He offered to act as co-counsel for free if a public defender was appointed as lead counsel. The jury found her guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced her to death. Do I make myself clear, Gloria? Allen was the first black woman to be executed in the United States since 1954. They cite a 1998 study that said African-American defendants were 3. The prosecutor depicted Allen as a remorseless liar. If a person takes another's life premeditated, they take their own. And it was so clear that wasn't what was happening here.
So if you look at that and you look at Wanda Jean's case, you'd think, Well, maybe given the circumstances and the political moment right now, Wanda Jean would have had a better shot. The argument continued at their home and culminated outside a police station. The issues in her case, which were so timely, interested me. She was placed in foster care and ultimately in a state juvenile facility as an adolescent. If a person takes another's life premeditated, they take their own.
Basically, Allen was given a death sentence in the year 1989 as a result of committing a murder of her partner, Gloria Leathers. Allen, 41, murdered her roommate, Gloria Jean Leathers, 29, in front of The Village Police Department in northwest Oklahoma City on Dec. Allen had been sentenced to death for the 1988 shooting death of her girlfriend, Gloria Jean Leathers, 29. Robin Meyers argued a petition for clemency for Wanda Jean Allen on Friday, Dec. I grieve for the families; I grieve for the dead.
She had a bad set of cards, and she basically did not get a break along the way, ever. We would much prefer to stay with the God of vengeance and wrath when it comes to the death penalty—the God whom, it was assumed, had authorized the death penalty for 38 offenses in the Old Testament, from adultery which nobody seems anxious to bring back as a capital offense , to a woman who married but wasn't a virgin she could be stoned to death , to a young boy who talked back to his father he could be executed also—talk about tough love. Again, it was one woman's story. But perhaps most telling of all is the story of the woman caught in adultery, who was about to be stoned to death. It became clear as I got into the real world that there was a way to combine these two interests. Generally, Wanda Jean Allen was a victim of capital punishment in Oklahoma.
Although the state knew about the Tulsa stabbing, the prosecutor told the jury. On June 29, 1981, at a motel in Oklahoma City, Allen shot to death Detra Pettus following an argument with Pettus' boyfriend. She was subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection. Because the truth is, we don't want to hear it. Carpenter never had any psychological tests performed on Allen, so the evidence of her mental retardation was never brought up at trial. When I say from this pulpit, as I often have, that the only thing anyone knows for certain, is that not a single one of us knows anything for certain, I am speaking from experience—and that's what makes for real preaching. This time around, Gissendaner will be having cheese dip with chips, Texas nachos with fajita meat, and a diet frosted lemonade.
It was one woman's story. The last woman to be executed in Oklahoma was Dora Wright in 1903. And how many times are we commanded to forgive? Bringing out her humanity, bringing out what was likable about her, was important to me. Death of Dedra Pettus In 1981, Allen was sharing an apartment with Dedra Pettus, a childhood friend-turned-girlfriend. It is clear that a stunning combination of factors in her case merit the relief that is sought. Two police officers and a dispatcher heard the shot fired, but no police department employee witnessed the shooting.
Like Allen, Wright was black. Allen was the first black woman to be executed in the United States since 1954. So we can get past this, too? Allen was the second of eight Oklahoma inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection in a four-week period. No evidence of Wanda's mental impairments was presented during her trial. 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.
Many of those relatives watched the execution from behind a tinted window. And it quickly becomes apparent that Allen has no chance to get a stay of her execution, even when the facts seem stacked in her favor. People believe that documentary films should be the same as other forms of journalism -- balanced, incorporating all views, objective. Leathers, 29, was shot in front of The Village Police Department in Oklahoma City. On June 29, 1981, they got into an argument, and Allen shot and killed Pettus. It's easy to talk about, but almost impossible to practice.