Groups Issue Report on Women Facing Execution

(Note: Dec. 1 exe­cu­tion of Frances Newton was stayed by the gov­er­nor.) As Texas plans to car­ry out the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Frances Newton on December 1, a new report doc­u­ment­ing the results of a nation­al sur­vey of women cur­rent­ly on death row found that many women have been sub­ject­ed to harsh liv­ing con­di­tions and that most were sen­tenced for the mur­der of some­one they knew. The report, The Forgotten Population: A Look at Death Row in the United States Through the Experiences of Women, was preapred by the ACLU and details the expe­ri­ences of 56 women liv­ing on death row. It also reviews the cas­es of the 10 women who have been exe­cut­ed since 1976. It found that while women face prob­lems sim­i­lar to men’s, such as inad­e­quate defense coun­sel and strug­gles with drug and alco­hol addic­tion, women are often sub­ject­ed to harsh­er liv­ing con­di­tions because of their small num­bers. The fol­low­ing are among the key find­ings of the report:

Women on death row often had inef­fec­tive coun­sel and were vic­tims of mis­con­duct by pros­e­cu­tors or law enforcement.

More than half of the women had suf­fered reg­u­lar phys­i­cal abuse by fam­i­ly mem­bers or spouses.

Half of the women on Death Row act­ed with at least one oth­er per­son, but in most of those cas­es, the co-defen­dant received a sen­tence oth­er than death — even in cas­es where they appeared to be equally culpable.

Many women on death row live in almost com­plete iso­la­tion, which puts them at a seri­ous risk of devel­op­ing men­tal ill­ness, or exac­er­bat­ing exist­ing mental illness.

The report rec­om­mends estab­lish­ing a train­ing pro­gram for defense lawyers to encour­age inves­ti­ga­tion of abuse of their female clients and the rais­ing of this issue at tri­al; inte­grat­ing women on death row into reg­u­lar prison units and pro­vid­ing them with oppor­tu­ni­ties to work; adopt­ing prison staffing poli­cies to pre­vent abuse; and amend­ing the Prison Litigation Reform Act to pro­vide women who are sex­u­al­ly abused in prison with access to the court. Since 1973, 148 women have been sen­tenced to death in the United States. There are cur­rent­ly 50 women on death row, and Newton would be 11th woman exe­cut­ed in the U.S. since 1976. (ACLU Press Release, November 29, 2004). Read the report. See Women and the Death Penalty. Note: the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles has vot­ed 5 – 1 in favor of grant­i­ng Newton a 120-day stay. The gov­er­nor’s response is expected soon.



Charlize Theron Criticizes Death Penalty After Movie Role

Charlize Theron, who recent­ly won a Golden Globe Award for her por­tray­al of exe­cut­ed Florida death row inmate Aileen Wuornos in the movie ​“Monster,” has stat­ed that mak­ing the movie made her more aware of how ​“inef­fec­tive” cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is. Theron, who is opposed to the death penal­ty, was only 15 when her own moth­er shot and killed her drunk­en father after he threat­ened to kill his wife and daugh­ter. ​“I don’t think con­demn­ing peo­ple who mur­der and then killing them nec­es­sar­i­ly sends out the right mes­sage. And I have a huge prob­lem with the way these peo­ple are used as polit­i­cal pawns,” said Theron, a native of South Africa. Theron’s por­tray­al of Wuornos showed her as a home­less pros­ti­tute who was sen­tenced to die for a series of mur­ders she com­mit­ted after a killing in self defense. Theron has also been nom­i­nat­ed for a best actress Academy Award. (Reuters, February 8, 2003) See New Voices and Women and the Death Penalty.