The Execution of Wanda Jean
In January 2001, we're told, no less than eight executions were scheduled in the state of Oklahoma. By far the most prominent case was that of Wanda Jean Allen, whose story is documented inThe Execution of Wanda Jean, an absorbing film directed and produced by Liz Garbus. The fact that the 41-year-old Allen was to become the first black woman executed in the United States in nearly 50 years was the principal source of her notoriety, but not the only one. There was no doubt that she had shot her lover, Gloria Leathers (whom she had met while serving time for a previous killing), in 1988. Yet those who took up Wanda Jean's cause argued that her apparent "neuro-psychological problems"--she was, they said, "borderline retarded"--hadn't been taken into account, or even brought up, during her trial. Over a decade later, a new defense team, led by an indefatigable legal investigator named David Presson, attempted to win clemency, an effort that is the focus of Garbus's film. Obviously, they failed. The Oklahoma Clemency Board immediately rejected her appeal, as did Gov. Frank Keating, despite the efforts of Rev. Jesse Jackson and others, and Allen, who remained preternaturally calm until the end, died on the scheduled date. So much for the facts. WhatThe Execution of Wanda Jeanis really about is the debate over capital punishment in general, and it's an argument that raged even within Gloria Leathers' own family (the victim's mother pled for mercy, while her sister argued that Allen should be "chain(ed) to a tree and beat(en) to death," because lethal injection, Oklahoma's preferred method, was too painless). Does a convicted double murderer deserve to die? Is revenge a good enough reason to apply this ultimate punishment? These are questions too profound to be answered in a 90-minute documentary, but at the very least,The Execution of Wanda Jeanprovides some serious and not easily digestible food for thought.--Sam Graham