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After all the anti-death
penalty appeals and demonstrations on Wanda Jean Allen's behalf, a decision
on whether she will die at 9 p.m. today may lie in the hands of a capital
punishment supporter. Gov. Frank Keating has agreed to consider a stay based
on the narrow issue of whether the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had enough
information regarding Allen's
education.
He met with Rev. Jesse Jackson Thursday and planned a meeting with Attorney General Drew Edmondson before making a decision.
Also today, Allen's lawyers told an appeals court Thursday that clemency hearings in Oklahoma and across the country will be a sham if the court refuses to stay her execution.
"Prosecutors will be free to do whatever they wish, presenting with impunity false evidence and testimony," Allen's lawyers told the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an emergency request.
The lawyers, Steven M. Presson and Robert Wade Jackson of Norman, faxed their written arguments all through the night to the Denver-based court after U.S. District Judge Tim Leonard ruled against Allen on Wednesday.
Her lawyers contend that government attorneys intentionally mislead the clemency board a month ago by falsely stating that Allen could not be mentally retarded because she was a high school and junior college graduate.
Presson and Jackson said the 10th Circuit court will be the first in the nation to decide if a death row inmate's rights have been violated when state officials mislead a clemency board.
"The federal courts "have not defined what the lowest level of due process should be (in a clemency proceeding)," the lawyers said. Asked whether he would stop the execution, Keating told CNN, at noon, "Well, I don't know.
"I have no authority to reduce the death sentence. What I theoretically could do is send it back to the clemency board." Jackson said that his meeting with Keating was amicable and that they had a good discussion.
"The power is in his hands," Jackson said.
Allen's attorneys have
pointed to her score, a 69, on an IQ test she took in the 1970s, arguing
she is in the range of mental retardation. Prosecutors said Allen testified
during the penalty phase of her trial that she had graduated from U.S. Grant
High School and received a medical
assistant certificate from
Rose Sate College.
As it turns out, Allen dropped out of high school at 16 and never finished course work in the medical assistant program.
Aides to the governor, an ardent proponent of the death penalty, said Keating promised to be fair-minded when he spoke to state Rep. Opio Toure and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was taken into custody on trespassing complaints Wednesday night after a peaceful demonstration at the women's prison where Allen was being held.
Jackson was released from Oklahoma County Jail at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
He said he hoped Keating would stop the execution, but if not, he wanted to give her personal support.
"She must not die in the dark," Jackson said. "She must not die alone. We intend to be with her all the way."
Jackson's arrest capped a flurry of prayers, protests and legal wrangling on Wednesday. Allen's attorneys asked a federal judge to grant a stay of execution and order a new clemency hearing for their client, whose education, they say, was misrepresented at the Dec. 15 proceeding.
U.S. District Tim Leonard denied the request after several hours of deliberation, and defense attorneys announced they would immediately file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Allen didn't see any of the day's activity. She sat in Mabel Bassett for much of day before being whisked away to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester an hour before Jackson's demonstration.
Just weeks before, Allen reflected on the events that led to what could be her last few days alive.
If she could edit a videotape of her life, Allen would rewind it back to 1983, the year she left prison for killing a woman during an argument.
Allen had attended school and lived in the same neighborhood as Detra Pettus, but they quarreled one day and a shot Allen fired in anger killed her childhood friend.
"I wish I could have been in an environment where I could have gotten the help," the small, husky-voiced woman said from the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center recently. "If I had the funds to get the help. I needed someone to help me at the time."
Allen believes she has gotten that help behind the razor-wired fence and concrete confines of the women's prison, but only after she killed her lover, Gloria Leathers, in 1988 after an argument at a grocery store. This time, the state demanded she pay with her life.
Allen met Leathers while serving time for killing Pettus. Leathers was doing 15 years out of Tulsa County for forgery and 10 years for larceny of merchandise. Allen said she and Leathers were not friends in prison, but Leathers contacted Allen's family when she was released.
"I let her come live with me until she got herself together because I know how hard and difficult it is when you get out," Allen said of Leathers. "People had helped me when I had gotten out, so in turn, you help someone else."
