Plot to kill husband caused pain, but son finally forgave

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For a few moments Thursday evening, Gaile Owens was all hugs.

Before she spoke on a panel with her son Stephen, the 61-year-old went from person to person that she knew, grabbing each one's hands and quietly having conversations.

Those moments and the conversations that followed were a stark contrast from where she was three years ago — in prison awaiting the death penalty for paying someone to kill her husband, who she says was abusive, in 1984. After constant calls by her family and community advocates to reduce the severity of her punishment, Gov. Phil Bredesen commuted her sentence in 2010.

For the first time, Owens spoke briefly in front of an audience about her time in the Tennessee Prison for Women as part of a panel for her son's recently published book, "Set Free," which described his journey to embrace and forgive his mother for the crime she committed. Their story, said moderator and former Tennessean editor and publisher John Seigenthaler, "goes to the heart of what a caring, loving, all-embracing society we can be."

Gaile Owens repeatedly said she had a lonely life in prison — while spending time mentoring younger inmates, she yearned for some type of contact with her sons or family that could lead to a conversation and an apology. It didn't happen for decades.

"I can remember months and years, birthdays and holidays, just wanting one card, and they didn't come."

Her son Stephen Owens was 11 years old when he testified against her at trial and thought he had closed a chapter of his life when his mother was sentenced to death. The perfect family he once thought he was part of was shattered.

"When I walked out of there, I thought to myself that we would never see each other again, if I had my way," he said.

Stephen Owens said it took years and many steps for that to eventually change. At each point, whether it was sending her a Christmas card telling her she was a grandmother or talking with a colleague who had been part of prison Bible studies with her for 15 years, the emotions that had remained inside him continued to reappear.

"Every step, that anger and resentment releases," he said. Time, with what Stephen Owens said was wrapped with a major element of faith, brought him to a point where reinserting himself into his mother's life became possible again.

It may have taken nearly a quarter-century for Stephen Owens to decide to go to the prison in 2009 and visit his mother, but once he got there, the forgiveness he once thought he could never give came quickly.

Getting to that point meant the world for his mother, who said that hope to see her family again kept her going during her darkest times.

"I knew I had to get up, because I knew that there was still hope that one day I would see Stephen, and one day I would be able to tell him I did wrong, and that I was sorry," she said.