Death Row, Serial Killers, Teen Killers. Women On Death Row Executions
Oklahoma Death Row for men is located at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in “H” unit. Oklahoma Death Row for women is located at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center. Oklahoma primary method execution was lethal injection however that was discontinued and now the State is exploring nitrogen gas as an option
Edward Fields is a former prison guard who was sentenced to death for the murders of two people on Federal land. According to court documents Edward Fields dressed up in camouflage and stalked the married couple from Texas for three days before shooting and killing the couple. Due to the murders taking place on Federal land he was prosecuted by a Federal Prosecutor. As of 2021 Edward Fields is on Federal Death Row
| Register Number: 04136-063 | |
| Age: | 53 |
| Race: | White |
| Sex: | Male |
| Located at: Terre Haute USP | |
| Release Date: DEATH SENT |
Former state prison guard Edward Leon Fields Jr. pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to killing a Texas couple at their Ouachita National Forest campsite in 2003.
Despite the plea, Fields still faces the death penalty, said U.S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling. Potential jurors will go to the U.S. Eastern District Courthouse on Tuesday to complete the case’s second phase, a sentencing trial.
Two years after dressing in a camouflage suit to spy on a husband and wife for three days before gunning them down, Fields, wearing a standard-issue orange jumpsuit, handcuffs and leg irons, slowly shuffled toward U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White.
Reading from a prepared statement of guilt in a steady, expressionless monotone, Fields admitted to killing the avid campers July 10, 2003, in order to rob them and take items from their LeFlore County campsite.
“I know I’ve caused great harm and sorrow to many . . . I’m sorry for what I have done,” said Fields, 38, who shot Charles Chick, 47, and Shirley Chick, 50, each in the head several times at the Winding Stair Mountain campgrounds near Talimena Drive.
When the judge pressed Julia O’Connell, assistant federal public defender, on the issue of whether she would elicit medical expert testimony regarding her client’s mental health during the sentencing phase, she said, “Yes, I can confirm that.”
The judge questioned Fields about his current mental health. Fields said he is being treated for depression, as he had been for a couple of decades.
White asked Fields if he still “hears voices in his head,” and Fields said he no longer did, noting that medications including Lithium and Prozac “have cleared up my buzz.”
Fields pleaded guilty to all six counts he faced, including robbery and auto burglary.
The maximum punishment on each of the other four counts — two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of using a firearm in a federal crime of violence causing the death of a person — is the death penalty and a fine of $250,000.
The sentencing trial will be the first federal death penalty trial in the Eastern District since 1993, which Sperling also prosecuted.
Sperling asked the judge to question Fields as to why he changed his plea. O’Connell objected, saying “the choice is his,” and White ultimately denied the prosecutor’s request.
Fields previously confessed the crimes to authorities. He did not know his victims.
The Chicks’ bodies were found the day after they were shot, shattering the peaceful nature of the 1.8 million-acre forest that stretches from LeFlore County to several counties in western Arkansas.
The campground is a wooded mountaintop area, secluded and quiet, save for occasional motorists who get out of their cars on nearby Talimena Drive to admire the pristine views from the scenic byway, perhaps Oklahoma’s most popular destination spot for fall foliage tours.
Fields apparently had been living in the forest’s campsites for days leading up to the slayings, according to court records, after a woman with whom he’d lived kicked him out of the residence.
After Fields reportedly told a friend that he had watched a camp couple, then sneaked up on them and “done something real bad,” the woman, who apparently witnessed Fields constructing what he called a “sniper suit,” notified authorities.
Fields was arrested after investigators found a .22-caliber rifle, scope, camouflage suit and items reportedly belonging to the Chicks in his truck.
Fields worked for the state Department of Corrections for four years in the 1990s. He was a guard at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester from 1995 to 1996.
He then moved to the Hamilton Correctional Center in Hodgen as a food-service supervisor and a guard before resigning from the DOC in 1999
Lois Nadean Smith was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of her sons ex girlfriend. Lois Nadean Smith was executed by lethal injection on December 4, 2001
Lois Nadean Smith was known as mean Nadean would hear that her sons ex girlfriend was going around trying to find someone to murder her son and that the woman would also tell police that Smith was dealing drugs.
