Southwest
Death row inmate may get retrial due to claim of 'sex-shaming' prosecutors
Oklahoma’s only female death row inmate, whose attorneys argue was “sex-shamed” during her husband’s murder trial, may have another day in court after a Tuesday Supreme Court ruling.
Brenda Andrew, now 61, was sentenced to death in 2004 for the murder of her estranged husband, Rob Andrew.
She was convicted in the 2001 murder, along with her lover and fellow Sunday school teacher, James Pavatt. Pavatt, who had sold Rob Andrew an $800,000 life insurance policy, had confessed to killing Rob with a friend. He denied that Brenda was involved.
Brenda Andrew told police after the shooting, during which she was shot in the arm, that two masked men attacked her and her husband while he was helping her ignite the pilot light on the furnace in their garage, according to court documents reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Her attorneys argue that evidence about her “plainly irrelevant sexual history” wasn’t fair to use in court, where prosecutors called her a “slut puppy” and showed jurors one of her thongs, according to their court filings.
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Brenda Andrew in court in Oklahoma City in 2004. (David McDaniel/The Oklahoman)
The prosecutor said the thong was strong evidence that Andrew had murdered her husband, the New York Times reported.
“The grieving widow packs this to run off with her boyfriend,” he said, holding her garment. “Can’t twist the facts, folks. Can’t twist the evidence.”
Andrew had packed the underwear for a trip to Mexico days after her husband’s death. Andrew and Pavatt ran out of money three months after the murder, in February 2002, and re-entered the United States, according to the outlet, where they were arrested at the border. Andrew’s two children, who were traveling with them, were put into their paternal grandparents’ custody.
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Supreme Court justices wrote in their decision that the prosecutor “spent a significant amount of time at the trial” going over details about Andrew’s sex life that were unrelated to her husband’s murder.
“Among other things, the prosecution elicited testimony about Andrew’s sexual partners reaching back two decades; about the outfits she wore to dinner or during grocery runs; about the underwear she packed for vacation; and about how often she had sex in her car,” the majority wrote in their decision. “The ultimate question is whether a fair-minded jurist could disagree that the evidence ‘so infected the trial with unfairness’ as to render the resulting conviction or sentence a ‘denial of due process.’”
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Brenda Andrew is pictured at left in 2004 and in her most recent mugshot in 2024 at right. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections)
However, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch dissented.
“Sex and marriage were unavoidable issues at Andrew’s trial, and the state introduced a variety of evidence about her sexual behavior,” Thomas wrote.
In a brief urging the Supreme Court not to hear Andrew’s case, prosecutors argued that testimony regarding her appearance and sexuality were “but a drop in the ocean” of evidence against her. Before the Supreme Court’s Tuesday decision, lower courts had suggested that while prosecutors’ presentation of the case was inappropriate, the case against Andrew still stands.
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The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado will now review Andrew’s claims.
Andrew’s attorney, Ed Blau, told KOCO News 5 that it will be up to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to determine whether evidence “regarding [his client’s] sex life” and “regarding her qualities as a mother… should not have been given to the jury, and whether it rose to the level of violating her due process rights.”
He said Andrew could be resentenced or get an entirely new trial based on the appeals court’s findings. The court could also decide that no action is needed, and that Andrew should remain on death row.
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Jessica Sutton, another one of Andrew’s attorneys, told The Oklahoman that she hoped the court would “stop this injustice.”
“Wielding these gendered tropes to justify a conviction and punishment of death is intolerable and poses a threat to everyone who does not follow rigid gender norms,” she told the outlet.
Although she doubts the court will acquit Andrew of murder, forensic psychologist Dr. Carole Lieberman told Fox News Digital said she is likely to get a retrial.
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James Pavatt is pictured in a 2003 mugshot at left and a 2024 mugshot at right. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections)
“The evidence about her role in the murder was not enough to get the death penalty so [prosecutors} preyed on jurors‘ stereotypes of a ‘fallen woman’ and got them to despise her,” Lieberman said. “The prosecution’s so-called evidence was more prejudicial than probative… I think it was inappropriate personal hatred of the prosecutors toward her or inappropriate personal revenge or a personal desire to punish her more severely instead of just giving her life in prison.”
A three-judge panel voted 2-1 to reverse part of Pavatt’s death sentence in June 2017. They determined that Andrew’s husband died too quickly for his death to be considered “cruel and heinous,” an aggravating circumstance that allowed the state to issue him the death penalty, Oklahoma City’s KFOR reported.
Andrew’s last appeal in 2008 was denied, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
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Los Angeles, Ca
L.A. Jewish institution among targets of foiled terrorist attack, U.S. officials say
A Jewish institution in Los Angeles was among the locations targeted in a recently foiled terrorism plot, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton announced this week.
