California Executes Oldest Inmate

Funny enough the method of execution was jumping out of a closet and yelling "AH!"

California executed its oldest death row inmate early Tuesday despite arguments from prisoner advocates that condemning a blind and wheelchair-bound inmate in his 70s violated the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Executing a blind and wheelchair bound inmate is not cruel and unusual punishment. It's a favor. Besides, how can one be 'too sick and old' to die?

Clarence Ray Allen, whose 76th birthday was Monday, was pronounced dead at 12:38 a.m. at San Quentin State Prison. He became the second-oldest inmate put to death nationally since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.

And his parents said he'd never amount to anything. You showed them Clarence!

Allen, who was blind and mostly deaf, suffered from diabetes and had a nearly fatal heart attack in September only to be revived and returned to death row, was assisted into the death chamber by four large correctional officers and lifted out of his wheelchair.

Cause God forbid he would hurt himself before we killed him. Really, it wasn't an execution as much as a helping hand. I mean, if they had just waited a few months he would have been executed all on his own. But NO, the state has to kill him so that he pays for his crime. We can be very barberic at times.

Allen went to prison for having his teenage son's 17-year-old girlfriend murdered for fear she would tell police about a grocery-store burglary. While behind bars, he tried to have witnesses in the case wiped out, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to death in 1982 for hiring a hit man who killed a witness and two bystanders.

And he got to die at 76. Doesn't seem fair but then again, life isn't fair. If it was two bystanders at his execution would have bit the dust.