Lois Nadean Smith and her son would find the ex girlfriend who would be stabbed in the throat by Smith before being forced into a vehicle. The victim would be driven to a home where she would be shot multiple times causing her death.
Lois Nadean Smith would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. On December 4, 2001 Smith would be executed by lethal injection
Lois Nadean Smith, 61, was convicted of the July 4, 1982 murder of 21-year-old Cindy Baillee in Gans. Baillee was the former girlfriend of Smith’s son, Greg. Smith, along with her son and another woman, picked up Baillee from a Tahlequah motel early on the morning of the murder.
As they drove away from the motel, Lois Nadean Smith confronted Baillee about rumors that Baillee had arranged for Greg Smith’s murder – charges which Baillee denied. Smith choked Baillee and stabbed her in the throat as they drove to the home of Smith’s ex-husband in Gans. At the house, Smith forced Baillee to sit in a recliner and taunted her with a pistol, finally firing several shots. Baillee fell to the floor, and while her son reloaded the pistol, Smith laughed and jumped on Baillee’s neck. Smith then fired four shots into Baillee’s chest and two to the back of her head. An autopsy revealed nine gunshot wounds to Baillee’s body.
http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/smith746.htm
The evidence shows that Lois Nadean Smith, her son Greg, and Teresa Baker [DeMoss] picked up Cindy Baillee at a Tahlequah motel early on the morning of July 4, 1982. Baillee had been Greg’s girlfriend, but allegedly had made threats to have him killed.
As the group drove away from the motel, Lois Nadean Smith confronted Ms. Baillee with rumors that she had arranged for Greg’s murder. When Ms. Baillee denied making any threats or arrangements, appellant choked the victim and stabbed her in the throat with a knife found in the victim’s purse. The car traveled to the home of Jim Smith, the appellant’s ex-husband and Greg’s father in Gans, Oklahoma. Present at the house were Smith and his wife Robyn. [Robyn] left shortly after the group arrived.
While at the Smith house, appellant forced Ms. Baillee to sit in a recliner chair. Lois Nadean Smith then threatened to kill Ms. Baillee, and taunted her with a pistol. Finally, appellant fired a shot into the recliner, near Ms. Baillee’s head. She then fired a series of shots at Ms. Baillee, and the wounded victim fell to the floor. As Greg Smith reloaded the pistol, appellant laughed while jumping on the victim’s neck. Lois Nadean Smith took the pistol from Greg and fired four more bullets into the body. A subsequent autopsy showed Ms. Baillee had been shot five times in the chest, twice in the head, and once in the back. Five of these gunshot wounds were fatal. The knife wound was also potentially fatal.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-10th-circuit/1120817.html
Once known as “Mean Nadean,” Lois Nadean Smith went meekly to her death.
The 61-year-old Smith, gray-haired and wearing glasses, asked her victim’s family for forgiveness and embraced her faith before being executed by injection Tuesday night for killing her son’s ex-girlfriend in 1982.
“I want to say I’m sorry for the pain and loss I’ve caused you,” Smith said. “I ask that you forgive me. You must forgive to be forgiven.”
Lois Nadean Smith thanked her attorneys, sent her love to her children and then quoted Scripture.
“To live is Christ, to die is gain,” she said. “Thank you Jesus.”
Lois Nadean Smith was pronounced dead at 9:13 p.m., two minutes after the lethal mix of drugs was administered. Four of her attorneys, a spiritual adviser and an investigator watched from the front row of the witness room.
Lois Nadean Smith, the last female on death row in Oklahoma, was the third woman executed by the state this year. No state has executed as many women in one year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
Lois Nadean Smith is the 17th person executed this year in Oklahoma. On Thursday, Iraqi national Sahib Al-Mosawi is scheduled to become the 18th, which would give Oklahoma more executions than any state _ Texas has had 16, with one more scheduled before year’s end.
Lois Nadean Smith was convicted of killing Cindy Baillie, 21, in Sequoyah County on July 4, 1982, because she thought Baillie was trying to have Smith’s son killed.
Baillie’s daughter, Brandy Fields, witnessed the execution with her husband, a family friend and an aunt.
