The only woman on Oklahoma’s death row, Brenda Andrew, was granted a new hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday over concerns that prosecutors’ discussion of her sexual history jeopardized her chance of receiving a fair trial.
Andrew has been on death row since 2004 after she was convicted of killing her estranged husband Rob Andrew in their Oklahoma City home in 2001 to collect his life insurance policy.
James Pavatt, who was allegedly having an affair with Brenda Andrew, was separately convicted in the murder. He was sentenced to death in 2003.
Andrew’s lawyers say her trial was "unduly prejudicial" because prosecutors focused on her sexual history to make up for a lack of concrete evidence connecting Andrew to the crime.
To make a case for first-degree murder, prosecutors used a book police found in Andrew’s home called 203 Ways to Drive a Man Wild in Bed and held up her thong underwear in front of the jury.

The prosecution also elicited testimony about Andrew’s sexual partners reaching back two decades, the outfits she wore to dinner or during grocery runs and asked witnesses to comment on whether a good mother would dress or behave the way Andrew had.
In a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court ruled these testimonies violated Andrew’s due process rights.
Defendants are legally protected from unrelated prejudicial information being used against them during trial.
In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court sent Andrew’s case back to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for further litigation. The circuit court previously ruled to uphold her conviction and execution in 2023.
Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented. Thomas complained the majority opinion "inaccurately portrays the State’s evidence, the prosecution’s closing arguments, and the reasoning of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals."
Thomas also maintained the state presented “overwhelming evidence” that Andrew participated in the murder of her husband.
“It is this Court, and not the Tenth Circuit, that has deviated from settled law,” Thomas wrote. “I respectfully dissent.”
In Oklahoma, there are 32 people on death row. Last year, only Texas and Alabama outpaced the state’s number of executions.