NCJ Number
158566
Date Published
1995
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This 20th issue of this report documents nearly 23 years (January 1, 1973, to September 15, 1995) of the death sentencing of female offenders under modern death penalty statutes in the United States.
Abstract
Over this period, there were a total of 5,492 death sentences, of which 111 (2 percent) were imposed on females. These 111 death sentences for female offenders have been imposed in 23 States, comprising well over half of the death-penalty jurisdictions during this time period. Florida and North Carolina account for nearly one-fourth of all such sentences. Of the 11 death sentences imposed since 1973, only 46 females remain on the death rows of 15 States. These females constitute only 1.4 percent of the total death-row population and less than 0.1 percent of the approximately 50,000 women in prison in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of the women on death row are white. The crime most represented is the murder of the offender's husband or lover. Overall, the findings show that women are unlikely to be arrested for murder, extremely unlikely to be sentenced to death, and almost never executed. 5 tables and appended case summaries for current female death-row inmates, September 15, 1995