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.

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