A new report by Victor Streib, Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University, high­lights trends in the death penal­ty regard­ing female offend­ers. The report shows that the death penal­ty in the United States is rarely imposed on women. Of the approx­i­mate­ly 8,200 death sen­tences that have been imposed across the U.S. since 1973, less than 2% have been imposed on female defen­dants (167 out of 8,292, at the time of the report’s pub­li­ca­tion). Additionally, only 1% of exe­cu­tions in the mod­ern era (since 1976) have been of women (12 out of 1232). The report also shows that over 50% of women cur­rent­ly on death row were con­vict­ed of killing a close fam­i­ly mem­ber. Most women were con­vict­ed of killing their hus­bands or boyfriends, or chil­dren close to them. Finally, the study observed that the exe­cu­tion of women account­ed for only 0.6% of all exe­cu­tions since the 1900s. When com­pared to ear­li­er eras in American his­to­ry, this data indi­cates that the prac­tice of exe­cut­ing women is rar­er than in pre­vi­ous cen­turies. Click here for full report.

(V. Streib, ​“Death Penalty for Female Offenders,” Ohio Northern University, November 3, 2010). See Women.

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