Okla. Governor Delays Execution for 30 Days

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin issued a 30-day stay of execution Thursday for a death-row inmate who had been scheduled to die next week for the 1986 murder of the mother of his two children.

Fallin, a Republican, issued the stay for 55-year-old Garry Thomas Allen to give her legal team more time to consider a 2005 recommendation by the state Pardon and Parole Board to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole.

Allen's attorneys have 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 only gotten worse. A police officer shot Allen in the face during a struggle after Allen shot his wife.

Allen's current lawyer, Randy Bauman, declined to comment on the stay, but in a letter to the governor urged her to consider sparing his life.

"The state of Oklahoma should not execute this mentally ill and remorseful man," Bauman wrote.

The board voted 4-1 in 2005 to recommend commuting Allen's sentence to life.

Click here to read the full article

Sources: ABC News, AP, Feb. 9, 2012

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