That help eventually turned into an intimate relationship, in which Allen said there was as much feuding as there was loving. Allen described her relationship with Leathers as turbulent, involving episodes in which the police got involved.
The day Leathers died, police were called to a grocery store to break up an argument between the pair. An officer came, but had to leave a short time later on another call.
The women exchanged more words, a witness said, and Allen threatened to kill Leathers.
She followed Leathers and her mother to the police station, where Leathers was going to file a complaint, prosecutors said. Leathers was shot as she left the car.
Allen said she cared for Leathers and "loved her as a person."
"I even told her mom there's no greater love than a mother's love. If Gloria was sitting here, and it could have been Gloria sitting here today . . . Miss Wilson knows that and I explained to her that I would want my mom to have the same compassion in her heart and come up here and forgive her." Wilson has said she did not hold any grudges against Allen, saying she didn't hate her but hated what she did.
"I hope she found peace with Christ about it. It does hurt. I will never forget it. I will always see it. That is in the past. I have to go on toward the future, Wilson said after meeting with Allen recently.
But Leather's brothers were not as forgiving.
"Let Wanda Jean Allen go to sleep so we can go to sleep," Leathers' brother, Greg Wilson, said at the clemency hearing.
Allen admitted she was wrong to have killed both women, but she also said she believes the death penalty process is not fair.
"We don't have fair trials. They allow people to defend us who have never even tried a death penalty case," she said.
Allen said she did not fear her death.
"I'm not afraid of what man can do to me, because my trust is in someone else." That someone else is God, she said.
"He said 'take no thought of tomorrow because we don't know what tomorrow is bringing.'"
**************
If Wanda Jean Allen could
edit a videotape of her life, she would rewind
it back to 1983, the year
she left prison for killing a woman during an
argument.
Allen had attended school
and lived in the same neighborhood as Detra
Pettus, but they quarreled
one day and a shot Allen fired in anger killed
her childhood friend.
"I wish I could have been
in an environment where I could have gotten the
help," the small, husky-voiced
woman said from the Mabel Bassett
Correctional Center recently.
"If I had the funds to get the help. I
needed someone to help me
at the time."
Allen believes she has
gotten that help behind the razor-wired fence and
concrete confines of the
women's prison, but only after she killed her
lover, Gloria Leathers,
in 1988 after an argument at a grocery store.
This time, the state demanded
she pay with her life. "I let her come live
with me until she got herself
together because I know how hard and
difficult it is when you
get out," Allen said of Leathers. "People had
helped me when I had gotten
out, so in turn, you help someone else."
That help eventually turned
into an intimate relationship, in which Allen
said there was as much feuding
as there was loving. Allen described her
relationship with Leathers
as turbulent, involving episodes in which the
police got involved.
The day Leathers died,
police were called to a grocery store to break up
an argument between the
pair. An officer came, but had to leave a short
time later on another call.
The women exchanged more
words, a witness said, and Allen threatened to
kill Leathers.
She followed Leathers
and her mother to the police station, where
Leathers was going to file
a complaint, prosecutors said. Leathers was
shot as she left the car.
Allen said she cared for Leathers and "loved her as a person."
"I even told her mom there's
no greater love than a mother's love. If
Gloria was sitting here,
and it could have been Gloria sitting here today
. . . Miss Wilson knows
that and I explained to her that I would want my
mom to have the same compassion
in her heart and come up here and forgive
her."
Wilson has said she did
not hold any grudges against Allen, saying she
didn't hate her but hated
what she did.
"I hope she found peace
with Christ about it. It does hurt. I will never
forget it. I will always
see it. That is in the past. I have to go on
toward the future, Wilson
said after meeting with Allen recently.
But Leather's brothers were not as forgiving.
"Let Wanda Jean Allen
go to sleep so we can go to sleep," Leathers'
brother, Greg Wilson, said
at the clemency hearing.
Allen admitted she was
wrong to have killed both women, but she also said
she believes the death penalty
process is not fair.
"We don't have fair trials.
