Transcript: Death Row Debate

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," December 26, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: A 75-year-old convicted killer is at the center of a life and death battle. Clarence Ray Allen, the oldest inmate on California's death row, is set to be executed on January 17th. He was convicted of murder.

Then he allegedly ordered the murders of three more people from behind bars. But now after decades on death row he is nearly deaf and blind and bound to a wheelchair and his lawyer says his life should be spared.

Clarence Ray Allen's lawyer Michael Satris joins us live from San Francisco, welcome Michael.

MICHAEL SATRIS, ATTORNEY FOR DEATH ROW INMATE: Thank you, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: Michael, the murder for which he was convicted occurred in 1980 is that right?

SATRIS: That's right.

VAN SUSTEREN: And since 1980 has your client had any execution dates scheduled and obviously they didn't occur but this isn't his first one is it?

SATRIS: No, that's part of the problem and suffering that occurs on death row if you've been on the row for as long as Ray Allen has is he has had to deal with the approach of execution and the stress of it. At one point he gave away all of his possessions because he thought he was about to be executed and it's just completely over the course of this time just worn him down.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right — there's no claim of innocence here or is there?

SATRIS: Well there is always a lingering doubt. It's such a crazy set of circumstances how these killings occurred which seemed to be a product of a lot of drug use on the streets that Ray Allen had nothing to do with so there is that lingering doubt.

But we're talking really beyond questions of guilt and innocence and lawfulness of the verdict. We're talking about whether we should be acting in the kind of behavior at the — at the borders, if not beyond civilized notions where you're reeling in a 75-year-old man to the execution chamber who can't even walk there who's in a wheelchair, who's suffered diabetes to the point where he can barely see.

He can barely hear. He can't even stand up on his own. He suffered a stroke while he's been inside. He's been suffering the conditions of death row, which beyond the kind of fearsomeness of execution that's always hanging over you.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know what, I mean what's caught my attention, I mean there's, I mean the fact that his age that he's blind. He's going to have be wheeled into the execution chamber in a wheelchair.

But the other thing and I don't know how to say this, you know, but in September he had a bad heart attack and the state of California spent an awful lot of money and time trying to save his life and now in January they're going to spend money trying to end his life. I mean it's bizarre.

SATRIS: It's very strange. I mean he's been propped up in order to be alive, not even well for execution. He needs more medical attention right now.

VAN SUSTEREN: Does the family, I mean this is an awful old murder is the family — are the family of the victims coming forward and saying to the governor don't give clemency to this man? I mean what's the reaction of the family members of the victims?

SATRIS: Well, it's understandable and certainly there are members of the family that, you know, very poignantly and heartfelt expressed the loss that they have suffered and — and are looking for some extreme punishment for Ray Allen as consequences of this action.

I think what they don't understand is that extreme punishment has already been visited upon Ray Allen during the quarter of a century that he's been on death row with the substandard and conditions that every court that's ever looked at them has found not only unconstitutional but dangerous to health and they have all aided and abetted his declining health and ailing condition.

The medical care system at San Quentin is so bad that, you know, and the whole Department of Corrections that has been put in to receivership by Judge Henderson and San Quentin is one of the worst points of the medical care system.

VAN SUSTEREN: And, of course, now everyone is going to do everything in the state of California's power to keep him alive until the 17th in order to execute him which is certainly going to be ripe for lots of discussion. Michael, thank you and we'll be following what the governor of California does on this clemency petition. Thank you, Michael.

SATRIS: Very good, thank you.

VAN SUSTEREN: And this case does come on the heels of the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. Williams was put to death on December 13th. And, after California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to grant him clemency that decision made the governor extremely unpopular in his native Austria where capital punishment is illegal. People in his native country were furious and called for his name to be removed from a soccer stadium that had been named Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium.

Now, Schwarzenegger sent a preemptive letter to local officials asking that his name be removed from the stadium. And, later last night the giant metal letters spelling out his name were taken down from the Austrian stadium.

Watch "On the Record" weeknights at 10 p.m. ET

Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2005 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2005 Voxant, Inc., which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.