Women on Death Row

As of January 1, 2016 there were 55 women on death row. This constitutes 1.87% of the total death row population of 2,943 persons.In the past 100 years, over 40 women have been executed in the U.S, including 15 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 by Victor L. Streib, Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University College of Law, with periodic annotations by DPIC.

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 executions in the United States since 1608.