They allow people to defend us who have never
even tried a death penalty
case," she said.
Allen said she did not fear her death.
"I'm not afraid of what
man can do to me, because my trust is in someone
else." That someone else
is God, she said.
"He said 'take no thought
of tomorrow because we don't know what tomorrow
is bringing.'"
************************
Reuters NEWS: An Oklahoma
woman on death row scheduled to be the 1st black woman executed in the United
States since 1954 said on Friday she pushes out of her mind the wait for death
and considers each day a blessing.
As her Jan. 11 execution date
looms, Wanda Jean Allen said she is instead focusing on her Christian faith
to carry her through her date with Oklahoma's death chamber in a prison in
the southeastern town of McAlester.
"I'm not focused on the situation
going on around me," Allen told Reuters in a telephone interview from a state
women's prison in Oklahoma City.
"I'm staying focused on God
and my faith. Every day has been a blessed day for me. Some people here couldn't
even get out of bed in the morning, but my faith is strong," she said.
Allen, 41, was condemned to
die by lethal injection for fatally shooting her lover, Gloria Leathers,
in 1988 in what prosecutors described as a domestic dispute.
Allen supporters, who include
civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, argue she should not be put to death
because she has an IQ of 69, which is borderline mentally retarded.
The last black woman put to
death in the United States was Betty Butler, convicted of murder and executed
in Ohio in 1954. Oklahoma last executed a woman in 1903 when Dora Wright
was hanged for murder. Oklahoma was still a territory at that time.
Allen said the prison staff
around her seemed troubled when they moved her this week to another cell
in preparation for her trip to McAlester.
"It's a struggle," she said.
"The staff here doesn't want to see anything happen to me. It's a
shame because they are like family to me."
Allen will be driven in secret
the 2 hours to McAlester and put in a holding cell next to the death chamber,
prison officials said.
As the interview went on, Allen
grew frustrated and finally cut it off.
"This is taxing her," said
her defense attorney, Steve Presson.
Allen agreed to the interview
after the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Thursday turned
down her request for a stay of execution.
Later that day some 300 anti-death
penalty protesters marched outside her prison where she is housed, led by
Jackson, who visited her and said she was mentally challenged.
"The judge said to try her
anyhow, and made her a trophy for the death machine. People in this state
cannot sit by and watch people killed who are mentally challenged," Jackson
told the rally.
Allen said she had thanked
Jackson.
"He prayed for me and I prayed
for him," she said. "It's not just for me. It's for everyone.
I am one of many people here on death row. What affects me here affects
everyone."
Allen is one of 7 inmates due
to be executed this month in Oklahoma, a new record for the state. The most
executions in a single month in Oklahoma until now was 4, in May 1933.
Neighboring Texas holds the
U.S. record for most executions in a month at 8 in both May and June of 1997.
Oklahoma put 11 people to death in 2000, ranking only behind Texas, which
set a U.S. record of 40 executions in a year.
(source: Reuters)
"Please let me live. Please let me live," she said in her final remarks.
At that moment, a brother of victim Gloria Leathers said, "That's the same thing my sister said."
That caused a stir in the room. A sobbing woman got up and ran to the door, which was guarded by correctional officers, and said, "I need to go outside."
Board Chairwoman Susan Bussey cautioned the crowd against further demonstrations, and the room was quiet as the 4 members present cast their votes. Bussey voted to grant clemency.
Allen, on death row since 1989, was convicted of killing Leathers in front of a police station in The Village, an Oklahoma City suburb. Testimony was introduced that the women had met in prison and had had a lesbian relationship.
The Rev. Robin Meyers, minister of the Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, pleaded Allen's case. He argued that she was denied due process and that her jury did not have information about her mental retardation and a previous brain injury.
"Wanda Jean has never got her day in court," he said, pointing out that her attorney was paid only $800 and tried to quit the case.
Meyers asked the panel not to make a decision that would lead to the 1st woman being executed by the state. "The whole world is watching," he said.
"I'm asking you to step on the brake - take 5" and draw the line right here with Wanda Jean Allen."