The thwarted terrorist attacks were the result of the recent arrest of Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi national and senior member of Kata’ib Hizballah, U.S. officials said.
“Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a commander for the terrorist organization, Kata’ib Hizballah, faces serious charges for his role in numerous attacks against U.S. interests across the globe, including his efforts to kill on U.S. soil,” Clayton said. “As alleged, for years, Al-Saadi committed himself to furthering the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and the IRGC, two terrorist organizations dedicated to harming the United States and its allies.”
Al-Saadi recently attempted to carry out attacks in the U.S., officials said, including attacks at Jewish cultural places of interest in New York, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz.
“Al-Saadi attempted to disrupt American society through intimidation and violence,” a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office reads. “… Those who engage in or support terrorism against Americans and on U.S. soil should take note: the whole of the federal government is committed to dismantling terrorist organizations and bringing their members to justice.”
In a three-month period, Al-Saadi allegedly directed 18 terrorist attacks throughout Europe, including bombings, arson, and assaults targeting American citizens and points of interest. Prior to his arrest, national security officials say he was planning similar attacks on U.S. soil. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said that Al-Saadi “presented a serious threat to our national security.”
The European attacks included the bombing of the Bank of New York Mellon, an American bank, in Amsterdam on March 15. On April 29, two Jewish men, one of whom was a dual U.S.-British citizen, were stabbed and seriously injured in London.
In 2020, Al-Saadi took to social media, calling for others to attack and kill Americans in retribution for the deaths of Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, U.S. officials said. In more recent months, Al-Saadi allegedly used social media to encourage the killing of Americans and Jews to further the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“In or about February 2026, for example, AL-SAADI posted on one of his social media accounts a message in Arabic, which read in part, ‘Do not abandon the blood of your Imam of the time, oh Shiites of Iraq. Kill everyone who supports America and Israel. Do not leave any of them remaining. Civil and military targets, as well as voices of discord, kill them everywhere.’” U.S. officials said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch confirmed that one of the U.S. targets was a Manhattan synagogue. On April 3, Al-Saadi allegedly spoke to an undercover law enforcement officer whom Al-Saadi believed could carry out attacks in the U.S. That same day, Al-Saadi allegedly texted the undercover officers photographs and maps showing the exact location of a prominent Jewish synagogue in New York City.
Officials have not said what specific locations in L.A. and Arizona were targeted by the terrorist group.
Al-Saadi now faces numerous charges for these crimes in U.S. court. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
The case is under investigation by the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is comprised of investigators and analysts from the FBI, the NYPD, the FBI Washington Field Office, Counterterrorism Division, and more than 50 other federal, state, and local agencies. Investigators also received help from the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section, the Office of International Affairs of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
A man armed with a knife was shot by L.A. police officers responding to an assault with a deadly weapon call overnight, authorities said.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers with the Hollenbeck Division responded to an apartment complex in the 3000 block of Glenn Avenue in Boyle Heights at 1:45 a.m. Saturday after callers reported a male suspect was armed with a knife and had just assaulted someone in the complex.
Arriving officers found the suspect in front of the residence, but he did not comply with officers’ commands to drop the weapon. He then advanced toward the officers and an officer-involved shooting occurred, LAPD confirmed.
“The suspect was struck by gunfire and remained non-compliant,” the LAPD Public Information Officer said on X early Saturday morning. “Officers deployed a 40mm foam round and ultimately took the suspect into custody.”
Video obtained by KTLA shows the man being loaded into an ambulance and taken to a hospital; officials said he was transported in stable condition, adding that his knife was recovered at the scene and booked as evidence.
No officers or community members were injured during the incident. The man’s name was not released.
Dangerous rip currents and high surf are forecast for Los Angeles County beaches, including the Malibu Coast this weekend.
The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous beach statement, warning of the potentially deadly beach conditions. The dangerous conditions are forecast to last from Saturday evening to Monday morning.
“There is an increased risk of ocean drowning,” the NWS forecast reads. “Rip currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Waves can wash people off beaches and rocks, and capsize small boats nearshore.”
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A guide to surviving rip currents from the National Weather Service (NWS)
Minor Beach erosion and coastal flooding is possible through the weekend. The flooding is most likely to occur during evening high tides from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Beachgoers are advised to stay out of the water and remain near lifeguard towers. Jetties and tidepools are also especially dangerous during the weekend forecast.
“Rock jetties can be deadly in such conditions, stay off the rocks,” the NWS forecast reads.
Similar hazardous beach conditions are also in the forecast for Santa Barbara County. A high surf advisory is also in effect for Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties this weekend, where 10 to 15-foot waves will be possible.
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