Gaile Owens Paroled after being removed from Death Row.

[ScoopD (aka: Pam)]

Another murderer escaped the needle last July when Governor Bredesen commuted Gaile Owens sentence to life in prison. Now she has had her first parole hearing:

parole hearing video here: http://www.tennessean.com/videonetwork/1147857727001/Gaile-Owens-tells-her-story-at-her-first-parole-hearing

News Article:

Gaile Owens, once scheduled to be the first woman executed by the state of Tennessee since the days of Andrew Jackson and witchcraft, came a step closer to freedom today in her first hearing before the state parole board. At issue is whether the former death row inmate, convicted for arranging the murder of her husband Ron in 1985, would receive the votes she needs for parole.

Just over an hour after testimony began, 10 minutes before noon, board member Patsy Bruce looked directly at Owens and said, “I have decided I am going to vote yes.” Tears streamed down Owens' face, and most of the 70 gathered in the room broke into applause.

Owens must receive four "yes" votes before she is allowed to walk out of prison. The file will circulate through the other six parole-board members until four votes are tallied — yay or nay.

The emotional hearing was the latest wave in the groundswell calling for Owens' release, largely on grounds that juries never got to hear her claims of spousal sexual abuse. This factor, supporters say, might well have mitigated the severity of her sentence, even her conviction. (These issues are addressed in a multi-part 2010 Scene cover story, found here, here, and here.)

Ron Owens was found bludgeoned and bleeding by the couple's 11-year-old son Stephen in the family's Memphis home. He died a short time later from the wounds. A police investigation found that Gaile Owens had offered money to strangers if they would kill her husband. A man she approached, Sidney Porterfield, was ultimately convicted alongside Owens for the crime, though neither said money had exchanged hands. Nor did police find the murder weapon.

Gaile Owens arrived at the Tennessee Prison for Women on Feb. 21, 1986. Of the 25 years since that she has spent in prison, most were in some type of segregation, with 10 years in general population. In 2002, she was moved to the TPW’s Death Row, Unit 3.

In 2009, former Tennessean editor John Seigenthaler came out of semi-retirement to write a searing article about the inequities of her case and sentence. That article put into high gear a movement that had already been started by her current attorneys, along with a group of friends that included McNeely Pigott & Fox partner Katy Varney, singer/songwriter Marshall Chapman and then Titans Coach Jeff Fisher.

That group grew — by thousands — into the Friends of Gaile movement, the force behind an online petition urging then Gov. Phil Bredesen to either pardon her, grant her clemency, or commute her sentence to life in prison. On July 14, 2010, he chose the third option. Two days later, she was moved back to general population.

Though Bredesen’s action spared her life, friends say it was forgiveness of a different kind that she craved more than anything else. On Aug. 23, 2009, guards escorted a visitor into Unit 3 to see Owens. It was Stephen Owens, then 37. The last time he'd seen his mother, he was 12 years old — and testifying at her trial for the prosecution.

That meeting stretched three hours, and when he walked out, neither mother nor son knew if they would see each other again. But Stephen says his heart and his faith led him to forgive his mother. When the Supreme Court of Tennessee declined to vacate her death sentence on April 19, 2010, he made a public appeal to Gov. Bredesen to spare his mother’s life.

Today, Stephen Owens sat with his wife at the hearing on the front row, facing the desk where Parole Board member Bruce was seated. He asked that his mother be paroled, and that “she be allowed to come home to be with her family,” which includes two grandsons she has never met.

Seven others spoke on her behalf, including Varney, Seigenthaler, and Patricia Shea, president of the YWCA of Middle Tennessee. But no one spoke more emotionally and convincingly on her behalf than Gaile Owens. We'll have more details in next week's Scene.

source: nashvillescene.com

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Tenn-to-free-woman-whose-death-term-was-commuted-2193095.php

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Tenn. to free woman whose death term was commuted

LUCAS L. JOHNSON II, Associated Press

Updated 12:10 p.m., Wednesday, September 28, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee will free a woman who once sat on the state's death row for hiring a man to kill her husband.

The state Board of Probation and Parole voted Wednesday to release 58-year-old Gaile Owens, whose death sentence was commuted last year by then Gov. Phil Bredesen.

Owens was convicted in 1986 of hiring a man to kill her husband, Ron. He was beaten to death with a tire iron at their suburban Memphis home.

