Oklahoma

Oklahoma governor denies clemency for death row inmate – Garry Allen

OKLAHOMA CITY  — A spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin says the governor has decided to deny clemency for a man scheduled to die for the 1986 slaying of the mother of his two children.

Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Fallin has rejected a 2005 recommendation by the state Pardon and Parole Board to commute the sentence of Garry Thomas Allen to life in prison without parole.

Allen’s attorneys argued that he was mentally impaired when he killed 42-year-old Lawanna Gail Titsworth on Nov. 21, 1986, in Oklahoma City. They say he had been self-medicating for an underlying mental illness, and that his mental condition has worsened.

Oklahoma has four doses remaining of a drug used to execute inmates.

The execution date has been rescheduled for April 12.

Read full Executive Order

OKLAHOMA – Garry Allen execution again is delayed

Garry Thomas Allen is now scheduled to be executed April 12 after Gov. Mary Fallin issued an additional 26-day stay Tuesday.

Allen, 56, was set to be executed Saturday after a 30-day stay that was granted in February expired.

Last month, Fallin granted the 30-day stay from the original Feb. 16 execution date to allow time to evaluate the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board’s clemency recommendation.

The governor met with the Federal Public Defender’s Office, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office and the victim’s family to review Allen’s case and, after examining the arguments and evidence, determined that clemency should be denied and the sentence of death shall be carried out, spokesman Alex Weintz said.

Allen was sentenced to death for the 1986 Oklahoma City murder of the mother of his two children, Lawanna Gail Titsworth, 42. Allen’s attorneys have said he was mentally impaired when he killed Titsworth.

source : http://www.tulsaworld.com