Brave new world...

Sometimes I really, really favor the death penalty (Tookie Williams for example) but most of the time I think it's a necessary evil. So when I saw this story I initially thought clemency might be the way to go:

California's oldest death row inmate — a 75-year-old who is legally blind and nearly deaf — is asking the Supreme Court to do something it has never done before: block an execution because of the condemned man's advanced age and infirmity.

I thought maybe Arnold was being a little harsh here but then consider this:

Allen, who turns 76 on the eve of his execution, has been on death row for more than 23 years. He often uses a wheelchair and had to be resuscitated after suffering a heart attack last year at San Quentin Prison.

23 years of appeals? That's absolutely outrageous. Oh, and he was 50 years old when he committed the crimes (arranging a murder for higher while in prison. He had witnesses killed).

Yeah, he's a bad guy who's gamed the system. I have ZERO sympathy for him.

Now that's the clemency issue. His attorneys are absolute morons. They are going to argue that killing an old killer violates the 8th Amendment. More proof that substantive due process sucks.

May God have mercy on the soul of Clarence Ray Allen, the state of California shouldn't.