Executing Female Offenders and the

Executing Female Offenders and the Law. Women are far less likely than men to be dispatched to death row for their crimes, even though many of them are sentenced for the same crimes. Females account for about one in eight (13%) murder arrests, one in 72 (1.4%) death sentences, and one in 140 (0.7%) actual executions. In fact, of the more than 8,000 individuals executed since 1900 to the start of the millennium, only 44(0.5%) were women (Streib, 2001).

The following essay draws up a socio-legal literature review on the subject, presenting a legal history of Capital Punishment, the causes that warrant capital punishment, the discrimination that exists between males an females regarding receiving the death sentence, and concludes with some general speculations regarding the factors that impel relatively a minute representation of women to be featured on Death Row.

Background History Capital punishment has always been around -- in fact the first American individual was hung in 1608 (Bakken, 2010) -- whilst the Espy file lists 15,269 people executed in the United States between 1608 and 1991. 4,661 executions existed alone between 1930 to 2002, most of them in the first 20 years going through the alarms of WWII and the Cold War. The current death penalty was formalized in the early 1970s, and suspended from 1972 to 1976 as a result of the Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972).

It was cruel and unusual punishment in various cases of capital punishment in the past that rendered the Court to decree execution unconstitutional and contrary to the principles of the 8th Amendment. Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan Jr., in fact, opined that the death penalty utterly contradicted the Eighth Amendment and was a "cruel and unusual" punishment. In 1976, however, 37 states reverted to introducing the death penalty (Banner, 2002). Execution was prescribed for those who had committed certain forms of murder.

The case of Fuhrman was used as precedence here, where, since the decision to withhold execution was not unanimous (it was, in fact, a five-to-four decision), Byron White and Potter Stewart had upheld the institution of death sentence with the proviso that it be accorded only in certain very limited and rare instances. Most of the states that enacted new death penalties did so accepting White and Stewart's conditions as their base of legalization and direction. Two restrictions were placed on the use of the death penalty.

The first was the Supreme Court Case of Atkins vs. Virginia, June, 2002, that determined that executions of mentally retarded criminals are "cruel and unusual punishments', and that anyone with a mental IQ below 70 was considered retarded. (Before that time, between 1984 and 2002 forty-four mentally retarded individuals had been executed) (Bakken, 2010; Banner, 2002). The second was the Supreme Court's decision, passed in 2005, in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005) that prohibited execution for individuals under age 18. New Jersey and New Mexico repealed their death penalty statutes.

New Mexico, in 2009, replaced death penalty with life imprisonment. The law though, not being retroactive, still presents us with the situation where offenders who committed crimes before that date are sentenced. Between 1976 to 2009, 1,210 people have been executed with most of these executions occurring after 1990. Texas boasts the highest number of executions (more than a third, with four times as many as Virginia who ranks second in number).

California, on the other hand, whilst having the greatest number of prisoners on death row, accords the least death sentences (Death Penalty Information Center, [Online]) Crimes that Deserve Capital Punishment All states accept murder as being the crime that unilaterally deserves death. Some cases consider treason punishable by execution too.

Terrorism, espionage, certain violations of the Geneva Convention, and aggravated rape, as well as extortionate kidnapping (the latter two in some states), are worthy of capitol execution, likewise, whilst aircraft hijacking, drug trafficking, and train wrecking that result in death have been other instances that have warranted the sentence. In all cases, the jury is repeatedly recommended to consider mitigating circumstances. The death penalty, in other words, is only accorded in the most severe of cases (Dow, & Dow, 2002).

The Death Penalty and Women In all cases, remarkably more men have been dispatched for execution than women. In fact, according to Streib (2001), females account for about one in eight (13%) murder arrests, one in 72 (1.4%) death sentences, and one in 140 (0.7%) actual executions. Streib's survey conducted in 2001, recorded that of the more than 8,000 individuals executed since 1900 to the start of the millennium, only 44(0.5%) were women. Apparently, this pattern is not just relegated to the United States.

Although the ratio does seem to increase in Middle Eastern Islamic countries, the ratio of male to women execution shows dramatic preference to males throughout the world. The Indian death penalty statute expressly accentuates the offender's gender as a factor to be considered (if female, the sentence is radically subdued). Russia expressly forbids the death penalty for women, whilst in so-called developed and civilized countries the execution of women is a rare event (Crocker, 2001).

