|
Female executions 1990 to date. |
Women continue to suffer the death penalty in
the 21st century. The majority have been hanged or beheaded, whilst others have
been shot or given a lethal injection. Two have suffered electrocution in
2008
case details.
27 year old mother of two, Raheleh Zamani was hanged in
In
Saudi’s third female beheading of 2008 took place in Mecca on the 29th of
January when Nigerian born Tawa Lawal
Ibrahim was executed for drug trafficking. On the 16th of February it was reported that
2007 case details. (7 executions)
Only two countries have
executed women in 2007. They were Iran,
where Zahra Nazari was hanged on the 7th of May for
an unspecified crime, probably murder. On Saturday the 14th of July a 29 year
old woman, who’s name was only given as Houriyeh was publicly
hanged in north-western Iran using the jib of a lorry crane, for the murder of
her husband. Executed with her were her
two male accomplices, Farhad and Reza, whom she had
hired to kill three of her in-laws.
On Wednesday the 17th of
October 30 year old Fakhteh C. was hanged for the
murder of her employer, in private within Tehran’s Evin
prison. 8 men were also hanged there on
that day.
On Wednesday the 19th of December Zahra N. was hanged in private within Evin prison for the murder of her husband, together with
three men in unrelated cases. Other
women remain under sentence of death in Iran.
2006 case details. (14
executions)
On the 18th of January, Iran hanged
a young couple in private in Tehran's Evin prison. Babak, and his wife, Raheleh had
been convicted of killing a mother and her 13 year old daughter during a
burglary in July 2003. They took gold and jewelry and then made their getaway
in the victims' car.
A member of a child trafficking gang, 49 year old Lin Yudi,
was executed by shooting in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian on the 24th of March for her part in trafficking 31
baby boys, one of whom died.
On the 3rd of May Farzaneh Sadeqi
was hanged in public in the Iranian province of Lorestan
for murder.
Two unnamed women, were put to death by firing squad
before dawn on Friday the 19th of May in the Vietnamese city of
On Sunday the 21st of May, a woman only identified by the initials Mahboubeh M. and her male accomplice only identified as Abbass H. were hanged in Iran’s north-eastern province of Khorassan-Razavi having been convicted of murdering the
woman’s husband.
Lei Hemei, a 38-year-old widow, was executed in Yunnan Province, China on the 9th of June for the murder of
her young niece who she drowned in a river. The crime was committed to get back
at her mother-in-law who tried to prevented her
remarrying.
An unnamed woman was among 27 people hanged in Iraq on the 6th of September,
probably for murder.
Nigerian born Amina Amouri Mohammad was
publicly beheaded in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on the 31st of October for smuggling
cocaine into the country in her stomach.
Two Pakistani women were publicly beheaded in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday
the 8th of November for drug offences. They were Gul Asmat bint Gul
Zaman and Shehzad Kee bint Nadir Khan who were
executed with a male accomplice, Sherif Khan bin Gul Zaman.
On Wednesday the 6th of
December Mohammed Mayaseed and his daughter Abagan Rafik were put to death in
Mecca, Saudi Arabia after being convicted of smuggling heroin into the kingdom
inside their stomachs.
On Monday the 11th of December, Bangladeshi born
Jasmine Anwar Hussain, 23,
and her co-defendant Mohammed Hilaluddin, 33, were
executed by firing squad at Bahrain’s Jaw prison for battering to death a
Bahraini housewife.
It is probable that Liu Yibing and her former boss,
Zhou Limin a branch manager at the China Construction
Bank, were executed by lethal injection on the 14th of December in the Chinese
city of Xian for a massive fraud on the bank’s customers.
2005 case details. (9 executions)
Noura bint Khalaf al-Harbi was publicly beheaded in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh on Monday, the 7th of February 2005, having been convicted of setting her mother-in-law, Noura bint Salem al-Harbi, on fire as she slept, following a family dispute.
A 49 year old Indonesian woman
named only as Astini was executed by firing squad
early on Sunday, the 20th of March, for multiple murders and mutilating her
victims in East Java more than a decade ago. The execution took place in
a secret location in East Java's provincial capital of Surabaya, 600 kilometres east of Jakarta.
On the 19th of May, Zhu Yaying was executed in China
along with her lover, Wang Junping, a former
prosecutor in Yangquan, Shanxi
Province and Zhu Yaqi, a hitman
for the murder of Wang’s former lover, Wang Xiaoli
and her daughter.
Drug trafficker, 24 year old Wu Xiaohui, was executed
in China on Friday, the 24th of June for drug trafficking and being responsible
for the deaths of two drug mules who died when they failed to pass heroin out
of their bodies naturally and were poisoned.
On Sunday, the 26th of June, Chen Junyan and her male partner, Deng Pantao, were sentenced to death by the Kunming intermediate court in China’s Yunnan province, having been charged with murder after they killed a dealer to steal his drugs. It is not known whether they were shot or given lethal injections. Their executions, along with those of 8 other drug traffickers were ordered to be carried out Immediately.
