The only woman on death row in Oklahoma could get a new chance to challenge her murder conviction, following a Supreme Court ruling in her favor on claims she was sex-shamed during her trial.
Brenda Andrew was convicted of the 2001 murder of her husband, Rob Andrew, an advertising executive and church deacon, who was killed with a shotgun in the garage of his home in Oklahoma City.
Brenda was convicted of murder in 2004, as was her boyfriend, James Pavatt, whom she had begun seeing after her estrangement from Rob.
But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, threw a lifeline to the death row resident.
The justices stated that a lower court could not prevent Andrew from mounting an appeal based on her contention that prosecutors unfairly focused on her personal life during her murder trial. The court ordered the case back to an appeals court for further proceedings.
The unsigned …