Death penalty for female offenders

Abstract

There are several reasons for imposing the death sentence on female offenders. The rate of the death penalty of female offenders is less than the death penalty.

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Discussion3

Statistics4

Death sentences on female offenders in the current era4

Executions of female offenders4

The Modern Death Penalty Era4

Reasons for the imposition of the death penalty on female offenders4

Domestic homicide and death sentence5

Family issues5

Other reasons5

Methods5

Gender Discrimination and Death Sentencing6

Conclusion6

References7

Death penalty for female offenders

Introduction

In 1973, the first enactment of legislation of modern death penalty law took place. The period after 1973 is called as the current era of the death penalty, which functions under different processes and laws than it used to before 1973 (Streib, 2010).

Female offenders, who could be as young as 15 years old, to 77 years old are sentenced to death on committing serious crimes. There is some inaccuracy is determining the correct statistics as there is confusion in being physically in a prison and being under the death sentence according to law, the removal of sentence, or case being reviewed etc. these perhaps are excluded and included those female offenders with a death sentence who are temporarily placed in local jails instead of death row prison (Streib, 2010).

Discussion

Statistics

In a period of 1973-2010, the states with the highest number to sentence women to death were Texas (19), California (19), Florida (17) and North Carolina (16). According to current statistics, out of the 55 women who are sentenced to death are, 14 killed their boyfriends or husbands and 11 of them were involved in the killing of their children, 3 killed a child, nephew or niece and 1 killed her children and husband. However, no female had received federal death sentences in the current era, but in 2005 and 2008, two cases received a death sentence. Women constitute 10% of arrests on murders per year, and 2% of all death sentences passes in trials. They are only 1.7% out of everybody currently in death row, and only a percent of people that were executed in the modern era (Streib, 2010). There were 566 executions of women in the time frame of 1632 to 2004. Since the earliest colonial times, female offenders have comprised 2.8% of all executions in the US, and during the modern death penalty era, women have comprised less than 2% of death sentences (Streib, 2002). In 2005, 52 women were under the sentence of death in the USA; this is 1.6% of the 3,254 people on death row. The Supplementary Homicide Reports forwarded that there were 11.1% of female murderers from 1980 to 2005 (Messing, et al, 2009).

Death sentences on female offenders in the current era

During 1973-2010, there were around 167 death sentences imposed on female offenders by the 25 states and federal government, which makes up only 2% of all the death sentences during that time. The rate of death sentencing for female offenders in the last decade was approximately 4 on an average annually. The vast variations in yearly rates of ...