Capital Punishment of Female Offenders: Present Female Death Row Inmates and Death Sentences and Executions of Female Offenders, January 1, 1973, to December 31, 1997

• NCJ Number: 174794
• Author(s): V L Streib
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: Ohio Northern University; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report presents information on the numbers of females sentenced to capital punishment from 1973 through 1997, the executions of female offenders in the 20th century, and the current numbers of female death row inmates.

Abstract

The report notes that women account for 13 percent of murder arrests, 2 percent of death sentences imposed at the trial level, 1.5 percent of persons currently on death row, and 0.2 percent of persons actually executed in the modern era. Velma Barfield was executed in 1984, the only female among 432 offenders executed since 1973. Two more executions of females are scheduled for early 1998. Since the United States Supreme Court 1972 decision in Furman struck down previous death penalty laws, courts have sentenced 116 females to death. Only 47 of these sentences remain currently in effect. One sentence resulted in an execution, and 68 were reversed or commuted to life imprisonment. Fifty-seven percent of the female death row inmates are white. The ages of the 47 female death row inmates range from 21 to 78 years; they have been on death row from 10 months to more than 15 years. Tables and case summaries