U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Capital Punishment of Female Offenders: Present Female Death Row Inmates and Death Sentences and Executions of Female Offenders, January 1, 1973, to October 15, 1994

NCJ Number
151671
Author(s)
V L Streib
Date Published
1994
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This report presents data regarding death sentences and executions of female offenders between January 1973 and October 15, 1994 and notes that both 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 female offenders is quite rare, with only about 520 documented instances beginning with the first in 1632. These represent less than 3 percent of the approximately 19,000 confirmed executions since 1608. Since new capital punishment laws were passed following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Furman in 1972, a total of 102 female death sentences have been imposed. This amounts to less than 2 percent of the approximately 5,253 death sentences for all offenders. Only 37 of these 102 death sentences remain currently in effect. One resulted in an execution, and 64 were reversed or commuted to life imprisonment. Nearly two-thirds of the women on death row are white; one-fourth were in their forties or older at the time of their crimes. Two-thirds of their victims were white, and two-thirds were adult males. Several of these female offenders were battered women who killed their batterers or victims chosen by their batterers. These death row inmates range from 23 to 74 years old and have been on death row from less than a month to more than 12 years. Tables and appended offender and case statistics.