She initially told police that she had a bad marriage but that there was little physical violence. Shortly thereafter, she told attorneys a different story: claiming her husband had repeatedly raped and denigrated her, cheated on her and threatened to take their two children when she asked for a divorce.

Bredesen said he commuted the sentence because Owens once had a plea deal to avoid the death penalty that fell through when her co-defendant refused to plead guilty.

Parole board spokeswoman Melissa McDonald told The Associated Press Wednesday that Owens could be released within the next three weeks after paperwork is completed.

"Once she's released she will began to report to a probation and parole officer on a regular basis," McDonald said.

Defense attorneys claimed Owens' death sentence was out of line with others convicted of similar crimes. Attorneys found records of at least 20 women convicted in Tennessee of first-degree murder for either killing their husbands, or hiring or conspiring with someone else to have their husbands killed. None of those women were sentenced to death. Many other women were convicted of lesser charges.

Before her death sentence was commuted last July, Owens' execution had been set for that September. It has been nearly 200 years since Tennessee executed a woman. One other woman, Christa Gail Pike, is in prison with a death sentence but she is continuing to appeal.

Owens' son Stephen couldn't be reached for comment on Wednesday, but he told reporters at the time of her commutation that he was able to reconcile with her after realizing he could "forgive my mother and still honor and love my dad at the same time."

"I just wanted to be able to say that our family's legacy didn't end with the execution of my mother, and me having to sit down with my kids one day and explain that," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Erik Schelzig contributed to this report.














Anne

[Granny B]

From death row to freedom: Woman gets second chance
Son among those who greet her on release after hiring man to kill husband

by TRAVIS LOLLER
updated 2 hours 13 minutes ago 2011-10-07T16:54:45


Gaile Owens hugs a friend, Linda Oakley, after Owens was released Friday from the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville.


NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Memphis woman who spent 26 years on death row and came within two months of being executed for hiring a stranger to kill her husband was freed Friday from a Tennessee prison.

Gaile Owens, 58, was greeted by a small group of supporters outside Tennessee's Prison for Women. Owens was all smiles as she pushed a yellow laundry cart containing her belongings past the prison's razor-wire fence to freedom.

Owens was sentenced to die in 1985, but her death sentence was commuted to life in prison last year and she won parole last week.


Mark Humphrey  /  AP
Gaile Owens walks with her son Stephen as she is released.

Once out, she gave her son, Stephen Owens, a long embrace, as well as a former cellmate who is now free.

Owens issued a statement before leaving. She said she feels a "responsibility to give back to those who have given so much to me."

"I'm looking forward to leading a quiet, private, but productive life," Owens said. "But more than anything, I'm looking forward to being a mother and a grandmother. I can't wait to see my grandchildren, and to fulfill my dream of walking in the park with my family."

Stephen Owens, who is now grown and his children of his own, said he realized the transition for his mother was not going to be easy.

"This will be a slow process, but we will focus on one day at a time," said Stephen, adding that's he's looking forward to spending the rest of the day with his mother. "The days ahead will be completely new and different for all of us; but as always our confidence and trust are in God."

Supporters had urged her release, claiming she was a battered wife who didn't use that defense because she didn't want her young sons to know about the physical and sexual abuse.

John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and an Owens supporter, said the first time he met her nearly three years ago, he could tell she was sincere and fearful of the future.

"Clearly she was afraid she was going to die," he said Friday.

Owens' sentence was commuted to life in prison in July 2010 by former Gov. Phil Bredesen. He acknowledged the abuse claims but gave a different reason for his decision to spare her life. Bredesen said prosecutors had agreed not to seek the death penalty if Owens pleaded guilty but then put her on trial when her co-defendant wouldn't accept the deal.

Sidney Porterfield, the man she was accused of hiring to kill her husband with a tire iron, was also sentenced to death. He is still on death row.

At the time Owens was imprisoned, a life sentence meant serving 30 years and she was eligible to be released now because of good conduct.

Many of the supporters who greeted Owens when she was released said she had a strong faith while incarcerated and was heavily involved in prison ministry.

Marshall Chapman, a singer/songwriter and supporter, acknowledged Owens committed a terrible crime, but said she believes in redemption.

"And I feel like she's paid her debt to society," Chapman said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44818451/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/