Oklahoma death row woman loses bid for clemency

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (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 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.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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