Condemned San Joaquin inmate dies of natural causes
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 10/25/2007 02:51:28 PM PDT


BAKERSFIELD, Calif.—California prison officials say an inmate awaiting execution for three Fresno murders has died of natural causes at a Kern County hospital.
Billy Ray Hamilton, 58, was sentenced to death in 1981 for the shotgun slayings of three people at Fran's Market in Fresno a year earlier.
Hamilton committed the revenge killings at the direction of another inmate, Clarence Ray Allen, who was executed last year.
The two men met at Folsom State Prison, where Allen was serving a life sentence for robbing Fran's Market and plotting to kill an accomplice.
Thirteen inmates have been executed but 39 have died of natural causes since California reinstated capital punishment 30 years ago.
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