The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002)

The Execution of Wanda Jean chronicles the life-and-death battle of Wanda Jean Allen, the first black woman to be put to death in the United States in the modern era.

Director:

Liz Garbus

Stars:

Wanda Jean Allen, Jesse Jackson, David Presson

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Wanda Jean Allen	...	Self
Jesse Jackson	...	Self
David Presson	...	Self

Storyline

The Execution of Wanda Jean chronicles the life-and-death battle of Wanda Jean Allen, the first black woman to be put to death in the United States in the modern era.

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Plot Keywords:

title directed by female | execution | prison | prisoner | murder | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Did You Know?

Connections

References The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

User Reviews

Execution of Wanda Jean

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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

January 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Η εκτέλεση της Ουάντα Τζιν

Filming Locations:

McAlester, Oklahoma, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,386, 8 September 2002

Gross USA:

$1,386

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,386

Company Credits

Production Co:

Moxie Firecracker Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color