From death row to freedom: Woman gets second chance

Submitted by anthony on Fri, 2011-10-07 23:02

Story here. Excerpt:

'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.
...
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.
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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.'

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