The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002) User Reviews

Let's not forget about the crime that puts people on death row!

[smusic1988 · 7/10 · 17 December 2005]

I just saw the HBO Documentary on the Execution of Wanda Jean Allen. I found it very compelling. It raised serious questions about mental state and education, or the lack there of. I have long wondered about the families who have to go through watching their loved ones fight for a stay of execution, however, I found that this particular family seemed to forget what got Wanda Jean on the Death Row. There were many family members who kept asking "Why is this happening to her?" or "Why are they putting her (or us) through this?" The answer is very simple: Wanda Jean killed Gloria Leathers! I'm not saying that they shouldn't join in the fight to save Wanda Jean's life, but let's not forget that she did the crime! Also, if you are going to fight for something, don't fight with those who are trying to help you. There were times when I felt the family worked against the lawyer that was trying to help Wanda Jean.

With that said, I couldn't stop watching the documentary and would recommend it to others.

3.5 stars

[mweston · 8/10 · 18 April 2002]

As someone who is opposed to capital punishment, I found this story of a somewhat retarded black lesbian woman on death row in Oklahoma very difficult to watch. The lawyer who originally defended her was, by his own admission, unqualified, and was only paid $800 for his work. He totally botched the case, and the efforts documented in this film to introduce evidence of her retardation and brain damage which was inexplicably omitted by the original attorney were blocked at every turn. The filmmakers originally got involved to make a tape for Wanda Jean's clemency hearing, but continued to document the case after that failed.

The main investigator working for Wanda Jean was at the screening on 2/28/2002, and he said that based on the evidence he heard when he first became involved, he never expected to lose. Some of his scenes in the film are heartbreaking to watch. Wanda Jean, meanwhile, remains upbeat and highly religious to the very end. This film has since aired on HBO. Seen at Cinequest (the San Jose, CA film festival).

Interesting, but futile for a conservative like me

[bdreynolds76 · 7/10 · 20 March 2002]

I happened to catch the movie on HBO tonight and just could not tear myself away from it. Don't get me wrong, the movie in no way changed my opinion on the death penalty, and only gave me further infuriation at defense lawyers, but it did give me a new perspective on one aspect of the death penalty that hadn't occurred to me before, the family of the murderer. I have no problem with the death of a murderer, and I certainly felt no sympathy for the lawyer who knew what he was getting in to and tried such things as the fact that Wanda Jean did not graduate from high school as a reason to get her a stay of execution, but I felt my heart deeply saddened for the Allen family. Much like the family of the victim, they did not want their kin to die, and their grief was so painful it was almost unbearable to watch. To be honest, it makes one strong case against the death penalty, the only one who is truly being punished is the family. With lethal injection, the murderer just calmly slips away, but their family has to live with it for the rest of their lives. The only real complaint I had about this movie (other than the cameo by Rev. Jesse Jackson) was that I thought it focused too much on the main lawyer, the filmmakers could have spent some more time focusing on the two families and Wanda Jean herself. 7/10

Comment on the Wanda Jean Allen Story

[chanelle1971 · 11 November 2007]

I was watching her story on A&E today and I found it very interesting. so interesting that I immediately Googled her name so that I could read about her story in more depth. What I did not know was that she was convicted previously and did crime for killing another lover. I was feeling sorry for her until I read more about her and I see why she was not granted clemency. It seems that she was making a habit out of killing and she needed to be stopped. LIke her family, I think that execution was a cop out and she should have spent the rest of her life in prison. Her team worked exceptionally hard on her case and at the end was really emotional and I could see the sincerity of his pleas for her to live. Excellent piece of work and A&E should re-play it.

A Powerful Doc

[groggo · 10/10 · 14 November 2007]

Director Liz Garbus has made a documentary that is not impartial (what is?), but she still manages to deliver an emotional blow against capital punishment. We become a third party to barbarism dressed up in nice suits and righteous, grotesque Christian indignation.

Wanda Jean Allen is out of touch with reality. As she faces her last moments of existence, she still thinks she's going back to her Oklahoma City jail cell in the morning. Even strapped to her execution gurney, she playfully sticks out her tongue and simulates dancing. She somehow thinks it's all part of a process.

Does anyone really believe that the family of Gail Leathers (the murdered woman) is relieved that Wanda Jean is dead? Does that make them feel good in the morning? Maybe so, but what about the next morning? 'Closure' is a myth. Even the murdered woman's mother forgave Wanda Jean (in the spirit of Christ and the original meaning of Christianity), but that still wasn't good enough for the Bible-thumping State of Oklahoma. The contradiction glares at the viewer.

It was disturbing to see this woman at the clemency hearing, where the ostensibly impartial three-person board had rubber-stamped the outcome long before the hearing was even held. It was a bad joke. One member of the board (a black man) was caught yawning and looking very disinterested. Later, he was seen laughing with another member of this kangaroo board. Director Garbus captured this brilliantly with no comment. This was documentary film-making at its finest.

Wanda Jean was a murderer, for any number of reasons. We'll never know why. The State of Oklahoma was more interested in exacting Biblical vengeance than studying the murderous nature of a mentally slow human being.

The film vividly shows us that she wasn't conscious of what was real or unreal. She should have been caught in the system after her first killing in 1981, long before the murder of Gail Leathers in 1988. Apparently, Oklahome has no such system.

