American female executions 1900 - 2010

Historical background.

In total, it is thought that at least 368 women have been lawfully executed in America since 1632. This constitutes about 2.4% of the 15,500 or so total executions. Click here for a full list of pre Furman executions compiled from the Watt Epsy files.

Most of these executions were by hanging, (306, including eight juveniles), however 15 women were burned at the stake under British rule. (Click here for the American female hanged). The first woman executed under American jurisdiction, as distinct from British, was Basheba Spooner in the state Massachusetts in 1778. She was accused of killing a Sergeant in the Royal Army who she said stole her virtue. She pleaded that she was pregnant, but the plea was rejected and she was hanged. An autopsy showed that she was indeed pregnant.
The youngest female to be executed in the U.S. was native American Hannah Ocuish who publicly hanged in Connecticut on December 20, 1786, for the murder of another child. She was just 12 years and 9 months old.

Three women have been executed under Federal authority. Mary Ann Surratt was hanged with her fellow conspirators at Fort McNair on July 7, 1865 for their parts in the assassination of President Lincoln.
In 1953 Ethel Rosenburg and Bonnie Heady were put to death. Ethel Rosenburg and her husband Julius were electrocuted for espionage on June 19, 1953 and Bonnie Brown Heady was the only woman to die with a co-defendant when she went to Missouri’s gas chamber on December 18, 1953, along with her lover Carl Austin Hall, for the kidnap-murder of 6 year old Bobby Greenlease in Kansas City.
Martha Place became the first of 27 women (including one juvenile) to die in the electric chair when she was executed on March 20, 1899 at New York's Auburn prison for the murder of her stepdaughter Ida. Ethel Juanita Spinelli was the first of seven women to die by lethal gas, in California on November 21, 1941. Velma Barfield was the first of ten women to die by lethal injection. (see below)

Modern times.

60 women were on death row as of September 2010, accounting for just 1.6% of the current death row population, although women commit around 10% of homicides. Less than 1% of post 1977 executions have been carried out on females, with just twelve women being put to death between 1977 and the end of 2010. Where names are hyperlinked below there is a full article on the case.
The first was Velma Barfield, who was executed in North Carolina by lethal injection on November 2, 1984.
Karla Faye Tucker suffered the same fate in Texas on February 3, 1998 for a double murder.
Judy Buenoano, dubbed Florida's "Black Widow" was electrocuted on March 30, 1998 for husband murder.

Betty Lou Beets was executed by injection for husband murder in Texas on February 24, 2000.

Christina Marie Riggs also received a lethal injection for the murder of her two small children on May 3, 2000 in Arkansas. She fought strenuously to be executed.

During 2001, Oklahoma emptied its female death row, executing all three women on it. Wanda Jean Allen became the first black woman to be executed since 1954 and the first in Oklahoma since 1903, when she was given a lethal injection on January 11, 2001 for the murder of her lesbian lover.

Marilyn Kay Plantz followed her on May 1, 2001 for organizing the murder of her husband. One of her male accomplices was executed for his part in the killing in 2000.
Lois Nadean Smith was executed for the July 4, 1982 murder of 21 year old Cindy Baillee whom she suspected of plotting to murder her son, Greg. She was given a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on December 4, 2001.

On the 10th of May 2002, Lynda Lyon Block became almost certainly the last woman to suffer death in the electric chair when she was executed in Alabama for the murder of a police officer on October 4, 1993 in Opelika.

Serial killer, Aileen Wournos, was put to death by lethal injection in Florida on October 9, 2002 for the robbery/murder of Richard Mallory. She confessed to killing six other men and her execution was consensual.

There were no female executions in 2003 and 2004 and four women were taken off death row in Illinois when Governor Ryan decided to commute all death sentences in that state.

Frances Elaine Newton, aged 40, was executed by lethal injection in Texas on September 14, 2005, having been convicted of killing her husband and two children to gain $100,000 in insurance benefits in 1987.

Thursday September 23, 2010 saw the execution of 41 year old Teresa Lewis at the Greensville Correctional Centre in Virginia. Lewis hired two men, Matthew Shallenberger (who later became her lover) and Rodney Fuller to murder her husband Julian and stepson Charles, known as CJ, for a $250,000 life insurance which she would receive if they both died. The crime was committed in the family trailer on October 30, 2002, both victims being killed by shotgun blasts. Lewis pleaded guilty at her trial and was executed by lethal injection at 9pm having lost her appeals and been denied clemency by the State Governor. Shallenberger and Fuller both got life sentences in separate trials although Shallenberger later committed suicide in prison. Click here for a group photo of these women.

Pre Furman executions.
Many states have been unwilling to execute female offenders while perfectly willing to execute males. Texas carried out 441 executions between 1930 and 1977 but not one was of a woman, the situation in Florida being similar with all 268 executions between 1900 and 1964 being of males. One wonders whether the advent of lethal injection has made it easier for juries to pass the death sentence on female offenders and for state governors to sign their death warrants.

New York, however, carried out six of the seven female death sentences it passed in the 20th century. From 1900-1962, there were 39 female executions, giving an average of 0.634 per year, nationwide. Of these nine were hanged, 23 electrocuted and seven gassed. The last to be hanged was Mary Holmes, a 35 year old black woman, in Mississippi in 1937 for robbery and murder. Elizabeth Ann Duncan became the last woman to be executed in the USA prior to reintroduction of capital punishment in 1977 and also the last to suffer death by lethal gas at California's San Quentin prison on August 8, 1962. As stated earlier, Lynda Lyon Block was the last to be electrocuted. No woman has ever been executed by shooting.

