Brenda Andrew is a woman from Oklahoma who was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband
Brenda Andrew was a stay at home mom who on paper looked like the perfect wife until she began an affair with an older man, James Dwight Pavatt
Brenda Andrew decided she wanted to spend her life with James Pavatt and the pair decided the best way to do so was to get rid of her husband.
On the day of the murder James Dwight Pavatt hid in the garage and when Rob Andrew came home he would be shot multiple times
The story that Brenda Andrew and James Dwight Pavatt created to cover their tracks quickly fell apart and the two were soon arrested
Brenda Andrew would be convicted and sentenced to death and the same for James Dwight Pavatt
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Where is Brenda Andrew now
Brenda Andrew is currently incarcerated at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma
Brenda Andrew Appeal
An appeals court reversed itself Thursday and reinstated the death sentence of an Oklahoma City man convicted of murdering his lover’s husband.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decided 10-3 against James Dwight Pavatt, 65. He is on death row for the 2001 murder of advertising executive Rob Andrew.
The victim’s wife, Brenda Andrew, and Pavatt were lovers who met when they were Sunday school teachers. She also is on death row.
In a 2-1 decision in 2017, a panel of the appeals court ruled the circumstances of the shotgun-slaying did not qualify for the death penalty.
At issue is whether the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel. The majority Thursday concluded that issue “is not properly before us,” reversing the earlier decision.
The decision Thursday paves the way for Pavatt to raise the issue again at the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
As police became suspicious of Pavatt and Brenda Andrew, they fled to Mexico with her children. The couple were arrested at the border when they re-entered the United States in 2002.
Jurors concluded that $800,000 of life insurance benefits was a motivation for the murder. Brenda Andrew began divorce proceedings a few months before Rob Andrew was murdered Nov. 20, 2001, at the Andrews’ home.
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EDITORIALS
Michigan group off base with arguments in convicted Brenda Andrew case
The Oklahoman Editorial Board
A Michigan criminal rights group has injected itself into the case of Brenda Andrew, the Oklahoma City housewife who conspired with her lover to kill her husband and then flee to Mexico with Andrew’s two children.
Andrew and the lover, James Pavatt, were convicted and sentenced to die by injection for the 2001 murder. Pavatt subsequently challenged Oklahoma’s method of execution, claiming the lethal cocktail used for capital punishment is cruel and unusual. The death sentence Rob Andrew got was a blast from a shotgun fired by Pavatt at Brenda Andrew’s urging.
The Michigan Women’s Justice & Clemency Project wrote Gov. Brad Henry on Aug. 6 to “urgently request” him to commute the sentence given “Brenda Andrews” (sic). Her case is co-mingled with a host of others involving women whose rights were allegedly disregarded because they’re women.
Project Director Carol Jacobsen cites cases of battered women whose sentences were commuted in Michigan because Gov. Jennifer Granholm bought the argument that the women were victims of violence. This suggests that Andrew is also in the class of battered wives, but Jacobsen offers not one shred of evidence to support her claim.
Not only does she mangle the spelling of Andrew’s last name, she pronounces an Oklahoma jury of guilt by association: Battered women have been denied justice and Andrew is a woman. Therefore, Andrew should be placed in the same class as the Michigan women and the Oklahoma jury should have known better.
No mention was made of Rob Andrew, who was a 39-year-old ad agency executive when Pavatt gunned him down in the Andrew’s garage. Not only was he murdered, he now stands accused vicariously of battering his wife, who had repeatedly cheated on him.
If there were any chance that Brenda Andrew had no involvement in the crime, advocates might well press their claims for a reversal of the death sentence based on her innocence rather than solely on the fact that she’s a woman and women have gotten a tough shake in the jurisprudence system.
EDITORIALS
Michigan group off base with arguments in convicted Brenda Andrew case
The Oklahoman Editorial Board
A Michigan criminal rights group has injected itself into the case of Brenda Andrew, the Oklahoma City housewife who conspired with her lover to kill her husband and then flee to Mexico with Andrew’s two children.
Andrew and the lover, James Pavatt, were convicted and sentenced to die by injection for the 2001 murder. Pavatt subsequently challenged Oklahoma’s method of execution, claiming the lethal cocktail used for capital punishment is cruel and unusual. The death sentence Rob Andrew got was a blast from a shotgun fired by Pavatt at Brenda Andrew’s urging.
The Michigan Women’s Justice & Clemency Project wrote Gov. Brad Henry on Aug. 6 to “urgently request” him to commute the sentence given “Brenda Andrews” (sic). Her case is co-mingled with a host of others involving women whose rights were allegedly disregarded because they’re women.
Project Director Carol Jacobsen cites cases of battered women whose sentences were commuted in Michigan because Gov. Jennifer Granholm bought the argument that the women were victims of violence. This suggests that Andrew is also in the class of battered wives, but Jacobsen offers not one shred of evidence to support her claim.
Not only does she mangle the spelling of Andrew’s last name, she pronounces an Oklahoma jury of guilt by association: Battered women have been denied justice and Andrew is a woman. Therefore, Andrew should be placed in the same class as the Michigan women and the Oklahoma jury should have known better.
No mention was made of Rob Andrew, who was a 39-year-old ad agency executive when Pavatt gunned him down in the Andrew’s garage. Not only was he murdered, he now stands accused vicariously of battering his wife, who had repeatedly cheated on him.
If there were any chance that Brenda Andrew had no involvement in the crime, advocates might well press their claims for a reversal of the death sentence based on her innocence rather than solely on the fact that she’s a woman and women have gotten a tough shake in the jurisprudence system.
This is an absurd extension of the class-action mentality fostered by trial lawyers at the expense of society as a whole. But while the trial lawyers are in it for the money, Jacobsen and company are in it for the justice — as they perceive it.
The credibility of a well-intentioned group is harmed when it ignores the facts and confers victim status to someone who didn’t earn it. Had Andrew been sentenced to life without parole, would Jacobsen even care? Most anti-death penalty groups care only about murderers who face executions. They have no interest in murder victims or their survivors.
Brenda Andrew is responsible for her own predicament. Case closed