Garbus even offers us a bizarre (and dead-serious) newscast that highlights Oklahoma's 'executions of the week,' a check-list of those awaiting their fate on death row. I didn't know how to process this exercise in literal gallows humour.

The emotion in this film can overwhelm you at times, particularly if you don't believe in capital punishment in general and, in this film's case, capital punishment for someone who is obviously not mentally in tune with reality.

Death penalty not a deterrent. Sad for both convict and victim families

[kathymcc123 · 10/10 · 16 October 2020]

The story of Wanda Jean Allen is complicated. Life without parole would have been better. If she had TBI and a lower IQ, that doesn't excuse her shooting anyone but taking her life doesn't bring the victims back.

I felt sad for both families. Obviously, poor families, but I get a feeling the Allen's aren't close as portrayed here. I also thought David Presson was just a camera hog and sought too much attention

While it is true that Wanda Jean was somewhat low functioning, she did murder TWO people...and I cannot ignore that.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 14 April 2016]

"The Execution of Wanda Jean" is a documentary from HBO films that tries to question the appropriateness of the execution of Wanda, an explosive woman who was described as being on the borderline between mental retardation (though through the course of the interviews, she did not appear to be obviously mentally retarded and a follow-up IQ test had a higher score--still well below normal). They began working on this film before her eventual execution and features not only interviews with her but her family, friends, folks from the criminal justice system and the victim's family.

As far as the murder goes, Wanda Jean's lover, Gloria, was trying to leave her and even went to the police for help. But Gloria gunned her down in the parking lot of the police station in a moment of rage.

While this is a reasonably well made film and makes a decent point about the appropriateness of the death penalty in this specific case, the film does have one HUGE problem...this was NOT a one-time incident. The fact that Wanda Jean had previously murdered another person when she got angry makes this a difficult case to get behind and champion. On the other hand, the recent Oscar-nominated short documentary, "Last Day of Freedom" makes a much better case, as the guy in question had never murdered anyone before and suffered not only from a cognitive impairment but PTSD and, perhaps, schizophrenia. This case was clear....by almost anyone's standards, he should not have been executed. As for Wanda Jean, she did not appear too slow to understand her actions and it makes the film a much more difficult appeal for the repeal of the death penalty. It's a muddier case...but one where I found myself feeling very, very little sympathy for Wanda Jean--especially with so much money and effort being spent on her defense. And, sadly, I think the filmmakers also seemed to feel very little for the many victims Wanda Jean created. An even stronger emphasis on the family and her dead lover would have served the film better.

Well made but a bit unsettling due to its choice of prisoners. I really doubt if this film will change many minds. Would justice have been better served if she had just spent the remainder of her life in prison, probably. But she was a very dangerous woman...and one who hurt so many people. And I also felt showing close-ups of her in the coffin at her funeral seemed a bit gratuitous.

After the movie was over, I was left with the thought that it's amazing that so many folks worked so hard to help Wanda Jean AFTER she was a lost cause (i.e., had two murders behind her). What if these folks had worked with Wanda Jean or people like her BEFORE they got to that point? To me, this all seems a bit misguided.

Sympathy For Devil

[Metaldude61 · 1/10 · 14 March 2003]

Honestly, on the subject of the death penalty, I could take it or leave it. The problem I have with this documentary lies in the fact that it is a complete love-fest for the murderer, with absolutely no sympathy for the family. The Execution of Wanda Jean, with it's completely one sided view, only reinforced my view that she should have been executed for her crimes. It tried to argue that she was mentally retarded, but nothing in the video supported that view. She seemed uneducated, but so did her entire family, but that doesn't mean they were all retarded. I can completely understand if someone is opposed to the death penalty, but to completely ignore the crime, as if it didn't happen, and try to put Wanda on some moral mountain top, is offensive in nature, and that's not the side of the issue I would be associated with.

Execution of Wanda Jean

[anntnwv · 11 November 2007]

I am sure the family knew why their loved one was in prison. They were asking why is she being executed.

If that was your mother, sister, daughter, granddaughter would you feel the same about the death penalty? Killing people who kill people to show that killing people is 100% wrong. It costs more to execute a person then to keep them in prison the rest of their life.

It is interesting you think they don't suffer when a person is put to death. Maybe you should tell the states who have put executions on hold right now that they don't suffer.

There is pain from both families. In a matter of seconds lives can be turned upside down forever. The death penalty does not stop that.

«An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the privation of life as a concentration camp is from prison. It adds to death a rule, a public premeditation known to the future victim, an organization which is itself a source of moral sufferings more terrible than death. Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.» copied «The lethal injection method … has turned dying into a still life, thereby enabling the state to kill without anyone involved feeling anything. Any remaining glimmers of doubt – about whether the man received due process, about his guilt, about our right to take life – cause us to rationalize these deaths with such catchwords as "heinous," "deserved," "deterrent," "justice," and "painless." We have perfected the art of institutional killing to the degree that it has deadened our natural, quintessentially human response to death.»

-- Susan Blaustein, journalist, reacting to having witnessed an execution in Texas, in: "Witness to Another Execution", Harpers Magazine, May 1994, p. 53.

She killed TWO people!

[mimiybyazphil · 3/10 · 21 September 2020]

It may sound cold and callous, but she killed not one but TWO people! she may have been SLOW but she knew exactly what she was doing each time! If we based our sympathies on the family of the killer, we would NEVER carry out the death penalty, remember she played judge, jury and executioner to 2 women neither one got to beg for their life, so...2 tears in a bucket!