“If she really meant it, you have to forgive even though it’s very hard and it doesn’t help me at all,” Fields said, sobbing occasionally. “It does a little bit, but it doesn’t bring back my mom.
“I wish she thought of this before she did what she did. We wouldn’t be in this position.”
Smith and her son, Greg, and another woman picked up Baillie in Tahlequah the morning of the killing, said Attorney General Drew Edmondson. Smith confronted her about rumors that she had threatened to have Greg Smith killed.
Prosecutors said Lois Nadean Smith, who had earned her nickname in high school, then began to choke Baillie and stabbed her in the throat with a knife. Baillie was driven to a home in Gans, where Nadean Smith shot her in the chest, head and back and jumped on her neck.
Greg Smith was convicted of murder and given a life sentence. He reloaded Smith’s gun during the shooting.
Fields said she will be at Greg Smith’s parole hearing in May.
“It’s not completely over because I still have to go and do that until he dies,” she said. “I’m glad this part of it’s over because I don’t ever have to hear that she’s got clemency or is going to stay the rest of her remaining life in prison. She’s got what the court handed down to her.”
Eight women were arrested Tuesday night while protesting Smith’s execution. They were held on misdemeanor trespassing complaints after crossing a police line at the Mabel Basset Correctional Center in Oklahoma City, where Smith was housed before being transferred to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
A small group of anti-death penalty protesters prayed by candle light outside the prison. Nearby, a group of victim’s advocates stood vigil. One wore a T-shirt that said, “The crime scene will return to normal. What about the victims?’
A woman convicted of killing her son’s former girlfriend in 1982 was executed Tuesday night by lethal injection, making her the third woman and 17th inmate put to death this year in Oklahoma.
With the execution of Lois Nadean Smith, 61, Oklahoma now leads the nation in the number of executions this year.
Texas has had 16 executions, with one more scheduled before year’s end. Oklahoma also has one more execution scheduled for this year. Sahib Al-Mosawi, an Iraqi national, was scheduled to die Thursday for killing his wife and her uncle.
Lois Nadean Smith was the last woman on Oklahoma’s death row. No state has executed as many women in one year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
Before the drugs were administered, Smith thanked her attorneys and asked for forgiveness.
“To the families, I want to say I’m sorry for the pain and loss I’ve caused you,” Smith said. “I ask that you forgive me. You must forgive to be forgiven.”
Lois Nadean Smith was convicted of killing 21-year-old Cindy Baillie in July 1982. Baillie was shot nine times and stabbed in the throat.
Authorities said Smith and her son Greg picked up Baillie the morning of the killing. Smith then confronted her about rumors that she had threatened to have her son killed.
Prosecutors said Lois Nadean Smith began to choke Baillie and stabbed her in the throat with a knife; Baillie was then driven to a home where Lois Nadean Smith shot her.
Greg Smith was convicted of murder and given a life sentence. Prosecutors said he reloaded his mother’s gun during the shooting.
Lois Nadean Smith’s attorneys said she was trying to protect her son and was under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time of the slaying.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-05-mn-11847-story.html
Authorities in the city of Bozeman, Montana, have arrested a Cherokee County man who allegedly held a woman against her will inside a motel room for two months.
James Gregory Smith, 50 – a convicted Oklahoma murderer who is also wanted for warrants issued in Cherokee County – is being held for felony kidnapping and a misdemeanor charge of domestic assault. His bond in Montana has been set at $250,000.
According to a report published by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, police in that community were dispatched to a motel last Friday when a woman called for help. When police found the woman, she claimed she had tried to flee from Smith in Colorado, but Smith had tracked her down in Bozeman.
The newspaper reports the woman said Smith had been assaulting her; that he threatened to kill her; and that he had kept her as a “prisoner” at the motel since early October.
The newspaper also reports Smith claims he and the alleged victim were drunk when he was arrested, and he denies holding her captive.
Court records show a bench warrant was issued for Smith’s arrest on Oct. 6 when he failed to appear in Cherokee County District Court.
Smith was accused of stabbing another man during a fight in September 2013, and was later charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
He has also faced a string of other charges in Cherokee County, including assault and battery and possession of a controlled dangerous substance in August of this year; driving under the influence, unlawful possession of paraphernalia, and open container alcohol in June of this year; and driving while impaired in May 2014.
