'Mean Nadean' becomes third woman executed this year

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ Once known as ``Mean Nadean,'' Lois Nadean Smith went meekly to her death. <br><br>The 61-year-old Smith, gray-haired and wearing glasses, asked her victim's family

Wednesday, December 5th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ Once known as ``Mean Nadean,'' Lois Nadean Smith went meekly to her death.

The 61-year-old Smith, gray-haired and wearing glasses, asked her victim's family for forgiveness and embraced her faith before being executed by injection Tuesday night for killing her son's ex-girlfriend in 1982.

``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.''

She thanked her attorneys, sent her love to her children and then quoted Scripture.

``To live is Christ, to die is gain,'' she said. ``Thank you Jesus.''

She was pronounced dead at 9:13 p.m., two minutes after the lethal mix of drugs was administered. Four of her attorneys, a spiritual adviser and an investigator watched from the front row of the witness room.

Smith, the last female on death row in Oklahoma, was the third woman executed by the state this year. 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.

She is the 17th person executed this year in Oklahoma. On Thursday, Iraqi national Sahib Al-Mosawi is scheduled to become the 18th, which would give Oklahoma more executions than any state _ Texas has had 16, with one more scheduled before year's end.

Smith was convicted of killing Cindy Baillie, 21, in Sequoyah County on July 4, 1982, because she thought Baillie was trying to have Smith's son killed.

Baillie's daughter, Brandy Fields, witnessed the execution with her husband, a family friend and an aunt.

``If she really meant it, you have to forgive even though it's very hard and it doesn't help me at all,'' Fields said, sobbing occasionally. ``It does a little bit, but it doesn't bring back my mom.

``I wish she thought of this before she did what she did. We wouldn't be in this position.''

Smith and her son, Greg, and another woman picked up Baillie in Tahlequah the morning of the killing, said Attorney General Drew Edmondson. Smith confronted her about rumors that she had threatened to have Greg Smith killed.

Prosecutors said Nadean Smith, who had earned her nickname in high school, then began to choke Baillie and stabbed her in the throat with a knife. Baillie was driven to a home in Gans, where Nadean Smith shot her in the chest, head and back and jumped on her neck.

Greg Smith was convicted of murder and given a life sentence. He reloaded Smith's gun during the shooting.

Fields said she will be at Greg Smith's parole hearing in May.

``It's not completely over because I still have to go and do that until he dies,'' she said. ``I'm glad this part of it's over because I don't ever have to hear that she's got clemency or is going to stay the rest of her remaining life in prison. She's got what the court handed down to her.''

Eight women were arrested Tuesday night while protesting Smith's execution. They were held on misdemeanor trespassing complaints after crossing a police line at the Mabel Basset Correctional Center in Oklahoma City, where Smith was housed before being transferred to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

A small group of anti-death penalty protesters prayed by candle light outside the prison. Nearby, a group of victim's advocates stood vigil. One wore a T-shirt that said, ``The crime scene will return to normal. What about the victims?''