Supreme Court Addresses the Sex-Shaming of Brenda Andrew
It’s not always easy to maintain an even keel when your life’s work is the American death penalty. Trump executes 13 people in the last six months of his term. Biden takes his place and commutes 37 people from the federal death row. Trump then replaces him and, only weeks after the commutations, issues an outrageous Executive Order:
On December 23, 2024, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row: remorseless criminals who brutalized young children, strangled and drowned their victims, and hunted strangers for sport…Judges who oppose capital punishment have likewise disregarded the law by falsely claiming that capital punishment is unconstitutional, even though the Constitution explicitly acknowledges the legality of capital punishment. These efforts to subvert and undermine capital punishment defy the laws of our nation, make a mockery of justice, and insult the victims of these horrible crimes…My Administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens.
But the wheel turns. One day after Trump orders the Attorney General to do her best to overrule Supreme Court precedents that hinder capital punishment – yes, one day – the Supreme Court issues a remarkable opinion in Andrew v. White condemning the sex-shaming of Brenda Andrew by the prosecution, and arguing that the prosecutor’s focus on her sex life rather than the facts of the crime rendered her conviction and death sentence fundamentally unfair. Even more remarkable is that the opinion is 7-2.
While the date of the opinion’s release is too ironic to ignore, the result itself was a very long time coming. (Indeed, ACCR wrote an essay about this injustice eight years ago: Sex-Shamed To Death.) It took great lawyering over many years to bring this case to the Court’s attention, and that same great lawyering should finally result in some fairness for Ms. Andrew. Frankly, the timing couldn’t be better.