In 1982, prosecutors alleged Smith and his mother, Lois Nadean Smith, tortured and killed his ex-girlfriend, Cynthia L. Baillee, after picking her up in Tahlequah and driving her to Sequoyah County.
Baillee was choked and stabbed in the throat, shot nine times, and stomped on, according to reports of the murder.
Smith was 18 at the time and was given a life sentence, which was complete in 2009, according to state records. Lois Nadean Smith was executed for her part.
If Smith is convicted of his charges in Montana, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000 for kidnapping.
Bozeman is a city about 140 miles west of Billings, Montana
Lois Nadean Smith was executed for the murder of her sons ex girlfriend
Lois Nadean Smith was executed on December 4, 2001
Marilyn Plantz was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of her husband. Marilyn Plantz would be executed by lethal injection on May 1, 2001
Marilyn Plantz and her husband Jim Plantz had just recently moved to Midwest City Oklahoma and soon after Marilyn began dating a younger man named William Clifford Bryson. Soon the pair began planning the murder of Jim Plantz to collect the insurance money.
On August 26, 1988 William Clifford Bryson and an accomplice Clinton McKimble would ambush Jim Plantz when he returned from work with baseball bats. Plantz would be forced into a vehicle and driven to a remote location. The plan was to stick a rag into the vehicle’s gas tank and set it on fire however this did not work so Jim Plantz was doused with gasoline and set on fire.
It would not take police long to figure out what happened and all three were arrested and charged with the murder of Jim Plantz
Marilyn Plantz was convicted and sentenced to death. On May 1, 2001 Marilyn Plantz was executed by lethal injection
A 40-year-old mother of two was executed Tuesday for her role in the 1988 murder of her husband for insurance money.
Marilyn Kay Plantz was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. from a lethal dose of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. She was the second woman executed in Oklahoma since statehood.
The first woman, Wanda Jean Allen, was put to death on Jan. 11. Marilyn Plantz was convicted of having her lover, William Clifford Bryson, and accomplice Clinton McKimble kill her husband.
Bryson was executed in June. McKimble received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony against Plantz and Bryson.
Strapped to a guerney, Plantz thanked her family and the seven people who witnessed the execution for her. They included three cousins, several spiritual advisers, an attorney and an investigator.
“I want to tell all of my family that I love them very much, especially Trina and Chris . . .,” Plantz said, referring to her two children, who did not attend. “What God has given me is love and I have overcome the world.
“And I just want y’all to know that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God. And if y’all want to see me again, you must be born again.”
After the execution began, Plantz made several snorting sounds and then fell quiet. She was pronounced dead a short time later.
Jim Plantz, 33, worked nights as a pressman at The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City. Bryson and McKimble ambushed him with his 6-year-old son’s baseball bats at the couple’s Midwest City home when he returned from work on Aug. 26, 1988. Plantz was taken to a remote location and he and his pickup were set on fire to make it look accidental.
Authorities said Marilyn Plantz hoped to collect on a $300,000 life insurance policy, although she had said she was unaware that her husband had a policy.
Marilyn Plantz was the 124th inmate executed in Oklahoma history and the 11th this year.
Jim Plantz’s family members supported the execution and 15 witnessed on his behalf.
But Marilyn Plantz’s death by injection would not satisfy them, family members said shortly before her sentence was carried out.
“I feel like the punishment should fit the crime, but it won’t,” said Karen Lowery, Jim Plantz’s sister. Lethal injection did not compare to the horror of her brother being burned alive, she said.
“She’s just going to go to sleep tonight,” Lowery said.
Relatives said the couple appeared to have a good relationship. After they moved to Midwest City, Plantz met Bryson and the two later planned the killing.
According to police, Jim Plantz was carrying a bag of groceries when he arrived home about 4 a.m. Bryson and McKimble attacked him as his children, ages 9 and 6, slept in a nearby room.
Bryson drove the truck with Jim Plantz laying in the seat beside him to a remote road that could be a possible route home from work. McKimble followed in a car.
They placed Jim Plantz behind the wheel of the pickup and McKimble stuffed a rag in the gas tank and lit it. But the pickup failed to explode, and Bryson then doused Plantz and set him on fire.
