New York Times article asks: Did prosecutors sex-shame Brenda Andrew to death in Oklahoma?

An appeal from Oklahoma's only woman on death row is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, as her lawyers claim her capital sentence stemmed from a focus on "sexual" evidence during her trial.

The Supreme Court case prompted an article from The New York Times, which begs the question, "Did prosecutors’ sex shaming help send Brenda Andrew to death row?"

Here's everything you need to know.

Who is Brenda Andrew in Oklahoma?

Brenda Andrew, 60, is the only woman on Oklahoma's death row.

If she is executed, she will be the fourth woman executed by the state of Oklahoma since 1976, when the state reinstated the death penalty using lethal injection.

Brenda Andrew was convicted in 2004 for the 2001 fatal shooting of her estranged husband, Rob Andrew, at their Oklahoma City home.

Opinion: Prosecutors put Brenda Andrew's gender on trial. Now, will Oklahoma execute her?

What happened to Brenda Andrew's husband?

On Nov. 20, 2001, Rob Andrew came to the family home to pick up his son and daughter for Thanksgiving. He came into the garage after Brenda Andrew told him the pilot light on the furnace was out, prosecutors alleged.

There, he was shot twice with his own 16-gauge shotgun. Prosecutors claimed the first shot came from Brenda Andrew's boyfriend, James Pavatt, while Brenda Andrew fired the second. Pavatt also shot Brenda Andrew in the arm with a .22-caliber pistol to make it look like she was a victim, too, prosecutors alleged.

Rob Andrew was 39.

What did Brenda Andrew say about her husband's shooting?

Brenda Andrew told police two armed, masked men had attacked her husband. Police later found evidence that Pavatt hid afterward in the attic of the home of the Andrews' next-door neighbors, who were away.

As police suspicions about her story grew, Pavatt and Brenda Andrew fled to Mexico with her children. After running out of money, the couple re-entered the United States in February 2002. They were arrested at the border.

At her formal sentencing, she maintained she is innocent and predicted she would be vindicated.

"God knows my heart," she said. "He will deliver me out of this situation."

Why is Brenda Andrew appealing her death row trial?

In an appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Brenda Andrew raised 10 issues challenging her conviction and sentence.

Most notably, she claims jurors should not have heard about her sex life and that there was irrelevant evidence introduced against her, including information about previous affairs and a book found by police in her home, "203 Ways to Drive a Man Wild in Bed.”

In the prosecutions closing arguments, a prosecutor held up pieces of lingerie before the jury, the New York Times reported. The underwear was found in Brenda Andrew's suitcase she took with her to Mexico and "drew gasps from the crowded courtroom."

Nathalie Greenfield, one of Ms. Andrew’s lawyers, told The New York Times gender stereotypes infected the trial and poisoned the jury.

"Every single day the state was presenting gendered evidence about her appearance, about her clothing, about her sexual practices, about her skills as a mother," she said. "We’ve got someone who is at risk of execution for not conforming to gender stereotypes."

What did the New York Times article say about Brenda Andrew?

The New York Times also heard from Sandra Babcock, a law professor at Cornell who represents Ms. Andrew in a related case, who said that gender bias is too "normalized and tolerated" when administering the death penalty. She said "women on trial for capital murder" have been similarly shamed for centuries.

Babcock told The New York Times a male defendant would not have been treated as Ms. Andrew had been.

"It’s inconceivable that the prosecution would dangle his favorite pair of boxers in front of the jury," she said, "and argue that they proved his guilt."

But prosecutors, in urging the Supreme Court not to hear the case, said the evidence about Brenda Andrew's appearance and sexuality was "but a drop in the ocean" in the case.

What previous appeals courts have said about Brenda Andrew

Over the years, state and federal appeals courts have tended to agree, with some exceptions. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals said in 2007 that it was "struggling to find any relevance" for much of the contested evidence but added that "even so, the introduction of this evidence was harmless."

In the majority opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit last year, the two judges who voted to uphold the conviction acknowledged they had "concerns about some of the 'sexual and sexualizing' evidence admitted at trial, and the use to which it was put by the government."

Judge Arlene Johnson wrote in a partial dissent from the state court's ruling in 2007 that she would have let Brenda Andrew's conviction stand, the Times reported. However, Johnson, the only woman on the court at the time, wrote "I find it impossible to say with confidence that the death penalty here was not imposed as a consequence of improper evidence and argument" that served "to trivialize the value of her life in the minds of the jurors."

Judge Robert E. Bacharach, who was the lone 10th Circuit judge to vote in favor of Brenda Andrew's appeal, said in a 55-page dissent he would have overturned not only her death sentence but also her conviction.

"The state focused from start to finish on Ms. Andrew’s sex life," Judge Bacharach wrote. "This focus portrayed Ms. Andrew as a scarlet woman, a modern Jezebel, sparking distrust based on her loose morals. The drumbeat on Ms. Andrew’s sex life continued in closing argument, plucking away any realistic chance that the jury would seriously consider her version of events."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Who is Brenda Andrew in Oklahoma? What to know about Supreme Court case