On the 6th of July, Roya, 28, (female) and Mohammad, 30, were hanged inside the
prison in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.
Apparently Roya had agreed to a "temporary
marriage," permitted under Iranian law, to Mohammad Kouhpayeh,
her employer. When the marriage contract expired, she married another man, also
called Mohammad. Roya demanded that her former
husband return some photos but he refused, and she and her new husband murdered
him in 1999.
On Sunday, the 10th of July, Noura bint Salman al-Faidi was beheaded in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca for stabbing Dalal bint Abdullah al-Faidi (female) to death after which she poured petrol over her body and set fire to it.
Forty year old Frances Newton was executed on the 14th of September in Texas. She had been convicted of killing her husband and two children to gain $100,000 in insurance benefits
On the 7th of December, 20 year old Akram N. was hanged in Shirvan in northeast Iran. She had been convicted of stabbing to death another woman identified as Maryam A. in 2001.
2004 case details. (25 executions)
|
Country |
Number |
Method |
|
China |
6 |
Shooting or lethal injection (private) |
|
Indonesia |
1 |
Shooting by firing squad (private) |
|
Iran |
5 |
Hanging (public or private) |
|
Jordan |
1 |
Hanging (private) |
|
Saudi Arabia |
1 |
Beheading (public) |
|
Singapore |
At least 1 |
Hanging (private) |
|
Vietnam |
10 |
Shooting by firing squad in public |
On or about January 25th, an
unnamed woman was given 80 lashes and then hanged in private in Iran after being convicted of luring young girls and women to
work in a brothel in the northern city Iranian of Qazvin.
On the 12th of February, 45 year old Nguyen Le Hong was publicly executed by
firing squad in southern Vietnam in the presence of several thousand people.
She had been convicted of running a group of around 16 thieves in Tien Giang, south of Ho Chi Minh City. Members of the gang befriended
people and then offered them food and drink laced with narcotics before robbing
them when they became unconscious.
Five days later, Wu Yanxia, a woman farmer from central
China's HubeiProvince, was executed for burglary and
voluntary manslaughter – it is not known whether she was shot or given a lethal
injection which is increasingly used in China.
Two female drug traffickers, 42 year old Duong Thi
Lien and 52 year old Nguyen Thu Ha, were executed by firing squad at the Cau Nga execution ground in the Tu Liem district of Hanoi in
Vietnam at dawn on Tuesday, the 17th of February.
March the 1st saw the
hanging of 24 year old Ibtisam Hussein in Jordan’s Swaqa Penitentiary for the murder of two children. The rope
broke at the first attempt and she was hanged again an hour later. The children
were members of her fiancé’s family who opposed her marriage plans. She drowned
them in the Jordan Valley canal, apparently as an act of revenge.
Chinese national, Yen May Woen, 37, became the first
person to be executed for drug trafficking in Singapore in 2004 when she was
hanged at Changi prison on the 19th of March alongside Jin Yugang
(male) who had been convicted of murder.
Nguyen Thi Ha, 48, was executed by firing squad for
the same offence in Vietnam on the 9th of April. Nguyen Thi
Hien, aged 57, was executed by firing squad in Hanoi
on the 12th of May, having been sentenced to death for defaulting on more than
11 billion dong (almost a million US$) in loans from her relatives and friends.
Diba Zomorodian, a
microbiology student, was hanged in Qazvin (western
Iran) on June 29th for an unspecified offence. On the 1st of July, an unnamed
27 year old woman was hanged in Iran’s Ghazvin prison for
the murder of her 78 year old father-in-law. It is thought that Monireh Ghasempour was hanged in
public in Tehran on July 11th, although her crime is not known.
Sri Lankan born, Bader el-Nisaa Mibari,
was publicly beheaded in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the 12th of July for killing
Sara bint Mohammed al-Haqeel,
a Saudi woman, while trying to rob her.
On Sunday, the 15th of August, 16 year old Atefeh (Sahaleh) Rajabi was hanged in
public in the town of Neka, Northern Iran. She
was put to death for “engaging in acts incompatible with chastity.” Her
“crime” was that she had an unmarried boyfriend and was having sex with
him. The unnamed boyfriend was sentenced to 100 lashes and afterwards
released. Atefeh’s age was given as 22 in court and
it has been reported that the judge took great exception to her spirited self defence and himself pushed for her execution with the
Iranian Supreme Court. He is alleged to have actually put the noose around her
neck before she was hoisted into the air by a lorry mounted hydraulic crane. It
has been reported that she had 5 previous convictions for the same offence and
had been flogged and imprisoned for these.
On Thursday, the 9th of September, it was reported by the Chinese news agency, Xinhua, that Hu Guohua and his girlfriend, Fan Shue,
were executed by lethal injection after being sentenced to death for murder by
the Shizuishan city court. Hu
and Fan were convicted of murdering Fan's former fiancé.
