Oklahoma executed Wanda Jean Allen for killing Gloria...

Oklahoma executed Wanda Jean Allen for killing Gloria Leathers her lover, the first woman put to death in the state since 1903 and the first black woman executed in the United States since the 1950s. Allen, 41, was pronounced dead at 9:21 p.m. (10:21 p.m. EST) (0321 GMT on Friday), six minutes after receiving an injection of chemicals at McAlester state prison. The execution came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Frank Keating rejected pleas for a 30-day stay from Allen supporters including civil rights activist Jesse Jackson who argued she should be spared because she was borderline mentally retarded. A defense team investigator among the witnesses behind a clear glass window from the death chamber flashed Allen the American Sign Language gesture for "I love you" just before her eyes closed. Her case drew attention from death penalty opponents from around the country because her lawyers said she was mentally handicapped after suffering brain damage as a child. Jessie Jackson spent the previous night in an Oklahoma City jail with 27 other anti-death penalty protesters after blocking the drive to an Oklahoma City jail late on 10 January where Allen had been held prior to be transferred to death row at the McAlester state prison. Only a handful of protesters, both pro and anti-death penalty, stood outside the whitewashed stone walls of the McAlester prison. The U.S. Supreme Court denied without comment a last-minute stay of execution sought by defense lawyers who argued Allen had not received a fair clemency hearing last month from the state pardons and parole board. The Supreme Court ruled some two hours before the execution and shortly after Gov. Frank Keating refused to use his powers to issue a 30-day stay for a new clemency hearing. Jesse Jackson met with Keating earlier on January 11 to repeat his appeal for a stay. The last black woman put to death in the United States was Betty Butler, convicted of murder and executed in Ohio in 1954. The last execution of a woman in Oklahoma took place in 1903 when Dora Wright was hanged for murder. Oklahoma was still a territory at that time. Six other Oklahoma death-row inmates are scheduled for execution this month.