NCJ Number
116058
Date Published
1989
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The number of female offenders on death row has remained fairly constant, at about 20 or so, for the past several years.
Abstract
As of the end of 1988, there were 24 female death row inmates. The practice of sentencing female offenders to death remains at a remarkably low rate. In the past 10 years, the annual number of female death sentences was four in 1979, two in 1980, three in 1981, five in 1982, four in 1983, eight in 1984, five in 1985, three in 1986, three in 1987, and six in 1988. These are years in which the overall death sentencing has been about 280 per year. Thus, female death sentences comprise only 1 to 2 percent of the yearly total. All 24 female offenders were convicted and sentenced to death for murder. Of offenders, 67 percent were white. Of the 24 currently sentenced, all were sentenced between 1981 and 1988. Florida, Alabama, and Indiana have the largest number of females on death row. A table provides offender names and information on race, date and place of crime, and date of sentence.