Sandy Howard, assistant attorney general, told the board not to be swayed by arguments that Allen was mentally impaired. She said Allen was a "fully functional adult" who knew what she was doing.
"She is a cold-blooded murderer. She thought it out, she got the gun and she did it."
Tonya McClary of Washington, D.C., representing the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said previously that at Allens trial, the jury did not hear about Allen's sub-par I.Q., her psychological state and brain trauma from previous injuries that would have affected her actions.
Another mitigating circumstance was that Allen had been hit with a rake before the shooting, which was a continuation of a domestic fight, McClary said.
Prosecutors say Allen is "a hunter" who would kill again if she is not executed. They note she was convicted of manslaughter for a similar killing that sent her to prison, where she met Leathers.
At Friday's hearing, Allen turned to the audience that included family members of the 2 victims and said she was sorry.
"I want to live and I'm very ashamed and very sorry for what I did," she told the board.
Gov. Frank Keating has rejected a request for a moratorium on executions from Bishop Edward J. Slattery of the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa.
A moratorium would spare not only Allen, but eight other inmates who are set to be executed by Feb. 1.
A spokesman said Keating's position has not changed since he responded to the bishop 2 weeks ago.
The governor wrote that
"clearly there has been no rush to judgment" in the pending death penalty
cases. He noted that 1 case dates to a 1979 crime, 4 to 1985, 1 to 1987,
1 to 1988, 1 to 1990 and 1 to 1992. "I will continue to do my duty as governor
and, lacking any evidence that
Oklahoma's capital punishment
statutes are applied unfairly in any way, I
will not seek or order a
moratorium on justice," Keating said.
(source: The Oklahoman)
Her voice sounded as though
she hadn't slept and had instead cried for days.
It cracked and disappeared
and reawoke until she had no voice left, and it
was with a whisper of a
voice that Wanda Jean Allen first pleaded for her
life. Rev. Robin Meyers,
one of her two spiritual advisors, then came to her
side when no one on the
Pardon and Parole Board of Oklahoma had any questions
to ask her, and asked questions
on the Board's behalf.
Only with someone by her
side whom she trusted could Jean speak without a
crack in her voice or in
a whisper. It was with Rev. Meyers by her side that
the words you will read
in news articles were spoken. The press, nor anyone
else in the filled-to-capacity
room, could hear her whispers well enough to
make them quotable.
The members of Gloria
Leathers' family who spoke never once said they wanted
Jean to die. Their
message to the Board was one of ambivalence. They could
not find any reconcilation
within themselves about Gloria's life and death
and Jean's life and possible
death. Some of them tried to push for death,
but then they would back
away and then ultimately vacillate between life and
death and Gloria and Jean.
The words of one of Gloria's
brothers pointed the weight upon their hearts in
a direction. He said
that his family had moved on from Gloria's death, and
found a measure of closure,
until about a year ago when the phone started
ringing and bringing with
it the nightmare of 12 years ago back again. His
following words if simply
told would have said that he and his family didn't
care whether Jean lived
or died; all they wanted was the closure stripped
away from them a year ago.
Persecution and prosecution
places a weight too heavy upon anyone, and the
family members pointed their
fingers at those who persecute and prosecute as
much as they did Jean for
the pain they felt on this day of clemency. This
family did not know what
to do today, except ask that all of their pain be
stopped one way or another.
One family member was
so distraught over everything she had seen and heard
that she tried to run to
the closest open door available after Jean was
escorted out, and the only
door she could find was the one Jean had just
walked through. The
guards detained her believing at first she was a threat,
but then backed off and
helped her to the closed door that would lead her
outside where she so desperately
needed to be. She could not wait to hear
the Board's decision.
She had to get out of there beforehand. Too much was
enough for her and she could
bear no more.
Reactions such as this
were few. Only three people noticably reacted in this
manner, as noted by the
press. To those who feared the worst and could see
at least 25 family members
on each side of the room gathered together forming
a powder keg, this was a
miracle. The unexpected explosion came from one
member of the four-member
board who took offense to a description of Jean's
mental retardation by Rev.
