NCJ Number
135627
Date Published
1992
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Data cover aspects of death sentences for females from the beginning of the current American death penalty era in January 1, 1973, to December 31, 1991.
Abstract
The current death penalty era is deemed to have begun when new death penalty statutes were passed pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia (1972) which in effect struck down all death penalty statutes that existed at that time. Sentencing under the new statutes began in 1973 and continues through today. A total of 84 death sentences have been imposed on females during this period, only 1.8 percent of the 4,581 death sentences imposed in this time period. The death-sentencing rate for female offenders has typically been approximately 5 per year beginning in the 1980's; however, in 1989 this annual death-sentencing rate doubled for reasons unknown. As of 1990, the death-sentencing rate for females apparently has returned to six or seven per year. Of the 84 females sentenced to death, only 34 (40 percent) remain in effect. One resulted in an execution in 1984 (Velma Barfield), and the other 49 were reversed or commuted to life imprisonment. The reversal rate for death sentences for females is 98 percent. 2 tables and appended detailed listing of name, race, jurisdiction, dates of crimes and sentences, and current status for each female death sentence