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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