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| Gaile Owens |
Former death row inmate Gaile Owens could be a free woman soon if at least three more members of the state Board of Probation and Parole vote in her favor.
The 58-year-old Owens was convicted in 1986 of hiring a man to kill her husband and was sentenced to death. Former Gov. Phil Bredesen commuted her sentence to life in prison last year after attorneys claimed Owens had suffered from serious physical and sexual abuse.
At a parole hearing Wednesday, Patsy Bruce, the only member of the panel who was present, voted to grant Owens parole, according to The Tennessean (http://bit.ly/oLsdOQ). The remaining 6 members are expected to vote in the next two to four weeks. If a majority of the panel votes for parole, Owens could be free in 2012.
Owens cried during the hearing and said, "Words cannot express the remorse and regret that I have."
Her son Stephen Owens said he spoke both as a victim of the crime and as Owens' son.
"I want my mother to come home to her family," Stephen Owens said. "I have 2 young sons who deserve the opportunity to meet their grandmother."
Owens was convicted in Shelby County of hiring Sidney Porterfield to kill her husband. Ron Owens was beaten to death with a tire iron at their suburban Memphis home. Witnesses testified that Owens had solicited several men over a period of a few months to kill her husband.
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.
In ordering the commutation, Bredesen said he did so because Owens had a plea deal with prosecutors but then was put on trial when her co-defendant refused to accept the bargain. Bredesen's statement also acknowledged the abuse claims.
"This case also raises unresolved allegations of domestic violence and emotional abuse that, while inconclusive, raise the possibility that the defendant suffered from the form of post-traumatic stress disorder then known as battered woman syndrome," the commutation statement said.
Source: Associated Press, September 7, 2011
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