Capital Punishment of Female Offenders: Present Female Death Row Inmates and Death Sentences and Executions of Female Offenders, January 1, 1973, to June 30, 1995

• NCJ Number: 157055
• Author(s): V L Streib
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services; Cleveland State University
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In documenting the death sentencing of female offenders in the United States between 1973 and 1995, this report shows that the female death sentencing rate and the female death row population remain very small in comparison to that for males.

Abstract

The actual execution of females is quite rare, with only about 520 documented cases beginning with the first in 1632. These 520 female executions constitute less than 3 percent of the total 19,000 confirmed executions since 1608. The last female offender execution occurred in North Carolina in 1984. Data indicate that the death sentencing rate for female offenders was about 5 per year beginning in the 1980's, and this rate doubled in 1989. The rate returned to just above pre-1989 levels in 1990 and 1991, surged to 10 in 1992, and returned to 5 in 1993 and 1994. The number of female offenders sentenced to death row each year remains under 0.2 percent of the approximately 3,700 women sentenced to prison each year. Two States, Florida and North Carolina, account for 25 percent of all female death sentences. An appendix provides detailed data on females currently on death row. 3 tables