In short, returning to America, statistics show that about five to ten women receive death sentences annually compared to almost 300 men, and that their actual execution is rare (Streib, 2001). Exceptions A survey of women who have actually received the death sentence indicates that only the most severe cases seem to merit the sentence. In 2000, both Doris Carlson and Virginia Caudill received the death sentence. Carlson sought to profit from her invalid mother-in-law's death by killing her and possessing her trust fund.

Caudill, in an unprecedented case of a white woman condemned for killing a black individual, had robbed and murdered a 73-year-old black woman. Women sentenced for killing their children have been few and far between (Streib, 2001). Usually they have been exonerated on the plea of mental illness. but, in 1998, an exception was made in the case of Dora Buenrostro who furiously stabbed her three pre-adolescent children to death.

A year later, Susan Eubans was resigned to Death Row for shooting her three young sons, and Sandy Nieves, 2000, was executed for poisoning her four daughters. Caroline Young killed her two grandchildren, in 1995, and consequently received the death sentence. Other cases characterize the most bizarre of crimes: Antoinette Frank, a security guard in a Vietnamese restaurant in New Orleans, shot another security guard twice in the back before shooting two of the workers.

Shonda Johnson, married to three men simultaneously, convinced one husband to shoot another in order that she could be cleared of a bigamy charge. Aileen Wourmos killed six middle-aged white men who had selected her for prostitution. This seems to be the general pattern of women slated for execution. Their crimes include killing members of their family, boyfriends, neighbors, policemen, and, in the case of one, "groups of tourists walking down the sidewalk in Reno" (Streib, 2001).

In short, it seems to be the most bizarre and extreme of crimes that merit the death sentence for women. Of all those sentenced, however, only five women have actually been executed. From January 1977 to January 1998, 436 individuals were executed, all of them men with the exception of one woman. Velma Barfield was executed for poisoning several of her clinical patients. However, from January 1998 through June 2000, the ratio of women somewhat increased with execution of women offenders constituting four out of 214 executions.

There was Karla Tucker, in Texas, in 1998, and Judi Buenaonao in Florida in that same year. Betty Beets followed two years later in Texas with Christina Riggs in Arkansas. On the whole, however, female executions are a rarity with only 12 females having been executed since 1976. Their names are: 1. Barfield -- killed for killing her boyfriend 2. Tucker -- killed fro killing a stranger 3. Buenaonao - killed for killing her husband 4. Beets- killed for killing her husband 5. Riggs -- killed for killing her children 6. Wanda Jean Allen -- for killing significant others 7.

Marilyn Plants -- murdered her husband 8. Lois Naden Smith -- killed her son's ex-girlfriend 9. Linda Lyon Block -- killed a police officer 10. Aileen Wuornos- killed a stranger 11. Frances Lewis -- killed her children and husband 12. Teresa Newton -- killed her husband and stepson. (Death Penalty Information Center [Online]) All but two were killed by lethal injection.

As the Death Penalty Information Center shows: women account for about 1 in 10 (10%) murder arrests; women account for only 1 in 50 (2%) death sentences imposed at the trial level; women account for only 1 in 67 (1.5%) persons presently on death row; and women account for only 1 in 100 (1%) persons actually executed in the modern era. Theories regarding Reduced Numbers Rappaport (2000) suggests that this pattern indicates a fact that is actually detrimental towards women. Most of these cases involve domestic abuse.

The fact that the criminal justice system barely acts to execute women over this issue might indicate that they fail to take domestic abuse seriously enough. Support for this contention comes from the observation that male offenders too are comparatively lightly punished when domestic abuse is involved. Other factors, however, indicate greater complexity. Streib (1990), for instance, showed that confounding factors for deserving the death sentence include the offender's prior record for committing crimes; premeditation of the crime; and her potential for future violent crimes.

Women are less likely to represent or possess these characteristics than men and, therefore, subsequently are figured less often on Death Row. However, it is also very likely that simple sexism plays a part. This is particularly likely when it is seen that those tending more towards the death penalty - i.e. more conservative, Republican, white-male dominated groups -- are also less strongly against women receiving this penalty.

In fact, these groups have sometimes even prominently militated against women receiving the death sentence, as was the case with Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition protesting Tucker's 1998 execution. (Tucker, by the way, was also a born-again Christian). Sex bias would be extremely hard to prove, particularly since the McClesey v. Kemp, 481 U.S.

279 (1987) case demands proof not only that the death row inmate's specific case involved discrimination but also that a pattern of discrimination exists, and few judges and jurors would be open to admitting such discrimination (positing that they were able to perceive it). Worst of all, fighting for abolition of such discrimination could come to be seen in an unworthy light as either increasing the death penalty for women (in which case "it suggests a campaign.