Meyers in his defense presentation. Maybe the
Hand of God did tap this
man on his shoulder, as Rev. Meyers said he hoped
would happen, and the only
way this man could react was with anger. After
all, as this board member
said, one of his relatives is mentally retarded,
and that can be enough to
make anyone without faith of any kind in anything
angry enough to burst.
The rest of the story
will be told by others than me. I am only a witness
from the second to the last
row.
--Karin
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The lawyer for a woman
who could become the first black female executed
in the United States since
1976 ripped the state Pardon and Parole Board
today for not recommending
clemency and called the panel a "kangaroo
court."
Following a hearing Friday,
the panel rejected clemency pleas by Wanda
Jean Allen, scheduled to
die Jan. 11, 2001, for the shooting of her
estranged lover, Gloria
Leathers. The vote was 3-1 not to recommend
clemency to the governor.
Activists Fight Woman's Execution
Steve Presson, Allen's
lawyer, said there is now little hope of
preventing Allen's death
by lethal injection. He then tore into the panel
and one particular member,
Currie Ballard, for rejecting clemency pleas.
"It's a kangaroo court;
it's a joke," Presson said. "They have never
voted for clemency."
Allen was convicted of
shooting Leathers, 29, to death in front of an
Oklahoma City police station
on Dec. 1, 1988. The 2 women were living
together and had gotten
into an argument earlier in the day over a
welfare check, prosecutors
said. She was sentenced to death in 1989.
Minister pleads for clemency
At the hearing on Friday,
Presson decided to allow a local minister,
Robin Meyers, to present
Allen's case for clemency. Meyers focused on the
ethical issues surrounding
the death penalty.
In addition, the minister
argued that Allen's poverty and mental
retardation were mitigating
factors in her shooting Leathers and not
properly addressed at her
trial. Allen's supporters also have argued that
homosexual bias may have
played a part in the jury convicting Allen, who
is a lesbian.
Presson said that during
the hearing, Ballard, an African-American,
criticized Meyers for bringing
up issues of poverty, race, sexuality and
mental retardation and making
them "excuses for murder."
"Those were absolutely
outrageous comments that show Mr. Ballard's
fundamental ignorance of
the pardons process," Presson told APBnews.com
"If [he] does not think
that race, poverty and mental status have a place
in a clemency hearing, he
has no business being on the clemency board."
'The ultimate stakes'
Reached for comment, Ballard
said he had "major" problems with Meyers
bringing up poverty, race,
mental retardation and Allen's sexuality.
"I'm not going to glorify
what he said with comment," Ballard told
APBnews.com "What my vote
was is my comment. "He [Presson] has a very
difficult job. We're talking
about the ultimate stakes..."
Ballard said that after
hearing Meyers' pleas, he found no evidence that
Allen was retarded.
"I have a retarded brother,"
Ballard said. "My family has continued to
struggle and sacrifice to
keep him home instead of an institution. I'm no
professional, but I know
something about retardation. I did not see those
signs or any signs of mental
retardation in Allen."
Ballard said Allen finished
high school, has a driver's license and
obtained an associate's
degree at a junior college for nursing.
"I don't think institutions
are handing out certificates to people who
can't function," he said.
'Please let me live'
Ballard said that he also
became angry when Meyers said that racial bias
might have played a role
in Allen's conviction.
"I grew up in Watts, California,"
Ballard said. "I grew up in poverty. To
say we can't relate to anyone
to anyone poor, black, woman and lesbian, I
find that appalling."
The clemency hearing was
perhaps Allen's last chance to avoid the
Oklahoma death house. If
she is executed, she will also become the 1st
woman put to death here
since Oklahoma became a state in 1907.
During the hearing, Allen, 41, asked the board to "Please let me live."
Suffers from mental retardation?
While prosecutors have
portrayed Allen is a violent woman who was always
quick to pull a gun to settle
a dispute, her supporters and gay rights
advocates say she was the
victim of racial and homosexual bias, an
under-funded defense and
that she suffers from mental retardation and
brain damage after being
hit by a truck when she was a child.
