This week in 2001
January 21st, 2015 by admin
“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
She smiled at her spiritual advisers and attorneys and stuck out her tongue.
— Wanda Jean Allen, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Oklahoma.
Executed January 11, 2001
Allen was convicted in the shooting death of Gloria J. Leathers, her lover. Her case gained national attention when Amnesty International and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty pleaded for clemency. Rev. Jessie Jackson led protesters in Oklahoma City, where he and others were arrested after crossing a police barricade at Allen’s prison. Allen had previously served time for the shooting death of a roommate.
Documentarian Liz Garbus covered Allen’s life story and death in 2002’s “The Execution of Wanda Jean.”
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