As they drove away, McKimble said he looked back and saw Plantz raise up in the seat while flames shot out from the vehicle.
Back at the house, Marilyn Plantz tried to clean up the blood and placed a rug over the blood stains on the floor.
“It’s just tragic, no matter how you look at it,” said Clovis Plantz, Jim Plantz’s brother.
At her trial, jurors found two aggravating circumstances that warranted the death penalty: the murder was committed for remuneration and it was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.
Marilyn Plantz’s grown daughter, Trina Plantz Wells, opposed her execution. The mother and daughter recently reconciled.
Her son, Chris Plantz, also visited her. Plantz said she converted to Christianity and said having her children visit was an answer to prayer.
Her last meal was served Monday. She requested one chicken taco salad, one Mexican pizza, two enchiritos, two chicken soft tacos, one order of cinnamon twists, one piece of pecan pie and two cans of Coca-Cola.
Two other executions are scheduled for May. Terrance A. James is scheduled to be executed on May 22 for a 1983 Muskogee County killing.
The execution for Vincent Allen Johnson is set for May 29 for a 1991 Pittsburg County murder.
A 40-year-old mother of two was executed Tuesday for her role in the 1988 murder of her husband for insurance money.
Marilyn Plantz was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. from a lethal dose of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. She was the second woman executed in Oklahoma since statehood.
The first woman, Wanda Jean Allen, was put to death on Jan. 11. Marilyn Plantz was convicted of having her lover, William Clifford Bryson, and accomplice Clinton McKimble kill her husband.
Bryson was executed in June. McKimble received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony against Plantz and Bryson.
Strapped to a guerney, Marilyn Plantz thanked her family and the seven people who witnessed the execution for her. They included three cousins, several spiritual advisers, an attorney and an investigator.
“I want to tell all of my family that I love them very much, especially Trina and Chris . . .,” Plantz said, referring to her two children, who did not attend. “What God has given me is love and I have overcome the world.
“And I just want y’all to know that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God. And if y’all want to see me again, you must be born again.”
After the execution began, Marilyn Plantz made several snorting sounds and then fell quiet. She was pronounced dead a short time later.
Jim Plantz, 33, worked nights as a pressman at The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City. Bryson and McKimble ambushed him with his 6-year-old son’s baseball bats at the couple’s Midwest City home when he returned from work on Aug. 26, 1988. Plantz was taken to a remote location and he and his pickup were set on fire to make it look accidental.
Authorities said Marilyn Plantz hoped to collect on a $300,000 life insurance policy, although she had said she was unaware that her husband had a policy.
Marilyn Plantz was the 124th inmate executed in Oklahoma history and the 11th this year.
Jim Plantz’s family members supported the execution and 15 witnessed on his behalf.
But Marilyn Plantz’s death by injection would not satisfy them, family members said shortly before her sentence was carried out.
“I feel like the punishment should fit the crime, but it won’t,” said Karen Lowery, Jim Plantz’s sister. Lethal injection did not compare to the horror of her brother being burned alive, she said.
“She’s just going to go to sleep tonight,” Lowery said.
Relatives said the couple appeared to have a good relationship. After they moved to Midwest City, Marilyn Plantz met Bryson and the two later planned the killing.
According to police, Jim Plantz was carrying a bag of groceries when he arrived home about 4 a.m. Bryson and McKimble attacked him as his children, ages 9 and 6, slept in a nearby room.
Bryson drove the truck with Jim Plantz laying in the seat beside him to a remote road that could be a possible route home from work. McKimble followed in a car.
They placed Jim Plantz behind the wheel of the pickup and McKimble stuffed a rag in the gas tank and lit it. But the pickup failed to explode, and Bryson then doused Plantz and set him on fire.
As they drove away, McKimble said he looked back and saw Plantz raise up in the seat while flames shot out from the vehicle.
Back at the house, Marilyn Plantz tried to clean up the blood and placed a rug over the blood stains on the floor.
“It’s just tragic, no matter how you look at it,” said Clovis Plantz, Jim Plantz’s brother.
At her trial, jurors found two aggravating circumstances that warranted the death penalty: the murder was committed for remuneration and it was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.
