BOOKS: ​“The Fairer Death: Executing Women in Ohio”

The Fairer Death: Executing Women in Ohio is a new book by Victor Streib, a professor at the Ohio Northern University College of Law. The book explores Ohio’s use of the death penalty for women and examines the implications for women on death row throughout the country. Streib carefully describes the cases of all four women executed by Ohio in its history and those of the 11 women sentenced to death in the state during the modern death penalty era (1973-present).

Professor Streib’s analysis of two centuries of Ohio’s use of the death penalty reveals no clear intent to exclude women, but, nonetheless, shows the strong possibility of gender bias. The book provides insight into the national experience of applying the death penalty, invoking questions about the rationale for the death penalty and the many disparities in its administration. National reviewers have characterized the book as a “magnificent work” with “richly detailed” and “vivid portraits” of Ohio’s condemned women. (Ohio University Press, 2006). See Women and Books.