Yesterday, former Bartlett resident Gaile Owens was scheduled to be executed September 28th.
Owens was involved in the 1986 murder of her husband, Ron Owens, after hiring a North Memphis man to kill him.
After police questioned her, Owens confessed to the plot and eventually agreed to a plea deal to serve life in prison.
Because her case could not be severed from that of her co-defendant, Sidney Porterfield, he was required to plead guilty for Owens’ deal to be accepted.
Instead, the case went to trial, and without taking the stand in her own defense, Owens was found guilty.
In the intervening years, evidence has come to light that she was a victim of domestic abuse, and former publisher John Seigenthaler wrote an opinion piece in The Tennessean, comparing Owens’ case to that of Selma, Tennessee, battered wife Mary Winkler.
Last week, I sent a list of questions to Owens through her attorneys, including if she regretted not testifying at her trial.
“It’s hard to say what you would do if given another opportunity,” she wrote back. “I felt at the time my decision to not testify was the right decision and was the best I could do to protect [my family]. My concern then and continues to be to protect my sons as much as I can.
