Witch Trial in Oklahoma: How the Prosecutorial Slut-Shaming of Brenda Andrew Put Her on Death Row – By Jeffrey St Clair (Counterpunch) / April 26, 2024
How do most people end up on death row in America? First, you’ve had the misfortune to be arrested and tried in one of the few states that still cling to this vindictive form of punishment. You’re likely to be male, poor, under-educated, black, Hispanic or Native American. You’ve got a criminal record. Your prosecutor was running for reelection or higher office. You were convicted of killing a white woman. Your lawyer was probably inexperienced, operating on a tight budget or incompetent.
But that doesn’t fit the profile of Brenda Andrew, the only woman on death row in Oklahoma. Andrew’s terrible journey to death row began when she fell in love with someone she got to know in a Bible study group at her church. The love affair ended with the murder of Andrews’ estranged husband, Rob, killed by her lover James Pavatt. Pavatt confessed to shooting Andrew’s husband and told the cops and prosecutors he acted alone.
But the prosecutors weren’t satisfied. They wanted Brenda Andrew, too, and charged her with being part of a murder plot with Pavatt to kill her husband and collect the life insurance money. In 2004, Brenda and Pavatt were both convicted of capital murder and the prosecutors asked the jury to impose the death penalty against both defendants. The case against Andrews was thin, much thinner than the case against Pavatt. In order to try to secure a death penalty verdict against Brenda, they put her character on trial, her sexual character. They accused her of being a bad wife, a bad mother, and a sexual predator.
