Women and the Death Penalty - As of January 1, 2013 there were
63 women on death row. This constitutes 2.02% of the total death
row population of 3,125 persons. (NAACP Legal Defense Fund). -
In the past 100 years, over 40 women have been executed in the
U.S, including 12 since 1976. See, Women Executed in the U.S.
Since 1900 for the date, state, race, and method of each
execution. - Much of this information is taken from "Death
Penalty For Female Offenders, January 1973 through December 31,
2012 [PDF]" by Victor L. Streib, Professor of Law at Ohio
Northern University College of Law, with periodic annotations by
DPIC (Please see the full-text of the report for more details.)
In general, both the death sentencing rate and the death row
population remain very small for women in comparison to that for
men. Actual execution of female offenders is quite rare, with
only 571 documented instances as of 12/31/2012, beginning with
the first in 1632. These executions constitute about 2.9% of the
total of confirmed execut