Post by ScotKaren on Jun 20, 2006 11:35:43 GMT -5
www.ccadp.org/wandajeanallen.htm
OKLAHOMA: EXECUTION
Just hours after Gov. Frank Keating and the U.S. Supreme Court dashed her final hopes for life, 2-time killer Wanda Jean Allen was strapped to a gurney and injected with lethal drugs tonight. Allen, 41, was pronounced dead at 9:21 p.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Her death marked the 1st execution of a woman in Oklahoma since statehood.
She joined a murderer's row of 114 men electrocuted, hung and poisoned by the state since 1915.
"2 families were victimized by Wanda Jean Allen," Attorney General Drew Edmondson told more than 50 reporters and photographers before the execution.
"Our thoughts are with them. They have waited a dozen years for justice in this case."
Allen was condemned to die in the 1988 murder of her lesbian lover, Gloria Leathers, who was shot outside The Village police station.
"Our loved one wasn't given a choice about life," Leathers' family said in a written statement Thursday night.
"She didn't even have a chance to look Wanda in the face to ask her to spare her life. She shot her in the abdomen at a very close range on the steps of a jailhouse. That alone makes us believe she could do this again as she had already done before."
At the time of Leathers' murder, Allen was on probation after serving prison time for the 1981 manslaughter of Detra Pettus.
Pettus' mother, Delma Pettus, and sisters, Rhonda Pettus and Sherri Wilson said Allen spent 4 years in prison after their loved one "was pistol whipped and shot at point-blank range."
"The short prison stays are a part of the reason crimes are repeated," the Pettus' statement read. "It has taken 20 years and a 2nd murder in order to get the death penalty."
Allen became the 6th woman executed in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 - and the 1st black woman executed since Ohio electrocuted Betty Jean Butler in 1954.
Allen was the 2nd of 8 Oklahoma inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection in a 4-week period.
A 9th inmate, Robert William Clayton, won a 30-day stay of execution last week after new DNA evidence was found on the eve of his scheduled death.
Allen's case drew national attention as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and others accused Oklahoma of becoming a "killing machine." Questions were raised about Allen's mental competency, as Jackson made 2 trips to Oklahoma to rally on her behalf and call for a moratorium on the death penalty in
Oklahoma.
State Corrections Department officials denied Jackson's last-minute request to witness the execution.
Jackson's name was not on the list Allen gave prison officials 2 weeks ago so he was not authorized to witness the execution, corrections spokesman Jerry Massie said.
Jackson did not travel to McAlester.
He instead joined death penalty opponents in a Thursday night protest outside the governor's mansion.
Defense attorneys claimed Allen was borderline mentally retarded and had an IQ measured at 69 in the 1970s.
Prosecutors, however, said she was a fully functioning adult who held a job, managed her finances and knew right from wrong.
"Wanda Jean Allen is not mentally retarded," Edmondson said, noting that a psychologist placed her IQ at 80 in the mid-1990s. "Her IQ is 10 points above borderline mental retardation."
When a reporter with a foreign accent asked what Allen's IQ might have been when she killed Gloria Leathers in 1988, the attorney general snapped: "She got smarter in prison?"
Allen's last chance for life was erased about 7:30 p.m. Thursday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in her case.
A few hours earlier, the same appeal was rejected by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
"Ms. Allen has failed to substantiate her allegation of a due process violation," the Denver judges concluded 3-0, referring to her claim that an assistant attorney general used false evidence against her at her unsuccessful Dec. 15 clemency hearing.
Forty-five minutes after the 10th Circuit's decision, Keating denied a stay of execution.
Keating said the courts had pondered the case for 12 years, and that Allen had lodged 11 different appeals since her conviction.
"This is not easy because I am dealing with a fellow human being ... with a fellow Oklahoman," the governor said. "I have debated and discussed this, and now have resolved to deny the extension of 30 days.
"I care very deeply for the victims of crime. I have no use for killers, but I have a deep and abiding faith in the rule of law.
