Death row inmate wishes she could have had help after first killing

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- After all the anti-death penalty appeals and demonstrations on Wanda Jean Allen's behalf, a decision on whether she will die at 9 p.m. Thursday lies in the hands of a capital punishment supporter.

Gov. Frank Keating has agreed to consider a stay based on the narrow issue of whether the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had enough information regarding Allen's education.

Allen, 41, was sentenced to death for killing her lesbian lover.

She would be the first black woman put to death in the United States since 1954.

Keating met with Rev. Jesse Jackson Thursday and planned a meeting with Attorney General Drew Edmondson before making a decision.

Asked whether he would stop the execution, Keating told CNN, at noon, "Well, I don't know.

"I have no authority to reduce the death sentence. What I theoretically could do is send it back to the clemency board."

Jackson said he had a good meeting with Keating.

"The power is in his hands," Jackson said.

Jackson was one of about two dozen people arrested Wednesday night for trespassing in a protest at the women's prison where Allen had been held. He was released Thursday morning.

"She must not die in the dark," Jackson said. "She must not die alone. We intend to be with her all the way."

Allen's attorneys have pointed to her score, a 69, on an IQ test she took in the 1970s, arguing she is in the range of mental retardation.

Prosecutors said Allen testified during the penalty phase of her trial that she had graduated from U.S. Grant High School and received a medical assistant certificate from Rose Sate College.

As it turns out, Allen dropped out of high school at 16 and never finished course work in the medical assistant program.

Allen's attorneys asked a federal judge Wednesday to grant a stay of execution and order a new clemency hearing for their client.

U.S. District Tim Leonard denied the request after several hours of deliberation, and defense attorneys announced they would immediately file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Allen was sentenced to death for killing her lover, Gloria Leathers, in 1988 after an argument at a grocery store.

Allen said in a recent interview that she cared for Leathers and "loved her as a person."

"I even told her mom there's no greater love than a mother's love. If Gloria was sitting here, and it could have been Gloria sitting here today . . . Miss Wilson knows that and I explained to her that I would want my mom to have the same compassion in her heart and come up here and forgive her."

Ruby Wilson has said she did not hold any grudges against Allen, saying she didn't hate her but hated what she did.

"I hope she found peace with Christ about it. It does hurt. I will never forget it. I will always see it. That is in the past. I have to go on toward the future," Wilson said.

Allen said she did not fear her death.

"I'm not afraid of what man can do to me, because my trust is in someone else." That someone else is God, she said.

"He said 'take no thought of tomorrow because we don't know what tomorrow is bringing."'