Black leaders call for clemency

<b>RON JENKINS-Associated Press Writer</b> <br> <br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Saying her case illustrates the injustice of the death penalty, black leaders on Monday intensified their clemency bid for Wanda

Tuesday, December 12th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

RON JENKINS-Associated Press Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Saying her case illustrates the injustice of the death penalty, black leaders on Monday intensified their clemency bid for Wanda Jean Allen, scheduled to become the first woman executed in Oklahoma since statehood.

At a news conference, Oklahoma City NAACP president Roosevelt Milton and others argued that Allen's sentence should be commuted to life without parole and outlined plans to petition the state Pardon and Parole Board to recommend clemency to Gov. Frank Keating. The board meets Friday in Lexington.

Among other things, they contend Allen is a changed person, she had an inadequate defense and her jury did not have information about her impaired mental capacity.

The local leaders were joined by representatives of the state and national coalitions to abolish the death penalty.

Allen, 41, was convicted of killing Gloria Leathers in front of a police station in The Village, an Oklahoma City suburb. Testimony was introduced that the two women had met in prison and had had a homosexual relationship. She is scheduled to be executed on Jan. 11.

The Rev. Sean Baker, investigator for the NAACP, said Allen was denied due process at her 1989 trial.

Tonya McClary of Washington, D.C., representing the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Allen's attorney tried to step aside and let a more experienced public defender represent the accused woman, but the trial judge would not let him.

Therefore, she said, Allen's attorney represented the woman for a payment of only $800, the most Allen's family could come up with at the time.

She said important issues not raised at the trial included Allen's I.Q., her psychological state and brain trauma from previous injuries that would have affected her actions.

Another mitigating circumstance was that Allen had been hit with a rake before the shooting, which was a continuation of a domestic fight, McClary said.

``There's just too many holes in this particular case,'' said Theotis Payne, local talk show host and community activist.

The Rev. Vernon Burris said he is convinced that Allen is a changed person, citing her lack of prison offenses and her reaching out to other inmates with spiritual guidance.

Prosecutors have called Allen ``a hunter'' who would kill again if she is not executed. They note she was convicted of manslaughter for a similar killing that sent her to prison, where she met Leathers.

Last Friday, Keating turned down a request for a moratorium from Bishop Edward J. Slattery of the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa.

The governor wrote the bishop that of nine pending death penalty cases, one dates to a 1979 crime, four to 1985, one to 1987, one to 1988, one to 1990 and one to 1992. ``Clearly there is no rush to judgment here,'' he said.

``I will continue to do my duty as governor and, lacking any evidence that Oklahoma's capital punishment statutes are applied unfairly in any way, I will not seek or order a moratorium on justice,'' Keating wrote.

A spokesman said Keating had not changed his position.