A former Sunday school teacher, found guilty of arranging her husband's murder to be with her lover and claim a substantial life insurance payout, is now set to be executed. This follows a federal appeals court's decision to uphold her conviction, despite a prior Supreme Court ruling that found she was unfairly 'sex-shamed' during her trial.
A Murder Plot and a Supreme Court Intervention
Brenda Andrew, 62, was convicted of capital murder in 2004 for her role in the killing of her husband, Robert Andrew, in November 2001. Her accomplice and lover, James Pavatt, 72, confessed to shooting Robert more than a year after selling him an $800,000 life insurance policy.
For years, Andrew fought her conviction, arguing that prosecutors had painted her as a sexual deviant and an unfit mother to prejudice the jury. In a significant development, the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in her favour in 2025, agreeing that inappropriate evidence about her sex life and character had been introduced.
The court noted that the state spent considerable trial time on evidence it later conceded was irrelevant, including details about Andrew's sexual history, her clothing choices, and even the underwear she packed for a holiday.
The Crime and the Aftermath
The events leading to Robert Andrew's death were protracted and sinister. Brenda had filed for divorce from Robert, an advertising executive, in October 2001. Shortly after, Robert filed a police report alleging that Pavatt, a friend and insurance salesman, had sabotaged his car's brakes and tried to lure him to a highway. He told officers he suspected his wife and Pavatt were having an affair.
In early November 2001, weeks before his death, Robert filed another report, explicitly stating he believed the pair were trying to kill him for the insurance money. He even provided police with a tape of suspicious phone calls instructing him to go to a hospital on 19 November 2001.
Tragically, Robert was shot dead in the garage of his Oklahoma home the following day, 20 November. He was 31 years old. His estranged wife, then 38, sustained a superficial gunshot wound to her arm and told police that masked intruders were responsible.
Flight, Capture, and a Final Appeal
In a move that further damaged her defence, Brenda Andrew and Pavatt fled to Mexico with her two children less than a week after the murder, missing Robert's funeral. They returned to the United States months later after running out of money and were arrested at the border.
Despite the Supreme Court's criticism of her original trial and its order for an appeals court reconsideration, the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld her conviction on Tuesday. This final ruling clears the path for the state of Oklahoma to carry out the death sentence.
Adding to the weight of evidence, an inmate who was jailed with Andrew at the Oklahoma County Detention Center claimed that she had admitted to the crime.
