RESOURCES RELATED TO: THE DEATH PENALTY
BOOKS & DOCUMENTS
Books on Women and the Death Penalty
- O’Shea, Kathleen A. (1999) Women and the Death Penalty in the United States, 1900-1998. Westport, CT: Praeger.
- Shipman, Marlin (2002) The Penalty is Death: U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Women’s Executions. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press
- Streib, Victor L. (2006) The Fairer Death: Executing Women in Ohio. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Documents from the Wanda Jean Allen case
- Allen v. State, Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, 871 P. 2d. 79, February 15, 1994 -- http://www.danpinello.com/Allen.htm
- “Wanda Jean Allen Clemency Letter” Submitted by the American Civil Liberties Union to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board -- http://www.aclu.org/capital-punishment/wanda-jean-allen-clemency-letter
JOURNAL ARTICLES
- Cooey, Paula M. (2002) Women’s Religious Conversions on Death Row: Theorizing Religion and State Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 70, No. 4, pp. 699-717.
- Cooey examines the religious conversions of Karla Faye Tucker (executed by the state of Texas in 1998, during the administration of then-governor George W. Bush) and Wanda Jean Allen (executed by the state of Oklahoma, four years later, in 2001) and the scholarship generated by their convictions, conversions, and executions. - Goodwin, M. “Gender, race, and mental illness: The case of Wanda Jean Allen.” In Critical Race Feminism: A Reader (Chapter Review). Edited by A. K. Wing. 2nd ed. 2228-237. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
POPULAR FILMS
- I Want to Live! (1958) -- Susan Haywood’s Oscar-winning performance in fictionalized version of the real-life Barbara Graham case. Harrowing scenes leading up to gas chamber execution.
- Last Dance (1996) -- Sharon Stone plays a woman convicted of double murder in her teens, now facing death as her attorney works to save her with a series of appeals.
WEBSITE LINKS