Marilyn Plantz’s grown daughter, Trina Plantz Wells, opposed her execution. The mother and daughter recently reconciled.
Her son, Chris Plantz, also visited her. Plantz said she converted to Christianity and said having her children visit was an answer to prayer.
Marilyn Plantz last meal was served Monday. She requested one chicken taco salad, one Mexican pizza, two enchiritos, two chicken soft tacos, one order of cinnamon twists, one piece of pecan pie and two cans of Coca-Cola.
Two other executions are scheduled for May. Terrance A. James is scheduled to be executed on May 22 for a 1983 Muskogee County killing.
The execution for Vincent Allen Johnson is set for May 29 for a 1991 Pittsburg County murder.
Marilyn Plantz was executed for the murder of her husband
Marilyn Plantz was executed May 1, 2001
Wanda Jean Allen was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of her long term girlfriend. Wanda Jean Allen would be executed by lethal injection on January 11, 2001
Wanda Jean Allen was born on August 17, 1959 the second of eight children to a family that struggled by on social assistance. When Wanda Jean was twelve years old she was hit by a truck and knocked unconscious and two years later she was stabbed in the temple.
Wanda Jean Allen whose IQ was reported at 69 had a significant amount of brain damage from the two traumatic incidents. By the age of 17 Wanda Jean would drop out of high school.
Wanda Jean Allen was living with a girlfriend in 1981 when she would fatally shoot the other woman. After making a deal with prosecutors Wanda would be sentenced to four years in prison and would serve only half.
In 1988 Wanda Jean Allen was living with Gloria Jean Leathers, the two women had met in prison and their relationship was very rocky. In December of 1988 Wanda Jean and Gloria were involved in an argument at a grocery store that was broken up by a police officer. While Gloria and her mother were heading towards a police station to file a restraining order Wanda Jean would jump out and shot Leathers in the stomach, Gloria would die three days later in hospital.
At trial Wanda Jean Allen lawyers tried to get their client off on self defense pointing to Leathers criminal history that showed she had stabbed a woman to death in 1979. Unfortunately Wanda Jean Allen history also had a murder in it as well and the jury would convict and sentenced her to death.
Wanda Jean Allen would spend twelve years on death row before her execution was carried out on January 11, 2001 by lethal injection
On Jan. 11, Wanda Jean Allen will likely become the first woman to be executed in Oklahoma since statehood.
She hopes that the state Pardon and Parole Board and Gov. Frank Keating will commute her sentence to life without parole. But if that doesn’t happen, the 41-year-old says she is at peace.
“I have peace right here,” she says, tapping her chest. “And as long as I am all right with Him, I am not afraid of what man can do to me.”
Her victim and one-time lover, Gloria Jean Leathers, died four days after being shot at close range in 1988 by Allen in front of the Village Police Station in Oklahoma City.
“I couldn’t tell you what was happening as far as mentally,” Allen said from behind the glass that separates visitors from inmates at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma City. “I was there physically, but not mentally there. But I know it was a tragic accident that day.”
Wanda Jean Allen said she and Leathers were both out of control.
Leathers had called her mother to pick her up from the house where she and Allen lived. After packing her belongings, Leathers and her mother went to the police station to file a compliant against Allen.
Allen followed Leathers and shot her. Leathers’ mother, Ruby Wilson of Edmond, witnessed the killing.
On Oct. 13, Ruby Wilson met with her daughter’s killer.
“I wanted to tell her how sorry I was for taking her daughter’s life. And I know there is no greater love than a mother’s love for a child because I have a mother as well. And I asked for her forgiveness. She forgave me. We prayed together. And I let her know I loved her for coming that day.”
Leathers and Allen met in prison. Allen was serving a 4-year sentence for manslaughter. On June 29, 1981, at a motel in Oklahoma City, Allen shot to death Detra Pettus following an argument with Pettus’ boyfriend.
“We was friends,” Allen said of Pettus. “We grew up together. We lived in the same neighborhood. We had mutual friends.
While some prosecutors say that Allen and Leathers had a relationship in prison, Allen said that was not the case.
Wanda Jean Allen was released from prison before Leathers. When Leathers got out, she called Allen.
