Dallas Strip Clubs: SC high court upholds killer’s death sentence
The entire court record clearly shows the sentence was “based upon the characteristics of Allen and the circumstances of the crime, such that the penalty is warranted,” the court said.
Allen pleaded guilty to using a homeless man on a Columbia park bench as target practice in July 2002 to test his new shotgun, twice wounding him. Days later, he fatally shot 45-year-old Dale Hall three times _ putting a .12-gauge shotgun in her mouth as she pleaded for her life _ then went to buy gasoline and returned to set her body on fire.
Weeks later, Allen also threatened a pregnant co-worker, then shot into her boyfriend’s car, killing 22-year-old passenger Jedediah Harr. He then tracked down the boyfriend and set fire to his home. He set on fire the cars of two other people, then went to a Columbia strip club, where he pointed the shotgun at a customer, before heading to New York City.