Okla. Woman Put to Death

M c A L E S T E R, Okla., Jan. 12 -- A woman convicted of killing a childhood friend and later murdering a lesbian lover was executed Thursday 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, an ardent 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 state parole board knew enough about her education. Her attorneys have said she scored 69 on an IQ test she took in the 1970s, suggesting that 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 course work in the medical program.Scored a 69 on IQ Test

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.

Leathers’ mother, Ruby Wilson, has said she doesn’t hate Allen but hates what she did.

“I will never forget it. I will always see it," Wilson said after meeting with Allen.

Protesters gathered at the governor’s mansion in Oklahoma City and groups on both sides of the death penalty issue clustered outside the prison.