Black Woman on Death Row in Oklahoma Loses Clemency Bid

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.

“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.

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.