December 5

Oklahoma Executes Third Woman This Year

MCALESTER, Oklahoma  - Oklahoma on Tuesday executed its third woman this year, surpassing all other U.S. states for the most number of women put to death since a national death penalty ban was lifted 25 years ago.

 Lois Nadean Smith, 61, a minister's daughter convicted of beating, strangling, stabbing and shooting Cindy Baillee, 21, was given a lethal injection at 9:11 p.m. CST and was declared dead two minutes later.

 Smith, testimony showed, killed Baillee in July 1982 after hearing the young woman had hired someone to kill Smith's son.

 Prisons spokesman Jerry Massie said she was the third woman executed in Oklahoma since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) overturned a nationwide death penalty ban. All of those executions were carried out this year -- Wanda Jean Allen on Jan. 11 and Marilyn Plantz on May 1.

 Since 1976, Texas, the nation's top capital punishment state, has executed two women, while Arkansas, North Carolina and Florida have each executed one, according to the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

 ``To the family I want to say I'm sorry for the pain and loss I caused you,'' Smith said in a final statement from the death house at the state prison in McAlester, about 120 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.

 ``I ask you to forgive me ... To live is Christ. To die is gain. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, thank you Jesus,'' she said.

 Smith gained a reputation for having a foul temper since high school and was given the nickname ``Mean Nadean,'' according to the state attorney general's office.

For her last meal, Smith requested barbecued ribs, onion rings, strawberry banana cake and cherry lemonade.

December 4

Oklahoma Executes Third Woman

By OWEN CANFIELD 

McALESTER, Okla.- A woman convicted of killing her son's ex-girlfriend in 1982 was executed Tuesday night by lethal injection, making her the third woman and 17th inmate put to death this year in Oklahoma.

 With the execution of Lois Nadean Smith, 61, Oklahoma now leads the nation in the number of executions this year.

 Texas has had 16 executions, with one more scheduled before year's end. Oklahoma also has one more execution set for this year. Sahib Al-Mosawi, an Iraqi national, was scheduled to die Thursday for the killing of his wife and her uncle.

 Smith is the last woman on Oklahoma's death row. No state has executed as many women in one year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.

 Before the drugs were administered, she thanked her attorneys and asked for forgiveness.

 ``To the families, I want to say I'm sorry for the pain and loss I've caused you,'' Smith said. ``I ask that you forgive me. You must forgive to be forgiven.''

 Smith was convicted of killing 21-year-old Cindy Baillie in July 1982. Baillie was shot nine times and stabbed in the throat.

 Authorities said Smith and her son, Greg, picked up Baillie the morning of the killing. Smith then confronted her about rumors that she had threatened to have her son killed.

 Prosecutors said Lois Smith began to choke Baillie and stabbed her in the throat with a knife; Baillie was then driven to a home where Lois Smith shot her.

 Greg Smith was convicted of murder and given a life sentence. Prosecutors said he reloaded his mother's gun during the shooting.

 Lois Smith's attorneys said she was trying to protect her son and was under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time