Death row elder needed 2 injections

[wordsmythe]

<<See if you can find the quote that made me laugh>>

<<Then tell me if I was the only one who thought it was funny>>

Last words: 'Hoka hey, it's a good day to die'

Allen was convicted of ordering a hit that left three people dead.

SAN QUENTIN, California (AP) -- In the end, California's oldest condemned inmate did not seem quite as feeble as his attorneys made him out to be in their efforts to save his life.

With the help of four big prison guards, Clarence Ray Allen shuffled from his wheelchair to a gurney inside San Quentin's death chamber early Tuesday, a day after his 76th birthday.

Though legally blind, Allen raised his head to search among execution witnesses for relatives he had invited.

"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."

Having suffered a heart attack back in September, Allen had asked prison authorities to let him die if he went into cardiac arrest before his execution, a request prison officials said they would not honor.

"At no point are we not going to value the sanctity of life," said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon. "We would resuscitate him," then execute him.

But the barrel-chested prisoner's heart was strong to the end: Doctors had to administer a second shot of potassium chloride to stop it.

"It's not unusual. This guy's heart had been going for 76 years," said Warden Stephen Ornoski.

Allen, condemned for ordering behind bars a hit that left three people dead, 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 attorneys had pleaded with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the U.S. Supreme Court to spare his life, claiming that executing a man as old and feeble as Allen amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, and that the 23 years he spent on death row were unconstitutionally cruel, too.

Among other things, Allen was nearly deaf and had diabetes. Medical records show he was indeed ailing, and prison officials did not dispute his condition. However, some observers saw a man in better condition that he had been portrayed.

"For 76 years old, he looked to be in remarkably good shape," said Republican Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, who witnessed the execution as a member of a legislative committee debating a moratorium on the death penalty.

Allen died wearing a beaded headband, a medicine bag around his neck and an eagle feather on his chest. Two Indian spiritual advisers visited with him in the hours before the execution. His last meal included a buffalo steak and Indian pan-fried bread.

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."

[K C Muffin]

not funny ha-ha, but odd, indeed. Why spend the additional money to resuscitate him so that they could publicly execute him? How absurd. Maybe you're right - it is kinda funny ha-ha. It's another man-bigger-than-God thing.

[wordsmythe]

Personally I think if you are on Death Row there should be an automatic DNR order imposed. If something happens from attempted suicide to a heart attack they make you comfortable and just let you slip away.

[Lone Gunman]

Kinda reminds me of a story I read several years ago. A woman went to buy some rat poison and couldn't find the kind she usally bought so she asked where the red rat poison was and the cleark told her they had to take the red dye out because it caused cancer in lab rats. Go figure.

[K C Muffin]

I'm a little more rotten than that. I personally don't understand why criminals get better health and dental care than poor people do. Is it because we're afraid to have one die on our watch? They're already proven themselves to be scourges on society, so I don't get it. Following that idea, if somebody in prison gets sick, we just separate them from the regular population (and I don't agree with the segregation of prisoners according to the crimes they commit) and let nature take its course. I'll go along with ya a little ways, Wordie - make 'em as comfy as they can get on a sick-bay cot. But no extreme measures to prolong life.

[TexKan]

If they are in prison they are entitled to determine if they are DNR or not. It's a human right and it has to be signed and witnessed. My guess is he wouldn't sign one. That was probably just a comment that was made and he never ASKED to actually have a DNR. The prison is legally bound to resusitate him - then execute............ sounds legal to me. He could have refused his insulin ( oral or injectable) and he could have slipped off in a diabetic coma. Doesn't sound like he was all that serious bout dyin to me.

[Highwayman]

Originally Posted by K C Muffin

....Is it because we're afraid to have one die on our watch? ....

Lawsuits.

[hoarsewhisperer]

Nursing Home Care for inmates?

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/sp...onaging01.html

interesting read

[K C Muffin]

My point exactly, although I hadn't realized they were THAT well taken care of!!! Maybe we'd all be better off if we committed a few crimes and sat behind bars - no insurance to pay and the quality of life isn't all bad. Heck, with conjugal visits and all....................

[Highwayman]

Originally Posted by K C Muffin

....Maybe we'd all be better off if we committed a few crimes and sat behind bars - no insurance to pay and the quality of life isn't all bad. Heck, with conjugal visits and all....................

Three hots and a cot.

There are times when it sounds good. There’s folks out there that commit crimes just to have a cheap place to stay.