"I have to think about the woman she murdered in cold blood. I grieve for the families; I grieve for the dead. If a person takes another's life premeditated, they take their own."
By state law, the governor could not stop the execution, but he could have granted a 30-day stay and had the state Pardon and Parole Board re-examine the issues.
Keating said his only question was whether the parole board, which voted 3-1 to deny clemency, had sufficient information to make its decision.
Based on inaccurate trial testimony by Allen, Assistant Attorney General Sandy Howard told the board Allen had had received a high school diploma and completed 2 years of college. In fact, Allen dropped out of high school.
But although Allen's defense attorney knew that information was incorrect, he did not speak up, Keating said.
"Clearly, the woman knew right from wrong," Keating said.
Oklahoma City black leader Theotis Payne said Keating's decision disappointed him.
But Payne said of Keating, "I think he is a fair man. I know from visiting with him he considered all the options, and I have to accept his decision. Now I must prepare myself to stay with the family on this."
Jackson met with Keating for nearly 50 minutes this morning after the civil rights leader spent the night in the Oklahoma County jail. Jackson and 27 others were arrested Wednesday night when they trespassed across a line set up in front of the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma City.
24 relatives of murder victim Gloria Leathers and manslaughter victim Detra Pettus traveled to McAlester for the execution.
Many of those relatives watched the execution from behind a tinted window.
In the room in front of them, a dozen media representatives and 7 witnesses chosen by Allen viewed the execution through clear glass.
Allen's witnesses included 3 ministers - the Rev. Vernon Burris, her personal spiritual adviser; the Rev. Walter Little, pastor of Oklahoma City's Redeemer Lutheran Church; and the Rev. Robin Meyers, pastor of Oklahoma City's Mayflower Congregational Church.
Allen becomes the 32nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Oklahoma since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990; only Texas (240), Virginia (81), Florida (51), and Missouri (46) have executed more prisoners than Oklahoma in the modern death penalty era.
Allen becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 687th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
(sources: The Oklahoman & Rick Halperin)
OKLAHOMA: EXECUTION
Just hours after Gov. Frank Keating and the U.S. Supreme Court dashed her final hopes for life, 2-time killer Wanda Jean Allen was strapped to a gurney and injected with lethal drugs tonight. Allen, 41, was pronounced dead at 9:21 p.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Her death marked the 1st execution of a woman in Oklahoma since statehood.
She joined a murderer's row of 114 men electrocuted, hung and poisoned by the state since 1915.
"2 families were victimized by Wanda Jean Allen," Attorney General Drew Edmondson told more than 50 reporters and photographers before the execution.
"Our thoughts are with them. They have waited a dozen years for justice in this case."
Allen was condemned to die in the 1988 murder of her lesbian lover, Gloria Leathers, who was shot outside The Village police station.
"Our loved one wasn't given a choice about life," Leathers' family said in a written statement Thursday night.
"She didn't even have a chance to look Wanda in the face to ask her to spare her life. She shot her in the abdomen at a very close range on the steps of a jailhouse. That alone makes us believe she could do this again as she had already done before."
At the time of Leathers' murder, Allen was on probation after serving prison time for the 1981 manslaughter of Detra Pettus.
Pettus' mother, Delma Pettus, and sisters, Rhonda Pettus and Sherri Wilson said Allen spent 4 years in prison after their loved one "was pistol whipped and shot at point-blank range."
"The short prison stays are a part of the reason crimes are repeated," the Pettus' statement read. "It has taken 20 years and a 2nd murder in order to get the death penalty."
Allen became the 6th woman executed in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 - and the 1st black woman executed since Ohio electrocuted Betty Jean Butler in 1954.
Allen was the 2nd of 8 Oklahoma inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection in a 4-week period.
A 9th inmate, Robert William Clayton, won a 30-day stay of execution last week after new DNA evidence was found on the eve of his scheduled death.