During her trial, prosecutors
told the jury that Allen was "the man" in
the relationship with Leathers,
in an attempt to show that she had
intimidated the victim,
rights groups say.
The comments have drawn
the wrath of gay rights groups, who have come to
Allen's defense and argued
that the comments were examples of lesbian
stereotyping and bias.
Last-ditch appeal planned
Allen had previously spent
4 years in prison in connection with the
shooting death of another
woman in 1981.
Oklahoma has scheduled
seven executions, including Allen's, for January,
and three others are pending
in February.
Presson said that he will
mount a last-ditch appeal to a U.S. District
court in Colorado and focus
on the fact that evidence of Allen's mental
retardation was not used
at her trial because her lawyer did not have
enough funds to hire experts
to have Allen properly diagnosed.
(source: APB News)
OKLAHOMA CITY, Dec 15
(Reuters) - Convicted murderer Wanda Jean Allen, the
first black woman due to
be executed in the United States since the death
penalty was reinstated in
1976, lost a last-ditch bid for clemency on Friday.
The Oklahoma Board of
Pardons and Parole rejected Allen's clemency request by
a vote of 3-1, Department
of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie said.
Allen's lawyer said the
decision virtually ensured that Allen would be
executed by lethal injection
on Jan. 11, despite arguments from her
supporters that she is mentally
retarded and received poor legal
representation in her trial.
"There are no traditional
routes of appeal left," said attorney Steve
Presson, who represents
Allen on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU).
"We're looking at our
options, but we don't want to give anybody false
expectations," he said.
Allen, 41 was convicted
of the December 1988 murder of her live-in lover
Gloria Leathers, 29, who
was shot in the stomach in front of a police station
in an Oklahoma City suburb
after the two broke up.
Allen said she fired in
self-defense, but police said Leathers did not attack
Allen.
The ACLU petitioned the
pardons board for clemency, arguing that her trial
attorney and the jury were
never told she had been declared clinically
borderline retarded by the
state because of childhood brain damage.
The ACLU also said the
trial judge refused to replace her lawyer, who sought
to withdraw because he had
no experience in death penalty cases, and that the
case was marred by racial
bias and stereotyping.
"Oklahoma's health system
failed when Wanda Jean Allen's serious mental
problems went untreated.
The state's criminal justice system failed when she
was forced to receive inadequate
representation, and when bias based on race,
class and sexual orientation
entered the courtroom," the ACLU's clemency
letter said.
Massie said the board
meeting, held at a rural prison in eastern Oklahoma,
was packed to capacity by
a crowd of about 100 people, many carrying protest
signs.
Presson said Allen read
a statement to the board expressing her sorrow to her
own family and Leather's
family, asking God for forgiveness and concluding
with the plea: "Please let
me live."
Five women have been executed
in the United States since the death penalty
was reinstated in 1976 by
a Supreme Court decision, none of them in Oklahoma.
Allen would be the first
black woman to die for a capital conviction,
according to the independent
Death Penalty Information Center in Washington
D.C.
20:12 12-15-00
Death-row inmate Wanda
Jean Allen, photographed during an interview at the Mabel Bassett Correction
Center in Oklahoma City, will become the first woman executed in Oklahoma
since at least 1907 if her death sentence is carried out as scheduled on
Jan. 11.
But Wanda Jean Allen hopes
her death sentence will be commuted.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- On Jan.
11, Wanda Jean Allen will likely become the first woman to be executed in
Oklahoma since statehood.
She hopes that the state
Pardon and Parole Board and Gov. Frank Keating will commute her sentence
to life without parole. But if that doesn't happen, the 41-year-old says
she is at peace.
"I have peace right here,"
she says, tapping her chest. "And as long as I am all right with Him, I
am not afraid of what man can do to me."
Her victim and one-time
lover, Gloria Jean Leathers, died four days after being shot at close range
in 1988 by Allen in front of the Village Police Station in Oklahoma City.
"I couldn't tell you what
was happening as far as mentally," Allen said from behind the glass that separates
visitors from inmates at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma
City. "I was there physically, but not mentally there. But I know it was
a tragic accident that day."
