by Saeed Shabazz
Staff Writer

Anti-death penalty activists pulled out every stop to save the life of Wanda Jean Allen, 41, the first Black women executed in the United States since 1954 when Betty Butler was put to death in Ohio. Their efforts failed and Ms. Allen was pronounced dead at 9:21 p.m. Jan. 11.

Activists and attorneys for Ms. Allen argued her IQ was that of a child and said she was poorly represented at her trial�grounds for postponing the death sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court and Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating ignored their pleas.

But activists concede there is little time to even mourn for Ms. Allen with six more people scheduled to die in Oklahoma between Jan. 11 and Feb. 1, with an additional execution set for Feb. 20. Oklahoma�s previous one-month record of four executions was set in May 1933.

"The execution of Ms. Allen made it clear that we have a lot of work to do," said Wayne Smith, executive director of the Justice Project, based in Washington, D.C. said. "We need to mobilize the people in a given community. In this instance the citizens of Oklahoma must put pressure on their legislators," he said.

In the case of Ms. Allen, who was sentenced to death for killing a lesbian lover, Rev. Jesse Jackson was among those who asked for clemency. After meeting with Gov. Keating, Rev. Jackson and 27 other protesters were arrested for trespassing Jan. 10, after crossing a police line outside the prison where Ms. Allen was being held.

"The argument that we will continue to make is that people like Wanda Jean Allen have a diminished mental capability, therefore killing her was like executing a child," said Minky Worden, electronic media director for Human Rights Watch.

Ms. Worden told The Final Call her organization plans to release a major report on the evils of executing people with diminished mental capability. "We are hoping that the younger generation will see our information and do something about it," she said.

Karen Lau, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, hopes the Allen case will help galvanize opposition to capital punishment. "We had 15 people show up for a previous execution in Oklahoma, but for Wanda Jean Allen 200 showed up. The tide is turning. Because of the mistakes in Ms. Allen�s case people are now coming out of the woodwork to talk about the death penalty," she said.

One such person is Oklahoma City Representative Opio Toure, who has organized prayer vigils and plans to ask the state legislature to review existing death penalty laws. Ms. Lau continued. "That is quite amazing, given the fact that he was a staunch supporter of the death penalty prior to Ms. Allen�s execution," she noted.

The American Civil Liberties Union believes each of the upcoming cases in Oklahoma must be used to build an action agenda towards a national moratorium against the death penalty.

"We are continuing to work through the national and local press to get the word out that the death penalty as it exists is a violation of the rights of all Americans, not just those on death row," Diann Rust-Tierrey, director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project explained during a phone interview.

The ACLU wants to spotlight violations of due process in capital cases. "We believe that the American public will understand and react positively if they continue to get the information that our current system is terribly flawed," Ms. Rust-Tierrey said.

The last execution of a woman in Oklahoma prior to Ms. Allen was in 1903, when Dora Wright was hanged for murder. Oklahoma executed 11 people in 2000, ranking second to Texas. The Lone Star state holds the U.S. record with 40 executions in one year.