Efforts are heating up to halt a Tennessee woman’s execution, which is currently scheduled for September.
Gaile Owens was convicted in 1986 of hiring a man to murder her abusive husband. Now it’s up to Governor Phil Bredesen to decide whether the state should carry out Owens’ death sentence. If he does, it will be the first execution of a woman since state records began.
Advocates for Owens say she suffered battered-spouse syndrome from repeated and violent marital rape, but wanted to conceal it, and didn’t use it as a defense in court. Last night lawyers for Owens spoke to about 60 people at a YWCA in Nashville. They’re campaigning to persuade Governor Bredesen to halt the execution.
The conversation left Adrienne Scarbrough in tears. Scarbrough says she herself fled an abusive marriage.
“I have a very personal letter I need to write to Governor Bredesen. It’s not enough to commute the sentence. She needs to be paroled and she needs to have her life back.”
The governor’s office says so far he’s received over two thousand letters and emails, from lawyers, doctors, clergy and others both in and outside the state. Those messages span from character statements about Owens to urges against granting clemency.
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