Allen's case drew national attention as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and others accused Oklahoma of becoming a "killing machine." Questions were raised about Allen's mental competency, as Jackson made 2 trips to Oklahoma to rally on her behalf and call for a moratorium on the death penalty in
Oklahoma.
State Corrections Department officials denied Jackson's last-minute request to witness the execution.
Jackson's name was not on the list Allen gave prison officials 2 weeks ago so he was not authorized to witness the execution, corrections spokesman Jerry Massie said.
Jackson did not travel to McAlester.
He instead joined death penalty opponents in a Thursday night protest outside the governor's mansion.
Defense attorneys claimed Allen was borderline mentally retarded and had an IQ measured at 69 in the 1970s.
Prosecutors, however, said she was a fully functioning adult who held a job, managed her finances and knew right from wrong.
"Wanda Jean Allen is not mentally retarded," Edmondson said, noting that a psychologist placed her IQ at 80 in the mid-1990s. "Her IQ is 10 points above borderline mental retardation."
When a reporter with a foreign accent asked what Allen's IQ might have been when she killed Gloria Leathers in 1988, the attorney general snapped: "She got smarter in prison?"
Allen's last chance for life was erased about 7:30 p.m. Thursday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in her case.
A few hours earlier, the same appeal was rejected by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
"Ms. Allen has failed to substantiate her allegation of a due process violation," the Denver judges concluded 3-0, referring to her claim that an assistant attorney general used false evidence against her at her unsuccessful Dec. 15 clemency hearing.
Forty-five minutes after the 10th Circuit's decision, Keating denied a stay of execution.
Keating said the courts had pondered the case for 12 years, and that Allen had lodged 11 different appeals since her conviction.
"This is not easy because I am dealing with a fellow human being ... with a fellow Oklahoman," the governor said. "I have debated and discussed this, and now have resolved to deny the extension of 30 days.
"I care very deeply for the victims of crime. I have no use for killers, but I have a deep and abiding faith in the rule of law.
"I have to think about the woman she murdered in cold blood. I grieve for the families; I grieve for the dead. If a person takes another's life premeditated, they take their own."
By state law, the governor could not stop the execution, but he could have granted a 30-day stay and had the state Pardon and Parole Board re-examine the issues.
Keating said his only question was whether the parole board, which voted 3-1 to deny clemency, had sufficient information to make its decision.
Based on inaccurate trial testimony by Allen, Assistant Attorney General Sandy Howard told the board Allen had had received a high school diploma and completed 2 years of college. In fact, Allen dropped out of high school.
But although Allen's defense attorney knew that information was incorrect, he did not speak up, Keating said.
"Clearly, the woman knew right from wrong," Keating said.
Oklahoma City black leader Theotis Payne said Keating's decision disappointed him.
But Payne said of Keating, "I think he is a fair man. I know from visiting with him he considered all the options, and I have to accept his decision. Now I must prepare myself to stay with the family on this."
Jackson met with Keating for nearly 50 minutes this morning after the civil rights leader spent the night in the Oklahoma County jail. Jackson and 27 others were arrested Wednesday night when they trespassed across a line set up in front of the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma City.
24 relatives of murder victim Gloria Leathers and manslaughter victim Detra Pettus traveled to McAlester for the execution.
Many of those relatives watched the execution from behind a tinted window.
In the room in front of them, a dozen media representatives and 7 witnesses chosen by Allen viewed the execution through clear glass.
Allen's witnesses included 3 ministers - the Rev. Vernon Burris, her personal spiritual adviser; the Rev. Walter Little, pastor of Oklahoma City's Redeemer Lutheran Church; and the Rev. Robin Meyers, pastor of Oklahoma City's Mayflower Congregational Church.
Allen becomes the 32nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Oklahoma since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990; only Texas (240), Virginia (81), Florida (51), and Missouri (46) have executed more prisoners than Oklahoma in the modern death penalty era.
Allen becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 687th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
(sources: The Oklahoman & Rick Halperin)