Is Anybody Paying Attention?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday he would not hold a public clemency hearing for Clarence Allen, who is scheduled to be executed Jan. 17 for ordering the murder of three people in 1980.

A quarter century after his crime-- Allen does not argue that he is innocent of the 1980 homicides-- Allen, a Choctaw Indian, is 75 years old and the oldest man on death row in California.  He uses a wheelchair, is deaf and blind and suffers from other medical conditions.  According to supporters, Allen "flat lined" a few months ago from a heart attack and was resuscitated by the prison's medical staff apparently so that he can be executed this month.  Although he is bound to a wheelchair, California authorities apparently insist that he walk 15 feet to the death gurney, because the death chamber at San Quentin is not wheelchair accessible.

The spectre of keeping a person alive so that he can later be killed by the state, and the equally disgraceful execution of a person who is now old, infirm and harmless is sadly something we may have to get used to.  There are now five condemned men in California who are over 70 and nearly three dozen in their 60s. Since California reinstated capital punishment, 31 men have died on death row of natural causes while 11 have been executed. The oldest person executed in California in the modern era was brain damaged 62-year-old Donald Beardslee. On December 14, 2005, Mississippi executed 77 year old John Nixon. So Clarence Allen is another in what may become a long line of bizarre state killings in which the defendant is quite old and very sick. 

Today a statement from the Council of Europe called for Governor Schwarzenegger to grant Clarence Allen clemency.  The statement also said that " in executing him at his advanced age and decades after the crime had been committed, the authorities are coming close to win the contest in cruelty and vengeance."  The Council of Europe is right, and they are not alone.

Clarence Allen is not being killed in my name.  I long for a day when everyone (including the Governor of California) will understand that mercy is the most important part of justice, and that state killing is an abomination that must not be permitted.

And so, my friends, I hope you will email the Governor, and if you are in California, your representatives and senators, and you will tell them that it is simple barbarism to kill Clarence Allen, and that they are not killing him in your name.  You can reach the Governor at the following:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
email: go to http://www.govmail.ca.gov

And also, I hope you will do whatever else you find appropriate to explain that the life of Clarence Allen is precious and that is not acceptable for the state to snuff it out.

May Clarence Allen be spared.  May all of those death row in California and throughout America be spared.  May all beings refrain from killing and prevent others from killing.  May all beings affirm the preciousness of every life. May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.  May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.  May all beings be free from hatred and attachment. May all beings have equanimity, so that they have neither too much grasping nor too much aversion, so that they may dwell in the sacred space of each moment.  May all beings have healing, health, abundant love, prosperity, creativity, joy and delight.  May all beings have peace.  May all beings awaken.  May all beings realize their enlightenment.  May all beings have the spiritual bliss that is beyond suffering and is untouched by sorrow.  Om gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha. Vamos, vamos, vamos mas alla, vamos a la otra orilla, !Illuminacion! !Gozo!

(Red Lake Net News received this email from a Red Lake member and decided to publish it because it involved a member of the Choctaw Nation.  The feelings and opinions of the above letter are in no way an expression of www.rlnn.com, any of its sponsors or affiliates, or Michael Barrett, and belong solely to the originator of the letter—who appears, and has the right, to be an advocate for Mr. Clarence Allen.)