Listing of female executions in chronological order.

Female executions 1900 - 2010.
Name	Age	State	Date mm/dd/yy	Method	Race	Crime
Dora Wright	38	Oklahoma	07/17/03	Hanging	Black	Murder of a seven year old girl.
Mary Rogers	29	Vermont	12/08/05	Hanging	White	Murder of husband.
Mary Farmer	21	New York	03/29/09	Electrocution	White	Ax murder of neighbor.
Virginia Christian	17	Virginia	08/16/12	Electrocution	Black	Murder of Mrs. Ida Virginia Belote.
Pattie Perdue	-	Mississippi	01/13/22	Hanging	Black	Murder of white man.
Ann Knight	-	Mississippi	10/13/22	Hanging	Black	Murder of husband.
Ruth Snyder	34	New York	01/12/28	Electrocution	White	Murder of husband.
Ada LeBoeuf	38	Louisiana	02/01/29	Hanging	White	Contract murder of husband by shooting.
Selena Gilmore	-	Alabama	01/24/30	Electrocution	Black	Shotgun murder of waiter.
Eva Dugan	52	Arizona	02/21/30	Hanging	White	Murder of employer.
Irene Schroeder	22	Pennsylvania	02/23/31	Electrocution	White	Shooting of policeman.
Anna Antonio	27	New York	09/08/34	Electrocution	White	Contract killing of husband.
Julia Moore	-	Louisiana	02/08/35	Hanging	Black	Murder of Elliot Wilson.
May Carey	55	Delaware	06/07/35	Hanging	White	Murder of her brother.
Eva Coo	41	New York	06/27/35	Electrocution	White	Murder of lodger.
Mary Francis Creighton	38	New York	07/16/35	Electrocution	White	Poisoning of landlady
Mary Holmes	35	Mississippi	04/29/37	Hanging	Black	Beat employer to death.
Marie Porter	38	Illinois	01/28/38	Electrocution	White	Murder of her brother.
Anna Marie Hahn	31	Ohio	12/07/38	Electrocution	White	Poisoning for gain.
Ethel Juanita Spinelli	58	California	11/21/41	Lethal gas (first)	White	Murder of a member of her gang.
Toni Jo Henry	26	Louisiana	11/28/42	Electrocution	White	Shot a man in a vain attempt to free her husband from prison.
Rosanna Phillips	25	N. Carolina	01/01/43	Lethal gas	Black	Axe murder of employer.
Sue Logue	43	S. Carolina	01/15/43	Electrocution	White	Murder of sheriff.
Mildred Johnson	23	Mississippi	05/19/44	Electrocution	Black	Beat her landlady to death.
Helen Fowler	37	New York	11/16/44	Electrocution	Black	Robbery/murder of customer.
Bessie Mae Smith (Williams)	19	N. Carolina	29/12/44	Lethal gas	Black	Stabbed a taxi driver.
Lena Baker	44	Georgia	03/05/45	Electrocution	Black	Battering her employer. Pardoned in 2005
Corinne Sykes	20	Pennsylvania	10/14/46	Electrocution	Black	Stabbing her employer
Rosa Marie Stinette	49	S. Carolina	01/17/47	Electrocution	Black	Contract killing of husband
Louise Peete	62	California	04/11/47	Lethal gas	White	Shooting of lady supervising her parole.
Martha Jule Beck	30	New York	03/08/51	Electrocution	White	Drowning a child
Ethel Rosenberg	35	Federal	06/19/53	Electrocution	White	Espionage
Earle Dennison	55	Alabama	09/04/53	Electrocution	White	Poisoning of niece.
Bonnie Brown Heady	41	Federal (Missouri)	12/18/53	Lethal gas	White	Kidnap & murder of a 6 year old boy. Executed with her lover Carl Hall
Blanch "Dovie" Dean	55	Ohio	01/15/54	Electrocution	White	Poisoned her husband.
Betty Butler	26	Ohio	06/12/54	Electrocution	Black	Bludgeoning/ drowning of lesbian.
Barbara Graham	32	California	06/03/55	Lethal gas	White	Robbery murder.
Rhonda Belle Martin	50	Alabama	10/11/57	Electrocution	White	Poisoning husband.
Elizabeth Duncan	58	California	08/08/62	Lethal gas	White	Murder of daughter in law.
Velma Barfield	52	N. Carolina	11/02/84	Lethal Injection	White	Poisoning of husband(s).
Karla Faye Tucker	37	Texas	02/03/98	Lethal Injection	White	Pick ax murders.
Judias Buenoano	54	Florida	03/30/98	Electrocution	White	Husband murders
Betty Lou Beets	62	Texas	02/24/00	Lethal Injection	White	Husband murders.
Christina Riggs	28	Arkansas	05/03/00	Lethal Injection	White	Murder of her two children.
Wanda Jean Allen	41	Oklahoma	01/11/01	Lethal Injection	Black	Murder of her lesbian lover.
Marilyn Kay Plantz	40	Oklahoma	05/01/01	Lethal Injection	White	Contract killing of her husband.
Lois Nadean Smith	61	Oklahoma	12/04/01	Lethal Injection	White	Murder of son's former girlfriend.
Lynda Lyon Block	54	Alabama	05/10/02	Electrocution	White	Murder of policeman.
Aileen Wournoss	46	Florida	10/09/02	Lethal Injection	White	Serial killer.
Frances Newton	40	Texas	09/14/05	Lethal Injection	Black	Murder of her husband & 2 children.
Teresa Lewis	41	Virginia	09/23/10	Lethal Injection	White	Contract killing of her husband & stepson.

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