The Rev. Jesse Jackson has taken up the case of a mentally disabled African-American lesbian set to be executed this week in Oklahoma.
Wanda Jean Allen, 41, is to be the first woman executed in Oklahoma since it became a state; she was convicted in 1989 of killing her lover, Gloria Leathers, 29, in front of a police station in an Oklahoma City suburb on Dec. 1, 1988.
On Dec. 15, 2000, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-1 to reject clemency for Allen, who now will almost certainly be executed by lethal injection on Jan. 11.
The lone dissenter on the parole board, Susan Bussey, cited Allen's mental condition.
In 1995, a clinical psychologist found in Allen "clear and convincing evidence of cognitive and sensory-motor deficits and brain dysfunction," that possibly stemmed from an adolescent head injury. Allen was hit by a truck and knocked unconscious at the age of 12, and at 14 or 15 she was stabbed in the left temple, records show. The same psychologist estimated her IQ to be around 80, "which is considered borderline ( mentally retarded ) ."
Last week, Rev. Jackson participated in a march urging a moratorium on the death penalty in Oklahoma, and he visited Allen in prison. He has also publicly spoken out against her execution.
Activists have rallied around Allen's case, asking Republican Gov. Frank Keating to grant a 60-day stay of execution. According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Keating's stay would give Allen's attorneys time to find other ways to stop her execution and could give the state legislature a chance to vote on HB 1013, a measure that would impose a one-year moratorium on executions. There are currently nine executions scheduled to take place in Oklahoma in the next 30 days.
Leniency from Keating, however, seems unlikely. John Cox, a spokesman for the governor, told the Washington Blade, "The facts of this case have been studied for years, and he's comfortable with the sentence and the original jury verdict, and he stands behind the Pardon and Parole Board decision to deny her clemency."
Allen's current lawyers have also asked Keating to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without parole, another option that seems unlikely.
Activists have noted several missteps in Allen's trial, most notably that her attorney, who was paid just $800, was never notified of her mental condition and subsequently never presented it to the jury.
A coalition of 11 gay groups have also claimed that prosecutors used Allen's sexual orientation against her at trial, painting her as the aggressor-;or "male"-; in her relationship with Leathers and using her homosexuality to prejudice the jury.
Allen and Leathers had met in prison and were together for two years. Allen had been serving a four-year term for manslaughter in the killing of a former partner, while Leathers had killed someone during a bar fight in Tulsa, the Washington Blade reported.
Their relationship has often been described as rocky, marked by fights and violence, and police were called in on several occasions.
Allen has maintained that she acted in self defense when she shot Leathers, who earlier in the day had hit her in the face with a hand rake.
Gov. Keating can be reached at:
State Capitol Building, Room 212
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
( 405 ) 521-3353
governor@gov.state.ok.us