The Execution of Wanda Jean

Career Award Liz Garbus Rory Kennedy

In 1988 Wanda Jean Allen shot her girlfriend, Gloria Leathers, to death outside the Village Police Department in Oklahoma City. The State charged Allen, who had a previous conviction of manslaughter, with premeditated first-degree murder and sought the death penalty. She was convicted. With direct access to Allen and her team of supporters, specifically her spiritual advisor, Reverend Robin Meyers, and her defense lawyer, Steve Presson, Liz Garbus follows Allen’s final appeals for clemency and documents the last three months of her life on death row. The film further weaves in the experiences of Allen’s mother and siblings and also Leathers’s family and their reactions as the 2001 execution draws near. A staggeringly personal account of one woman’s battle to save her life, the film is also a searching examination of the morality of the death penalty, particularly when race, mental health, and sexuality come into play.  ST

Director

Liz Garbus

Producers

Liz Garbus, Rory Kennedy

Editor

Mary Manhardt

Cinematographer

Tony Hardmon

Release Year

2002

Festival Year

2010

Country

United States

Run Time

88 minutes