Wanda Jean Allen

Wanda Jean Allen (August 17, 1959 – January 11, 2001) was sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder of Gloria Jean Leathers, 29, her longtime girlfriend, in Oklahoma City. In 2001, Allen was the first black woman to be executed in the United States since 1954.

Filmmaker Liz Garbus worked with Allen to chronicle her final appeals and the last three months of her life. These were the basis of 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 alcoholic; her father left home after Wanda's last sibling was born. The family lived in public housing and scraped by on public assistance.

At the age of 12, Allen was hit by a truck and knocked unconscious. At 14 or 15, she was stabbed in the left temple. Testing after this found that Allen's abilities were markedly impaired and that her IQ was 69. Also important was damage that resulted in the left hemisphere of her brain being dysfunctional: this impaired her comprehension, her ability to logically express herself, and her ability to analyze cause and effect relationships. Examiners 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. When Allen followed Leathers to her car, Leathers grabbed a garden rake, and struck Allen in the face with it. Leathers and her mother left and drove to the Oklahoma City police station to file a complaint against Allen. Allen returned to her car, grabbed a gun, and, when she saw Leathers closely approaching, fired one shot that severely wounded Leathers. Leathers' mother witnessed the shooting. Two police officers and a dispatcher in the station heard the shot fired, but no police department employee witnessed the shooting. Later the police recovered a .38-caliber handgun near the women's home. They believe it was used in the shooting. Leathers died from the injury three days later, on December 5, 1988.

Leathers was buried at Green Acres Memorial Gardens Cemetery, located in Sperry, 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 Allen's self-defense argument at her trial. Allen testified that she feared Leathers because of her boasting about the 1979 killing. The defense sought to corroborate this claim with testimony from Leathers' mother, whom Leathers had told about the fatal stabbing. But, the prosecution objected. 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 circumstance, including a good relationship with her family, good work habits, and her fear of the victim.

In the sentencing phase, the prosecution retrieved details about the circumstances of the death of Dedra Pettus, even comparing that earlier crime to Leathers's death.

In a 1991 affidavit, Allen's 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. In addition, 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. at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Twenty-four relatives of murder victim Gloria Leathers and manslaughter victim Dedra Pettus traveled there for the execution. Many of them watched the execution from behind a tinted window. While lying on the execution 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".

She was buried at Trice Hill Cemetery in Oklahoma City.