NCJ Number
136902
Date Published
1992
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Both the rate of sentencing of females to capital punishment and the female death row population have been very small compared to that for all adults, and only one female offender has been among the 170 offenders executed between 1973 and May 1, 1992.
Abstract
The current era of the death penalty in the United States began in 1973, when new death penalty laws were passed following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia. Since that time, a total of 89 death sentences have been imposed on females. This total amounts to 1.9 percent of the 4,559 death sentences. Of these 89 death sentences, only 41 are currently in effect. Forty-seven were reversed or commuted to life imprisonment. Forty-one women currently on death row are still litigating their death sentences. Beginning in the 1980's, about five females per year received death sentences. In 1989, this annual rate doubled for unknown reasons. In 1990 and 1991, the sentencing rate returned to a level just above that of the years before 1989. In the first 4 months of 1992, five females received death sentences. Table and appended summaries of each case, its State, and its current status.