The Execution of Wanda Jean

As someone who is opposed to capital punishment, I found this story of a somewhat retarded black lesbian woman on death row in Oklahoma very difficult to watch. The lawyer who originally defended her was, by his own admission, unqualified, and was only paid $800 for his work. He totally botched the case, and the efforts documented in this film to introduce evidence of her retardation and brain damage which was inexplicably omitted by the original attorney were blocked at every turn. The filmmakers originally got involved to make a tape for Wanda Jean's clemency hearing, but continued to document the case after that failed.

The main investigator working for Wanda Jean was at the screening on 2/28/2002, and he said that based on the evidence he heard when he first became involved, he never expected to lose. Some of his scenes in the film are heartbreaking to watch. Wanda Jean, meanwhile, remains upbeat and highly religious to the very end. This film has since aired on HBO. Seen at Cinequest (the San Jose, CA film festival).

I was watching her story on A&E today and I found it very interesting. so interesting that I immediately Googled her name so that I could read about her story in more depth. What I did not know was that she was convicted previously and did crime for killing another lover. I was feeling sorry for her until I read more about her and I see why she was not granted clemency. It seems that she was making a habit out of killing and she needed to be stopped. LIke her family, I think that execution was a cop out and she should have spent the rest of her life in prison. Her team worked exceptionally hard on her case and at the end was really emotional and I could see the sincerity of his pleas for her to live. Excellent piece of work and A&E should re-play it.

I am sure the family knew why their loved one was in prison. They were asking why is she being executed.

If that was your mother, sister, daughter, granddaughter would you feel the same about the death penalty? Killing people who kill people to show that killing people is 100% wrong. It costs more to execute a person then to keep them in prison the rest of their life.

It is interesting you think they don't suffer when a person is put to death. Maybe you should tell the states who have put executions on hold right now that they don't suffer.

There is pain from both families. In a matter of seconds lives can be turned upside down forever. The death penalty does not stop that.

«An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the privation of life as a concentration camp is from prison. It adds to death a rule, a public premeditation known to the future victim, an organization which is itself a source of moral sufferings more terrible than death. Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.» copied «The lethal injection method … has turned dying into a still life, thereby enabling the state to kill without anyone involved feeling anything. Any remaining glimmers of doubt – about whether the man received due process, about his guilt, about our right to take life – cause us to rationalize these deaths with such catchwords as "heinous," "deserved," "deterrent," "justice," and "painless." We have perfected the art of institutional killing to the degree that it has deadened our natural, quintessentially human response to death.»

-- Susan Blaustein, journalist, reacting to having witnessed an execution in Texas, in: "Witness to Another Execution", Harpers Magazine, May 1994, p. 53.

It may sound cold and callous, but she killed not one but TWO people! she may have been SLOW but she knew exactly what she was doing each time! If we based our sympathies on the family of the killer, we would NEVER carry out the death penalty, remember she played judge, jury and executioner to 2 women neither one got to beg for their life, so...2 tears in a bucket!

I happened to catch the movie on HBO tonight and just could not tear myself away from it. Don't get me wrong, the movie in no way changed my opinion on the death penalty, and only gave me further infuriation at defense lawyers, but it did give me a new perspective on one aspect of the death penalty that hadn't occurred to me before, the family of the murderer. I have no problem with the death of a murderer, and I certainly felt no sympathy for the lawyer who knew what he was getting in to and tried such things as the fact that Wanda Jean did not graduate from high school as a reason to get her a stay of execution, but I felt my heart deeply saddened for the Allen family. Much like the family of the victim, they did not want their kin to die, and their grief was so painful it was almost unbearable to watch. To be honest, it makes one strong case against the death penalty, the only one who is truly being punished is the family. With lethal injection, the murderer just calmly slips away, but their family has to live with it for the rest of their lives. The only real complaint I had about this movie (other than the cameo by Rev. Jesse Jackson) was that I thought it focused too much on the main lawyer, the filmmakers could have spent some more time focusing on the two families and Wanda Jean herself. 7/10