Allen said she and Leathers
were both out of control.
Leathers had called her
mother to pick her up from the house where she and Allen lived. After packing
her belongings, Leathers and her mother went to the police station to file
a compliant against Allen.
Allen followed Leathers
and shot her. Leathers' mother, Ruby Wilson of Edmond, witnessed the killing.
On Oct. 13, Ruby Wilson
met with her daughter's killer.
"I wanted to tell her how
sorry I was for taking her daughter's life. And I know there is no greater
love than a mother's love for a child because I have a mother as well. And
I asked for her forgiveness. She forgave me. We prayed together. And
I let her know I loved her for coming that day."
Leathers and Allen met in
prison. Allen was serving a 4-year sentence for manslaughter. On June 29,
1981, at a motel in Oklahoma City, Allen shot to death Detra Pettus following
an argument with Pettus' boyfriend.
"We was friends," Allen
said of Pettus. "We grew up together. We lived in the same neighborhood.
We had mutual friends."
While some prosecutors say
that Allen and Leathers had a relationship in prison, Allen said that was
not the case.
Allen was released from
prison before Leathers. When Leathers got out, she called Allen.
"She didn't have a place
to stay," Allen said. "She and her family were having problems. I allowed
her to come and live with me because I know how hard it is when you get out.
"By me being locked up,
I understood that situation. You have to help people when they get out. Someone
had helped me when I got out, so in turn I wanted to help someone as well."
The pair lived together
on and off for three years. She described Leathers as funny and witty.
"It was the wrong type of
lifestyle," she said of the lesbian relationship. "It didn't make either
of us less human than if we were in a heterosexual relationship, a bisexual
relationship. We are still human. We have emotions. We laugh. We cry. It was
part of our life."
At her trial, Oklahoma County
prosecutors painted Allen as a person who hunted down her victims. Prosecutors
introduced a card Allen had given Leathers.
The card had a gorilla on
it. The printed message said, "Patience my ass. I am going to kill something."
Inside, Allen had written, "Try and leave me and you will understand this
card more. Dig. For real, no joke.
Leathers was portrayed as
meek and timid.
Allen said her attorney
was not given a fair shot at defending her and was limited in what he could
present. In 1979, Leathers was arrested in Tulsa for the stabbing death of
Sheila Marie Barker, whom she killed outside a Tulsa disco. A judge later
determined the slaying was self-defense.
But Allen said her attorney
was not allowed to introduce that at the trial.
Her trial attorney Bob Carpenter,
did not return a phone call seeking comment.
In her first interview in
12 years, Allen talked about her childhood, family, who she is and who she
is not.
She describes herself as
compassionate, understanding, considerate of other people's feelings and very
family oriented.
I am not a monster," Allen
said. "I am a human. I laugh and I cry, just as you do and others. I am not
a vengeful-type person. I don't try to hurt people."
Allen was the oldest girl
among eight siblings.
"We had love," Allen said.
"We didn't have a lot of financial support or materialistic things. But we
had love in the house."
In her teens, she got into
trouble for what she calls behavior problems and spent some time in a juvenile
facility. She later spent some time in foster care.
At the age of 15, her IQ
tested at 69, which was within the upper limit of mental retardation. Later,
she was tested at an IQ of 80.
"I think my motor skills
are different from other people that can comprehend things faster. I am not
as fast at getting things as some people. I am slow in that area. But over
the years, you know, you deal with your handicap. To be in society, you have
to deal with that. It can be a
limitation on what you can
do."
She graduated from U.S.
Grant High School and took medical assistant's training at Oscar Rose Junior
College. She worked at a veterans' hospital and at the Oklahoma City Golf
and Country Club, among other jobs.
She is one of three women
on death row. On Sept. 14, all three got baptized.
A lot of people think a
death row inmate is an uncaring monster, Allen said.
"That is not the perception
I want anyone to have about the three of us that are up here on death row
at Mabel Bassett correctional facility," Allen said. "We are humans.
We care for other people. We feel what they are going through. Even if we
are in a worse position than they are, we still focus on them."
