Gaile Owens Walks Out of a Tennessee Prison a Free Woman
Gaile Owens spent the last 30 years of her life in prison. Today, Gail is free, she is going home. She can cross off "The Tennessee Prison" as her address. Why was Gail in prison and how did she get out?
Gaile was married to Ron Owens. She was physically and mentally abused by her husband, although she kept that information to herself. Finally in 1986 Gaile had enough. She must have felt terribly alone and she took it upon herself to find a way out. She walked the streets of Memphis, Tennessee looking for someone to kill her husband. She found someone, Sidney Porterfield. Porterfield took the job and he saw it to completion.
Gaile and her children were out on February 17, 1985. When they got home Ron Owens was bleeding to death in front of their eye. Porterfield had hit Ron Owens with a tire iron, not once, but 21 times. Gail Owens' hell on earth was over, or was it? She was sent to prison, her sentence was the death sentence.
Porterfield is still on death row today. Gaile Owens had her death sentence commuted to a life sentence by then Governor Phil Bredesen in 2010. Now that her sentence was a life sentence, she was able to have a parole hearing in September. That is when she finally told the ugly truth. The truth of what her husband had put her through so many years before. She said she didn't bring this information up previously because of her children. She was trying to protect them from the ugliness of it all.
By a vote of 4 for and 2 against, Gaile Owens is now released from prison, today, October 7, 2011. Gail's family and friends were at the prison to witness her release and to provide their support.
It is impossible to understand how Gaile must feel, how her children feel and how the world feels about her. It will be a strange new world she is entering. Thirty years in prison and time probably stood still for her. But the world around her moved on, she will have to catch up with it.
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Published by Abby Greenhill
Abby is a retired Administrative Assistant. She is a pet lover who has many years experience as a dog owner. She loves to take road trips anywhere up and down the East Coast and tries to stay current on ne... View profile
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19 Comments
Post a CommentSad story that is controversial. No woman should have to endure what she did.
i would be gladder to read this news if the lady had killed her husband herself. Because she hired a killer, she put that temptation in the way of a man who is now on death row as a result. I don't suggest the actual killer should get a break, but, at the same time, the lady needs to answer for putting him in that situation.
Thanks for this report, Abby.
Okay, nice story, burt I think you've got your math screwed up. If she went to prison in 1986, she was in jail for 25 years, not 30. I know,because I got married in '81, and just celebrated my 30th anniversary.
Thanks for sharing this sad story.
Wow! Great read and angle on this!
It is unfortunate that, a- women have to suffer through such treatment by their husbands and b- that some women feel so trapped that murder is the only way out they see.
Wow. That's a sad story. I wish such things didn't happen but it seems the world is getting worse, not better.
Good article; this sort of story is all too common.
there are so many people who are in prison for such a long time for doing next to nothing and then there are others who should be in for life, but are released. total unfairness.