He did not appear to be as infirm as news accounts portrayed him. For 76 years-old, he looked to be in remarkably good shape," Spitzer said.
Allen died wearing a beaded headband, a medicine bag around his neck and a ceremonial eagle feather on his chest. Two American Indian spiritual advisers visited with him in the hours before the execution.
He released a last statement read by Ornoski saying he enjoyed his last meal – a buffalo steak, fried chicken, Indian pan-fried bread, a pint of black walnut ice cream and sugar-free pecan pie. But Allen had proclaimed his innocence, and his final words never mentioned the 1980 hit job that resulted in the murders of a 17-year-old girl and two men, ages 18 and 27.
The family of one of Allen's victims, Josephine Rocha, said in a statement that Allen "abused the justice system with endless appeals until he lived longer in prison than the short 17 years of Josephine's life."
Allen was serving a life term at Folsom State Prison when he gave a recently paroled convict a list of seven witnesses who had helped put him behind bars for the 1974 murder of Mary Sue Kitts, his son's teenage girlfriend who helped him burglarize a Fresno grocery store. He wanted the seven killed so they couldn't testify during his appeals.
Among those targeted was Bryon Schletewitz, whose family owned Fran's Market. Schletewitz and two clerks – Rocha and Douglas Scott White – were slain.
The killings landed Allen and hit man Billy Ray Hamilton on death row. No execution date has been set for Hamilton.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Allen's last-minute appeal.
One of Allen's attorneys, Annette Carnegie, blamed "prison authorities' deliberate neglect of his medical needs" for his physical condition.
But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected similar arguments in denying Allen clemency Friday.
Allen's case generated far less publicity than last month's execution of Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams, whose case set off a nationwide debate over the possibility of redemption on death row.
There were only about 200 people gathered outside the prison, about one-tenth of the crowd that came out last month.
Allen was the second-oldest inmate executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed nearly 30 years ago, behind only a 77-year-old in Mississippi last month.
His was California's 13th execution since state lawmakers restored capital punishment in 1977 and the third in the last 12 months.
"It went smoothly, it went as it was planned, and I believe ultimately, Mr. Allen received the justice he deserved for the murders he committed," state prosecutor Ward Campbell said.
Associated Press Writers David Kravets and Lisa Leff contributed to this report.
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