Dear Governor Bredesen,
I write to ask that you offer mercy to Gaile Owens.
You well know that, after the Tennessee Supreme Court refused to hear the case of the 57 year old Gaile Owens, who has spent the last 25 years in prison for setting her husband's murder in motion in 1985, only you stand in the way between the rest of her life spent in jail, which Ms.Owens is asking for, and her execution by lethal injection on September 28th. If Gaile Owens is killed, she will be the first women to be executed by your state since Eve Martin was hanged in 1820.
You know, too, that the facts involving Ms. Owens' battering from day one of her marriage were never brought to the court's attention and that her husband repeatedly and falsely described himself as one who served as a twice wounded Vietnam medic. This lie was part of his published obituary. You no doubt recall Mary Winkler, another Tennessee citizen, who shot and killed her minister husband. Ms. Winkler served seven months in prison and subsequently was able to receive full custody of her children.
Throughout her marriage, Ms. Owens was forced to endure violent sexual degradation that began on her wedding night and never ceased, including repeating certain acts until she vomited, and having foreign objects, such as a wine bottle and a marijuana pipe, inserted in her vagina and tear her rectum. Her husband accused her of not using proper precaution to avoid pregnancy, and just before the birth of their second son, she was hospitalized for a torn placenta due to sadistic sex. All of this occurred before the concept of marital rape was part of our judicial body of laws.
Governor Bredesen, I know that psychopathic killers can be male and female. But Gaile Owens is not a psychopath. For those with this character disorder show no guilt or remorse. On the contrary, Ms. Owens was frank about her guilt, almost from the very start. Soon after her arrest she explained, "I'm sorry. I wish I'd never done it....I felt like I had all that I could take over the years...just the mental abuse I felt I had been through."
Gaile Owens' 37 year old son, Stephen, describes his mother as "extremely remorseful and regretful," describing her prison years as "25 years reforming her life." Stephen Owens has asked you to spare his mother's life so that she is able to spend her remaining years continuing to attend her Bible study classes, counsel inmates and juggle a multitude of responsibilities in a setting where she has a stellar record and is respected by staff and inmates alike.
Gaile Owens had neither money nor connections. Her attorneys were denied funding to hire an expert witness experienced in abuse and trauma. Still, at the time of her trial it was well documented that she suffered from battered women's syndrome, a state hallmarked by depression, anxiety, fear, and tattered self-esteem. Women who endure emotional, physical, and sexual abuse live in a constant state of humiliation and shame, and in time cannot make rational decisions or offer sound judgments. Rather than clearly see the impact of the abuse they have endured, and the pathology of the abuser, they view themselves as "less than," lacking, and impaired.
It was in this state of mind that that Gaile Owens hired Sidney Potterfield, a complete stranger she met on the streets of Memphis, to kill her husband.
Not wanting her young sons to hear what her husband had done to her, or appear to them as being so inadequate a lover that their father turned to another woman, Ms. Owens would not allow her abuse to be mentioned. For this reason she has consistently refused requests to tell her full story to the press.
Further, exculpatory evidence was withheld from the defense. Jurors did not hear of sexually explicit love letters written to her husband, who was the associate director of nursing at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, by a woman on his staff. Though the prosecutor stated that the letters did not exist, they had been returned to Ron Owens' mistress. Police, however, had recorded notes from the correspondence, and these notes were used in the unsuccessful court appeal. At least one juror from the initial trial has come forward to say that had she had known of Ms. Owens' life, she would not have voted for the death penalty.
Gaile Owens is the only prisoner in Tennessee, and most likely the entire United States, to receive a death sentence after accepting the offer of a guilty plea in exchange for a life in prison. The offer was withdrawn when the co-defendant, Sidney Potterfield, refused to accept the plea. Further, a recent review of nine cases similar to this one, where in desperation a woman either killed or hired someone to kill a partner, shows that six have received early parole or probation and that two received life sentences with the eligibility for parole.
Governor Owens, I have seen again and again in over 30 years of working with those who endure horrendous suffering in their marriages that most likely this quality of pain was also known in childhood. This was the case of Gaile Owens, who faced the reality of another world of misery on her wedding night.
I have also seen that sometimes life in prison, as restrictive as it is, can be a woman's first experience with opportunity and hope. I ask you please to allow Gaile Owens to offer other women this hope. She knows what she did is wrong, and she has repented. I ask please that you honor truth and hope, and the office you hold, by showing her the mercy she has earned after a life of relentless suffering and subsequent repentence.
Follow SaraKay Smullens on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaraKay1710
Amnesty International: New Global Death Penalty Stats Released Today
Eric Simpson: I Changed My Mind on the Death Penalty
TN court sets execution date for Gaile Owens » Knoxville News Sentinel
Gaile Owens has been on Tennessee's death row for 25 years for ...
Gaile Owens' son asks Bredesen to spare death row inmate's life ...
The Case of Gaile Owens in Tennessee - The StandDown Texas Project
Gaile Owens supporters begin pitch to get her off Tennessee's ...
