Wanda Allen becomes first black woman executed in U.S. since 1954
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McALESTER, Okla. - A woman convicted of killing a childhood friend and later murdering a lesbian lover was executed last night, becoming the first black woman executed in the United States since 1954.
Wanda Jean Allen, 41, received a lethal dose of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
"Father forgive them," Allen said before she died. "They know not what they do."
Gov. Frank Keating, a death-penalty supporter, cleared the way for the execution by denying a late request for a 30-day stay. A federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court also refused to block the execution.
Keating met with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Attorney General Drew Edmondson before making his decision. Jackson was among two dozen people arrested Wednesday for trespassing during a protest at a women's prison.
Allen's request for a stay was based on the narrow issue of whether the parole board knew enough about her education. Her attorneys said she scored 69 on an IQ test she took in the 1970s, suggesting she is retarded.
Prosecutors argued at a recent clemency hearing that Allen had graduated from high school and received a medical-assistant certificate from Rose State College. Allen, however, dropped out of high school at 16 and never finished the medical course.
In 1981, Allen fatally shot childhood friend Dedra Pettus during an argument, and spent two years in prison. Seven years later, she killed her lover, Gloria Leathers, whom she met in prison.
Leathers argued with Allen in a grocery store the day she died and was gunned down as she arrived at a police station with her mother to file a complaint.
Before yesterday, 44 women had been executed in the United States since 1900. The last execution of a black woman came in 1954, when Ohio electrocuted Betty Jean Butler.
The most recent woman to die was Christina Marie Riggs, 28, executed in Arkansas last May for smothering her two young children.