She is locked down 23 hours
a day, seven days a week.
She has no personal property
in her cell, other than a television and radio.
She is a fan of the Chicago
Bulls, likes opera and reads John Grisham and Danielle Steele novels.
She repeatedly talks about
her family. Her mother, Mary Allen, lives a few miles from the prison that
has housed her daughter for 12 years.
"Your family is always going
to be there regardless what you are going through," she said. "The good times.
The bad times. They are going to be there. My family has been doing this time
with me. A lot of people don't realize that. What you go through, you take
your family through it as well."
She says she has a need
to help people. If she could talk to children, she would tell them to stay
close to their family and be independent.
"A life of crime ain't where
it is at," she said. "You don't have to prove nothing to no one. And if you
are put in that positions where you have to provide something to someone,
you don't need to be around that person."
In December, Allen will
make an appearance before the five-member Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.
"I am not nervous," she
said. "I am going to tell them what is my heart. Be direct with them. Tell
them how I feel. Ask them to spare my life."
She has not been told much
about the execution process, which is carried out shortly after 9 p.m. by
lethal injection at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
"If it came to it, I will
just have to deal with those circumstances. My faith is strong. I know who
has the last say so. I am talking about God."
Victim's mother `too forgiving';
other family members are not
A brother and a sister plan
to witness the execution in McAlester.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Ruby
Wilson of Edmond can recall her daughter's murder as if it were just yesterday.
The 57-year-old was an eyewitness in 1988 when Wanda Jean Allen shot Gloria
Jean Leathers during a confrontation in front of the Village Police Station,
where Wilson and her daughter had gone to file a report against Allen.
Wilson said they had just
pulled up to the station after leaving the house where Allen and Leathers
had lived on and off for three years. Wilson said Leathers was moving out.
Leathers was exiting the
car when Allen, who had followed them, walked up with her hands underneath
a sweatshirt.
After exchanging words with
Allen, Leathers was leaning into the car to pick up her purse when Allen "stuck
it to my baby's ribs . . . she stuck it to her stomach and shot her. It sounded
like a cap gun."
Leathers slumped into the
car. Four days later, she died following surgery, Wilson said.
"I don't have any
grudges against her," Wilson said. "I don't hate her, but I hate what she
did. I hope she found peace with Christ about it. It does hurt. I will never
forget it. I will always see it. That is in the past. I have to go on toward
the future."
Wilson on Oct. 13 met with
Allen, who asked for forgiveness.
"Being bitter won't solve
anything," Wilson said. "It won't help me. It can't bring my baby back."
Leathers left behind three
children, whom Wilson has raised.
"Her children have suffered,"
Wilson said. "I am too forgiving. They are not."
Robert Ferguson Jr., Leathers'
brother, is also not forgiving Allen.
Ferguson said it is the
second time that Allen has shot and killed someone. Allen served part
of a four-year sentence for manslaughter stemming from the June 29, 1981,
killing of Detra Pettus.
"Second of all, she did
it in front of my mother in front of a police station," said Ferguson, who
lives in Jefferson City, Mo., and is a supervisor for the U.S. Postal Service.
"So, I don't feel sorry for her, you know."
Ferguson plans to witness
Allen's execution, which is set for shortly after 9 p.m. Jan. 11 at Oklahoma
State Penitentiary in McAlester.
"If I could say anything
to her, I don't know," Ferguson said. "I would say I am sorry this had to
happen, but you brought it on yourself."
Mary Ann Leathers, 39, who
lives in Tulsa and is a day-care provider, also plans to witness the execution.
She describes her sister as sweet, friendly and a person who would "give you
anything. Sometimes you didn't have to ask for it."
Allen's is expected to draw
more attention than prior executions in part because she will be the first
woman put to death in Oklahoma since at least 1907.
"I have my own personal
opinion about the death penalty," said Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson.
"I don't think it should ever be treated lightly. I am no more troubled by
her case than I am any other case that we handle."
Edmondson said Allen, who
in December will seek clemency before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board,
likely will not have her sentence altered.
Tulsa World
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