“She didn’t have a place to stay,” Allen said. “She and her family were having problems. I allowed her to come and live with me because I know how hard it is when you get out.
“By me being locked up, I understood that situation. You have to help people when they get out. Someone had helped me when I got out, so in turn I wanted to help someone as well.”
The pair lived together on and off for three years. She described Leathers as funny and witty.
“It was the wrong type of lifestyle,” she said of the lesbian relationship. “It didn’t make either of us less human than if we were in a heterosexual relationship, a bisexual relationship. We are still human. We have emotions. We laugh. We cry. It was part of our life.”
At her trial, Oklahoma County prosecutors painted Allen as a person who hunted down her victims. Prosecutors introduced a card Allen had given Leathers.
The card had a gorilla on it. The printed message said, “Patience my ass. I am going to kill something.” Inside, Allen had written, “Try and leave me and you will understand this card more. Dig. For real, no joke.
Leathers was portrayed as meek and timid.
Wanda Jean Allen said her attorney was not given a fair shot at defending her and was limited in what he could present. In 1979, Leathers was arrested in Tulsa for the stabbing death of Sheila Marie Barker, whom she killed outside a Tulsa disco. A judge later determined the slaying was self-defense.
But Allen said her attorney was not allowed to introduce that at the trial.
Her trial attorney Bob Carpenter, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
In her first interview in 12 years, Wanda Jean Allen talked about her childhood, family, who she is and who she is not.
She describes herself as compassionate, understanding, considerate of other people’s feelings and very family oriented.
I am not a monster,” Allen said. “I am a human. I laugh and I cry, just as you do and others. I am not a vengeful-type person. I don’t try to hurt people.”
Allen was the oldest girl among eight siblings.
“We had love,” Allen said. “We didn’t have a lot of financial support or materialistic things. But we had love in the house.”
In her teens, she got into trouble for what she calls behavior problems and spent some time in a juvenile facility. She later spent some time in foster care
At the age of 15, her IQ tested at 69, which was within the upper limit of mental retardation. Later, she was tested at an IQ of 80.
“I think my motor skills are different from other people that can comprehend things faster. I am not as fast at getting things as some people. I am slow in that area. But over the years, you know, you deal with your handicap. To be in society, you have to deal with that. It can be a limitation on what you can do.”
Wanda Jean Allen graduated from U.S. Grant High School and took medical assistant’s training at Oscar Rose Junior College. She worked at a veterans’ hospital and at the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club, among other jobs.
She is one of three women on death row. On Sept. 14, all three got baptized.
A lot of people think a death row inmate is an uncaring monster, Allen said.
“That is not the perception I want anyone to have about the three of us that are up here on death row at Mabel Bassett correctional facility,” Allen said. “We are humans. We care for other people. We feel what they are going through. Even if we are in a worse position than they are, we still focus on them.”
Wanda Jean Allen is locked down 23 hours a day, seven days a week.
She has no personal property in her cell, other than a television and radio. She is a fan of the Chicago Bulls, likes opera and reads John Grisham and Danielle Steele novels.
She repeatedly talks about her family. Her mother, Mary Allen, lives a few miles from the prison that has housed her daughter for 12 years.
“Your family is always going to be there regardless what you are going through,” she said. “The good times. The bad times. They are going to be there. My family has been doing this time with me. A lot of people don’t realize that. What you go through, you take your family through it as well.”
Wanda Jean Allen says she has a need to help people. If she could talk to children, she would tell them to stay close to their family and be independent.
“A life of crime ain’t where it is at,” she said. “You don’t have to prove nothing to no one. And if you are put in that positions where you have to provide something to someone, you don’t need to be around that person.”
In December, Allen will make an appearance before the five-member Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.
“I am not nervous,” she said. “I am going to tell them what is my heart. Be direct with them. Tell them how I feel. Ask them to spare my life.”
Wanda Jean Allen has not been told much about the execution process, which is carried out shortly after 9 p.m. by lethal injection at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
“If it came to it, I will just have to deal with those circumstances. My faith is strong. I know who has the last say so. I am talking about God.”
Wanda Jean Allen was executed for the murder of her girlfriend
Wanda Jean Allen was executed on January 11, 2001
