Religion and the Death Penalty

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php%3Fdid%3D2249

Introduction

In recent years, a growing number of religious organizations have participated in the nation's death penalty debate. The purpose of this Web page is to provide access to information regarding the efforts of these faith groups and to highlight recent developments related to religion and the death penalty. The Death Penalty Information Center seeks to provide an overview of this topic and does not endorse any religious viewpoint on this issue.

1000+ Death Penalty Links

http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/links/dplinks.htm#rel

Women and the Death Penalty

"Death Penalty for Female Offenders January 1, 1973 - December 31, 2005" by Victor L. Strieb.

Comprehensive and authoritative work by Victor L. Streib, Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University, available only in electronic format. Number of executions of female offenders in the 20th century and death sentences since 1973; Characteristics by age, race, sex, and victim of current death row; Female death sentences imposed since 1973 by name, date, state, and current status; Very short case summaries of current female death row inmates by state. (Reposted by Death Penalty Information Center and updated January 10, 2006)

"Professor Streib Studies Women on Death Row," by Mike Wilder. (Times-News February 16, 2008)

News article spotlighting the academic efforts of Professor Victor streib relating to women on death row.

Women and the Death Penalty: Brief Facts and Figures (DPIC)

Except for a large photo of Sister Helen Prejean and poster child Karla Faye Tucker in Texas, a repeat of the information from Victor L. Streib, Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University, listing women on death row and women executed.

Why Women Aren't Executed: Gender Bias and the Death Penalty (ABA Fall 1996)

American Bar Association publication of "Human Rights," Fall 1996 by Thad Rueter, commenting upon the obvious gender bias of death sentences, with women more likely to receive mercy, clemency, and commutation.

"Mothers Who Think: Sexism and the Death Chamber," by Cathy Young. (Salon.Com May 4, 2000)

"We are consistently more likely to seek mitigating circumstances for women's heinous deeds, to see female criminals as disturbed or victimized rather than evil. The thought of a woman in the death chamber makes people cringe."

Capital Punishment U.K.: The Female Hanged.

Case summaries of the 38 women hanged in Britain for murder since 1868.

American Female Executions 1900 -2003. (Capital Punishment U.S.A.)

Listing of the 47 women executed in the United states since 1900, by age, race, state, date of execution, and method of execution. (short summaries of most recent cases)

Female Hangings 1632-1900. (Capital Punishment U.S.A.)

Listing of the women executed in the United states before 1900.

Dead Women Waiting: Who's Who on Death Row," by Sam Howe Verhovek (New York Times, February 8, 1998)

Short news article on female death row inmates, with photos of 12 from around the country.

"Fighting Demons on Death Row," by Kathie Doby (Salon Magazine)

The story of Andrea Hicks Jackson on Florida Death Row. (Salon Magazine, December 1995)

The Case of Mary Surratt, first woman executed in the United States.

The life story of Mary Surratt and her involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Compiled from the research of James O. Hall, published and copyrighted by the Surratt Society of Clinton, Maryland.

10 Women Executed In U.S. Since 1976.

Short news article on women executed in the United States since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. (with photos of Wuornos, Harris, Beets, and Tucker)

"Gendering the Death Penalty: Countering Sex Bias in a Masculine Sanctuary," by Victor L. Strieb. (Ohio State Law Journal 2002)

"Much more significant, however, is the unique lens for examining the death penalty that is provided by a sex bias analysis. Professor Streib concludes that this perspective unmasks the system’s crime-fighting rhetoric to reveal a macho refuge that masculinizes all who enter therein."

"Death Penalty for Lesbians," by Victor L. Strieb.

How does a suspect's lesbianism affect whether she is charged for a capital offense, actually sentenced to death, or finally executed? With complete listing of all females sentenced to death since 1973. National Journal of Sexual Orientation Law, Volume 1, Issue 1.

"Death Row Has Its Own Gender Gap," by Scott Baldauf. (Christian Science Monitor January 23, 1998)

"At the Mountain View prison unit in Texas, the highest point is not a mountain, but a guard tower, and the most famous person in town is someone most residents will never meet. She is Karla Faye Tucker."

Commentary: "Searching for a Silver Lining in Death Penalty's Gender Bias, by Earl Ofari Hutchinson. (Pacific News Service Nov 29, 2004)

"The execution of a woman in Texas, scheduled for Dec. 1, shows, in its relative rarity, longstanding notions of women as the inferior sex. But warped notions of male chivalry and female victimization as least offer some possibility that the state might learn to put compassion before bloodlust when it comes to capital punishment, the writer says."

"Staying Alive: Executive Clemency, Equal Protection, and the Politics of Gender in Women’s Capital Cases," by Elizabeth Rapaport.

Article from the Buffalo Criminal Law Review, Volume 4:967, by Elizabeth Rapaport, Professor of Law, University of New Mexico. "When a governor confronts the duty of deciding whether to allow a woman capital prisoner to be executed, he or she is additionally forced to navigate the politics of gender in the new age of formal sexual equality."

"Is the Death Penalty Good for Women?" by Phyllis L. Crocker.

Article from the Buffalo Criminal Law Review, Volume 4:917, by Phyllis L. Crocker, Associate Professor of Law, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University. "In this essay, I suggest a different and particularly feminist reason for reexamining, and rejecting, the death penalty. The death penalty perverts society’s response to the tragedy of a woman being raped and murdered by relying on a form of racism that is gendered in nature and by making the horrific nature of the crime of rape-murder a more important consideration in determining punishment than the individual characteristics of the person who committed it."

"Women on Death Row: Blanche Moore," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Brittany Holberg," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Carlette Parker," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Cathy Lynn Henderson," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Christina S. Walters," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Erica Sheppard," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Frances Elaine Newton," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Kenisha Berry," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Kimberly McCarthy," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Linda Carty," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)

"Women on Death Row: Suzanne Basso," by Charles Montaldo. (About.Com)