Clemency denied for man convicted of killing Oklahoma City woman in 1986

From the Associated Press

Gov. Mary Fallin has decided the execution will proceed for a man scheduled to die for the 1986 slaying of the mother of his two children.

Fallin on Tuesday rejected a 2005 recommendation by the state Pardon and Parole Board to commute the sentence of Garry Thomas Allen to life in prison without parole.

Allen’s attorneys 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 worsened.

A police officer shot Allen in the face during a struggle after Allen shot Titsworth.

Oklahoma has four doses remaining of a drug used to execute inmates.

The execution date has been rescheduled for April 12.

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