The Execution of Wanda Jean. Wanda Jean Allens mental defects, which included frontal lobe brain damage and mental retardation, were never discussed nor considered in her criminal murder trial of 1989.

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The Execution of Wanda Jean

        The substantial capacity test states that “a person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality (wrongfulness) of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirement of law.”[1]  Wanda Jean Allen’s mental defects, which included frontal lobe brain damage and mental retardation, were never discussed nor considered in her criminal murder trial of 1989.

        Guilt or innocence aside, Wanda Jean Allen was not granted due process of law.  Wanda Jean shot and killed her girlfriend in 1988.  She was subsequently convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1989.

         Wanda Jean's access to judicial procedure was not applied fairly.  To begin, Allen had many factors working against her: poverty-stricken, little access to education, black, lesbian, and a resident of Oklahoma.  Oklahoma, located right smack in the center of the Bible Belt, "hated homosexuality."[2]  Because Wanda Jean was considered to be "living in sin"[3], the jury that sentenced her to death likely placed very little value on her life.

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         The law is influenced by social conditions and societal ideas.  Wanda Jean's jury was anything but impartial: the all-white, Bible Belt Southerners, likely failed to relate to the black, lesbian, ‘murderous villain’ presented before them.  I can't help but wonder how Wanda Jean's case would have turned out had she either (1) been white, heterosexual, and privy to a middle-class upbringing OR (2) convicted/sentenced by a jury of her actual peers (i.e. black and similarly situated).

        With regard to legal fairness, Wanda Jean's constitutional rights were violated in several ways:  First, her public defender requested removal from her original case in ...

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