Tribes silent on elder’s execution
“It was a failure”
Sam Lewin 1/19/2006
When California authorities executed Stanley “Tookie” Williams last month, foreign journalists, Hollywood celebrities and African-American groups loudly protested. There were large demonstrations the night he was put to death.
When Clarence Ray Allen, a Choctaw, was killed recently by lethal injection only a handful of protestors showed up, with no media mention of a significant American Indian presence. In California, the state with the largest Indian population, tribes did not organize opposition to the execution even though Allen, 75, was an elder, legally blind and diabetic.
“It was a failure for [American Indian] organizations,” Cindy Martin, a Choctaw living in Tulsa, told the Native American Times. “Some of the groups may not have been aware he was Native American. I think we all should have come together.”
Allen was born in Blair, Oklahoma. He received a sentence of life in prison in 1974 after he ordered the slaying of his son’s girlfriend because he believed she had told police about a burglary he carried out. Eight years later he commissioned a hit man he met in prison to kill the witnesses in the 1974 case. The hit man, Billy Ray Hamilton, killed one of the witnesses, along with two other people unrelated to the case. Hamilton was arrested a short time later and implicated Allen. Allen was sentenced to death.
His lawyers tried to stave off the exaction by arguing that putting an elderly, infirm man to death amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court rejected those assertions, although Justice Stephen Breyer agreed.
"I believe that in the circumstances he raises a significant question as to whether his execution would constitute 'cruel and unusual punishment,'" Breyer wrote in a dissent.
Journalists that witnessed Allen’s execution reported that he had two Native American spiritual advisers with him, wore a beaded American Indian headband, an amulet around his neck and had a white feather on his chest.
Martin, saying she is opposed to the death penalty in general, believes Allen should have been left to die in prison.
“He was an elder and I find it offensive,” she said. “I think everyone has the right to die a dignified death. He was coming to the end anyway.”
Allen’s execution as attended by Patricia Pendergrass, whose 27-year-old brother Bryon Schletewitz was killed by Hamilton.
"The whole time, I kept thinking of Bryon, and my parents, who waited so long for this day but have passed away," she said.
You can reach Sam Lewin at Sam Lewin
NTN Article#: 7469
Link to Report
Contents
January 2006 Reports
Last updated on January 25, 2006