Wanda Jean Allen

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Wanda Jean Allen
First degree murder (April 18, 1989)
Criminal penalty4 years imprisonment (Pettus murder)
Death (Leathers murder)
Partner(s)Gloria Jean Leathers

Wanda Jean Allen (August 17, 1959 – January 11, 2001) was sentenced to death in 1989 for the

documentary
The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002).

Background

Wanda Jean Allen was born on August 17, 1959, the second of eight children. Her mother was an

public assistance
.

At the age of 12, Allen was hit by a truck and knocked

dysfunctional, impairing her comprehension, her ability to logically express herself, and her ability to analyze cause and effect
relationships. It was also concluded that Allen was more chronically vulnerable than others to becoming disorganized by everyday stresses, and thus more vulnerable to a loss of control under stress.

By age 17, she had dropped out of high school.

Death of Dedra Pettus

In 1981, Allen was sharing an apartment with Dedra Pettus, a childhood friend

guilty plea to a manslaughter
charge. She served two years of the sentence.

Pettus was buried at Trice Hill Cemetery in

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
.

Gloria Jean Leathers

Seven years after the death of Dedra Pettus, Allen was living with her girlfriend Gloria Jean Leathers. The two met in prison and had a turbulent and violent relationship. On December 2, 1988, Leathers, 29, was shot in front of The Village Police Department in

.38-caliber handgun
they believe was used in the shooting near the women's home. Leathers died from the injury three days later, on December 5, 1988.

Leathers was buried at Green Acres Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Sperry in Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

Trial

The state charged Allen with first-degree murder and announced that it would seek the death penalty. Evidence that Leathers had a history of violent conduct, and that she had stabbed a woman to death in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1979, was central to the self-defense argument at Allen's trial. Allen testified that she feared Leathers because she had boasted to her about the killing. The defense sought to corroborate this claim with testimony from Leathers' mother, whom Leathers had told about the stabbing. However, the prosecution objected, and the court prohibited the introduction of such testimony because it was considered hearsay. The prosecutor depicted Allen as a remorseless liar. The jury found her guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced her to death.

During the punishment phase the prosecutors argued that Allen should be sentenced to death because she had been previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence; that she was a continuing threat to society; and she committed the murder to avoid arrest or prosecution. The jury found that the first two aggravating circumstances existed in Allen's case. Her defense presented numerous

mitigating circumstances
including good relationship with her family, good work habits, and her fear of the victim.

In the sentencing phase the prosecution presented testimony on the circumstances of the death of Dedra Pettus, and compared this previous crime to the death of Leathers.

In a 1991 affidavit, her

defense lawyer David Presson stated that after the trial he learned that when Allen was 15 years old, her IQ was measured at 69, placing her "just within the upper limit of the classification of mental retardation" according to the psychologist who analyzed her and that an examining doctor had recommended a neurological assessment because she manifested symptoms of brain damage
. The lawyer stated, "I did not search for any medical or psychological records or seek expert assistance for use at the trial."

A psychologist conducted a comprehensive evaluation of Allen in 1995 and found clear and convincing evidence of cognitive and sensory-motor deficits and brain dysfunction possibly linked to an adolescent head injury.

Of the five members of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, three were appointed by Governor Frank Keating.[2]

Keating who considered giving Allen a stay based on the narrow issue of whether the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had enough information regarding her education. Allen's attorneys have pointed to her score, a 69, on an IQ test she took in the 1970s, arguing she was in the range of intellectual disability. Prosecutors said Allen testified during the penalty phase of her trial that she had graduated from a high school and received a medical assistant certificate from a college, but they[clarification needed] said Allen dropped out of high school at 16 and never finished course work in the medical assistant program.

Execution

Allen spent 12 years on

clemency
was denied.

While in prison, she became a

born-again Christian. The Reverend Robin Meyers
, who served as a spiritual adviser to Allen, is quoted as saying,

I always suspected that Wanda's renunciation of

lesbianism
had more to do with helping to revamp herself in the most palatable way for her clemency and appeal processes. She knew perfectly well that her being a lesbian was a big strike against her and that it's an embarrassment in the black community. She was going to play the best hand that she could play at the very end.

Allen was executed by

gurney, Allen said, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." She also stuck her tongue out and smiled at her appeal lawyer, David Presson, who had become her friend. He says she was "dancing on the mattress, while they tried to kill her." She was pronounced dead at 9:21 p.m. Relatives of Leathers expressed the execution gave them "closure".[1]

She was buried at Trice Hill Cemetery in Oklahoma City.

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b c "Wanda Jean Allen put to death". USA Today. January 12, 2001. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Wanda Jean Allen". Clark Prosecutor. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  3. ^ Allen v. State, 1994 OK CR 13, 871 P.2d 79
  4. ^ Allen v. State, 1994 OK CR 13, 871 P.2d 79
  5. ^ Allen v. State, 1994 OK CR 13, 871 P.2d 79
  6. ^ Allen v. State, 1994 OK CR 13, 871 P.2d 79
  7. ^ Hutchinson, Earl (January 13, 2001). "Hardest hit by the prison craze". Salon. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
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