January 12, 2001 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - At 9:21 p.m., Thursday, January 11, Wanda Jean Allen was put to death by the state of Oklahoma for a capital crime. The death of the 41-year-old murderer was proceeded by an international outcry from liberal politicians, religious leaders, civil rights activists, and movie stars. Jesse Jackson, who can usually be found wherever the television cameras are pointed, and who was arrested during a protest the day before Allen’s death, said: “The state has carried out a planned, organized killing of a mentally retarded woman when there was strong evidence that she was executed for a killing she did not plan.”

Contrary to this ill-informed notion are the following facts:

(1) Though Allen was not a mental giant, she “was a fully functioning adult who held a job, managed her finances and knew right from wrong.”

(2) Jesse Jackson failed to mention that Allen not only murdered her lesbian lover, Gloria Leathers, in 1988 (the crime for which she was put to death), but she also murdered Detra Pettus in 1981. In fact, when she shot Leathers to death in 1988 she was out of prison on bail for the 1981 murder! That one woman could find herself in two such “unplanned” situations, both of which result in death, is too much to believe.

(3) Contrary to the idea that U.S. states like Oklahoma and Texas put criminals to death arbitrarily without a proper legal framework, we must point out that Allen was granted TWELVE YEARS of court appeals and was provided with lawyers at taxpayer expense for all of that time. She was granted every psychological and mental test her lawyers desired. Her case was gone over with a fine tooth comb not once, not twice, not thrice, but repeatedly.Ê

(4) In true liberal fashion, Jackson ignores the pain of the victims and focuses instead on the plight of the criminal. The family of Detra Pettus complained to the press that Allen spent only four years in prison after the murder of their loved one in 1981. They said, “The short prison stays are a part of the reason crimes are repeated. It has taken 20 years and a second murder in order to get the death penalty.” Katina Wilson, a niece of Leathers, told reporters, “You guys feel sorry about Wanda Jean, but your concern should be with the families. We are the victims.”

(5) Jesse Jackson ignores the Bible’s command that a murderer be put to death. It is not murder to put criminals to death for heinous crimes. The Bible plainly says that the man who takes a life is to forfeit his own life (Gen. 9:6). In this present dispensation God has given civil government the authority to put offenders to death. In Rom. 13 we see that God has given nations the authority to “bear the sword” against evil. This obviously refers to capital punishment. The sword certainly does not speak of a fine or of imprisonment! Some think the Biblical law was barbaric in its dealings with serious crime. On the contrary. It is barbaric to allow wickedness to go unpunished. When severe justice is not meted out to capital offenders, evil spreads like leaven throughout society. The wicked become increasingly brazen. Fear of God diminishes. God is not only a God of love, but a God of holiness and justice. The Bible speaks of the deterrent factor of capital punishment: Deut. 13:11; 17:7,13; 19:20; 21:21; Rom. 13:3,4. The Bible also says that only by taking the life of the murderer can the stain of murder be cleansed from the land (Num. 35:31-34; Deut. 19:13).

Some make the strange claim that capital punishment does not deter crime. I don’t understand that logic, because it is a fact that Wanda Jean Allen will never kill another person. Had she died for her first murder, she would not have killed the second time.