Gaile Owens is the first woman sentenced to die in Tennessee in ...
Death Row Inmate Gaile Owens Makes Plea to Governor Bredesen ...
Hasn't Death Row Inmate Gaile Owens Suffered Enough? | wowOwow
Tennessee woman on death row seeks reprieve
Gaile Owens supporters begin pitch to get her off Tennessee's death row
Gaile Owens' son asks Bredesen to spare death row inmate's life
TN sets Sept. 28 date to execute Gaile Owens for having husband slain
Supreme Court sets execution date for death row inmate Gaile Owens
As a former resident of Knoxville, I remember when Gaile Owens was sentenced. At the time there were huge question marks -- how could someone who was only trying to protect herself and her children from such a threat possibly be sentened to death?
At the time, of course, it was impossible to express the outrage many felt in a public place where it could be seen - and measured. Granted the internet existed, but blogs and every-person-participation did not. But today -- yes -- we have a forum because we have the internet.
I loved living in Tennessee, because I loved the people of Tennessee. They are generous, compassionate and giving people. They knew then, and know now, that Gaile Owens paid her debt before she ever committed her crime -- because she lived her tortured life before she went to prison.
Please do the right thing by commuting this death sentence for Gaile Owens. Show the world that Tennessee's legal system makes room for the just and recognizes when one's dues have already been paid.
Sincerely,
Trisha Torrey
Thank you for this perspective of someone who knows the decency of Tennessee, where one of their own has suffered for so long, and so dearly deserves some peace.
With gratitude,
SaraKay
Plesase reconsider administering the death penalty to Gaile Ownes. She has suffered an endless cycle of pain and anguish inflicted by the cruelest of husbands. What she has undergone would eventually breakdown the will of anyone. Many of our bravest military personnel have undergone torture which they eventually broke down under. What Gaile Owens has endured was nothing less than torture. She undoubtedly felt trapped in an endless cycle of continued suffering at the hands of an evil man and saw no other way out. Many who have committed much greater crimes have received much lighter sentences and what sentence can be more severe than the ultimate one of taking her life? Hardened criminals, which she in not, have undergone transformations in prison when there for a life sentence. She is already remorseful for what she has done, even though her crime is understandable under the circumstances. Her case warrants a compassionate review rather than the death penalty, which she is otherwise destined to be unjustly subject to. Again, on humane and just grounds, I respectfully request that you reconsider her sentence and change it to a life sentence. That is all she is asking for.
Sincerely,
Hugh Rosen
Your words of wisdom and clear thinking are ones that I hope that the Governor will think so carefully about. A precious life that offers so much to so many is at stake, and you point both to her remorse and her suffering so purposefully. Thank you!
SaraKay
Please reconsider administering the death penalty to Gaile Owens in favor of a life sentence. I make this request on her behalf both on humanitarian grounds and on the basis of the circumstances and context of her crime. What she did was the understandable culmination of crimes and cruelty being inflicted upon her by her husband that would eventually lead to the breakdown of anyone's moral code. Even the bravest of our soldiers would and have broken down under severe torture and what Gaile Owens endured was no less than that. She clearly felt trapped in an unending and inescapaplbe cycle of pain and anguish. Many convicted persons under lesser circumstances who have committed similar violations have received sentences that have not extracted the ultimate punishment by the justice system that she is presently awaiting. All she is asking for is a life sentence. Even some hardened criminals, which she is not, have undergone transformation while imprisoned for life. It is not as if Gaile Owens is not remorseful, for she is. Again, I ask that she be allowed to live out her life in prison rather than have the death sentence carried out.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and giving some thought to it.
Sincerely,
Hugh Rosen
Thank you for your sensible approach to seeing and expressing your appeal to the Governor. Your words are so deeply important.
SaraKay
Her crime was the pathetic and desperate response of life long victim. Those true victims do exist, however many others may have claimed that mantle without merit. Galle Owens is one of them. Review the overwhelming evidence of that truth about her and the moral path here is clearly lit. She has proved herself capable of contributing to the good of others in her current situation. Let that continue.
We can use our laws to terminate a life, and sometimes, so I believe, we should. We must also use them with wisdom, compassion and rigorous judgement. Mr. Governor — this is an instance where mercy and rational judgement are in perfect accord. Let Galle Owens live
Thank you for taking the time to share this very important and thoughtful analysis. Like the others, I hope the Governor will read them again and again.
SaraKay
SaraKay
I cannot imagine how Gail Owens can possible be given the death penalty.
What is it going to prove by killing her. Killing is what you are going to do, governor, with the death
penalty, because after being tortured & abused all those years with her husband, it was the only way out for her. She has admitted her crime but, governor, can you admit in you heart, the potential mistake that you might be about to make?? think about it...her death isn't going to set an example for anything or anybody.
Sally Barron
Philadelphia, Pa.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write. Your words are so reasonable, rational and true. I hope that the Governor reads them again and again!
SaraKay
SaraKay Smullens
John V. R. Bull
Philadelphia, Pa.
SaraKay