Indonesia carried out the first execution of a woman for many years when 32
year old Thai national, Namsong Sirilak, and her male accomplice
were put to death by police firing squad in Ha Tinh
in central Indonesia for smuggling 12Kg.of heroin into the country in February
1994.
On Wednesday, the 13th of October, an unnamed middle aged woman and 5 unnamed
men were shot by firing squad in Vietnam, having been convicted of carrying
16.8 kilograms of heroin and 87 kilograms of opium from Laos into Vietnam.
Thirty two year old Ma Xiuqin was put to death in
China for having more than 13 kilograms of heroin in her possession when she
was arrested in July 2003. She had been sentenced to death by a Beijing court
in January this year. Also in China, Chen Xiaomei
was put to death on the 27th of October after conviction for lacing food served
at a funeral party with poison which resulted in the deaths of 10 guests.
Vietnam carried out two female executions on
consecutive days in November. Thirty one year old Tran Thi My Ha was shot by a firing squad on the 16th in central
Quang Nam province. She had been convicted of
circulating 1.45 billion counterfeit dong (equivalent to US$92,350). The
following day, 37 year old Nguyen Thi Mai and her two
male associates, Giang A Chong
and Dinh Dinh Lam, were
shot in northern Bac Giang
province of Vietnam after being convicted of trafficking nearly 3 kilograms
(6.6 pounds) of heroin.
Wu Yuancui, together with 4 men, Luo
Jun, Zhang Shou, Zheng An
and Hu Gang, were executed in southern Chinese city
of Shenzhen on Friday, the 25th of November for the murder of 5 people during a
robbery at the home of a former Hong Kong TV executive in May 2004. It is not
known whether the 5 were shot or executed by lethal injection.
On Thursday, the 9th of December, China executed 38
year old Yu Mingfen together with her 24 year old
male accomplice, Ren Shunbo,
who had abducted 11 boys, between 2 and 3 years old, from several villages in
their home county of Huize between April 2001 and
November 2003 and sold them to Ning Dewan, who was executed with them. Seven of the children
were rescued by police.
On the 23rd of December, Hoang Thi Dan (age
46) and Tran Thi Bach Diep
(age 42) were executed by firing squad in Hai Phong in Vietnam beside murderer Hoang Trung
Kien.
2003
case details. (4 executions)
Only 4 women were reported to have
been executed in this year. They were :- Yuan Xiuzhen,
a 46-year-old woman, who together with 3 men, Hu
Aizhong, Yang Pinwu and
Chen Shibin, were all put to death in China on the
20th of May. Yuan Xiuzhen had earlier been sentenced
to imprisonment on embezzlement and fraud charges but was later released on
bail. While on bail, she murdered an elderly man in his 80’s who had lent
her money. She hit him with a bottle and then suffocated him with a towel. It
is not known whether Yuan was executed by shooting or lethal injection.
Zinat al-Sadat, a 34 year old Iranian nurse, was
hanged in a Tehran prison on Wednesday, the 8th of October for strangling a 70
year old man and his 11 year old grandson in 1999.
Bai Dezhen in her early
40’s, who had robbed and strangled a 78 year old grandmother for drug money in
Beijing, was executed (by shooting or lethal injection) on Friday, the
21st of November, having been convicted by the No. 1 Intermediate
People's Court.
On Wednesday, the 3rd of December, Qazma Al-Qahtani, a Saudi national, was beheaded in Abha, Saudi Arabia for the murder by suffocation of her
husband. Initially, he was asleep and when he woke and struggled with
her, she stabbed him in the arm. Her motive was not disclosed.
2002 case details.
(10 executions)
Lynda Lyon Block became the first reported woman to be executed in 2002 when
she was executed in Alabama's electric chair on the 10th of May 2002 for the
murder of a policeman. Two days later on Sunday, the 12th of May, Zainah bint Saeed
bin Mohammed al-Qahtani was publicly beheaded in
Saudi Arabia for murdering her father by crushing his head with a stone while
he slept. On the same day, 34 year old Ibtisam Ahmad
went to the gallows in Jordan's Swaqa prison with her
boyfriend, Ibrahim Othman, aged 30, for stabbing and
suffocating Ahmad's husband who had rejected her divorce request.
On the 15th of August, 20 year old Liu Dongmeng, who
had killed and dismembered her lover's wife, was executed by a single shot to
the back of her head in the Chinese province of Guangzhou.
On the 8th of October 2002, a woman identified only as Nasrin
C was hanged in the city of Tabriz in Iran for the
murder of her sister-in-law. The execution was carried out in private at
dawn inside the prison. The following day, 46 year old Aileen Wournoss was executed by lethal injection in Florida for
the murder of store owner Richard Mallory in 1989. She confessed to 5 other
killings later and had volunteered for execution.
A further female hanging took place in Iran on the 16th of October when an
unnamed woman was executed alongside 4 unidentified men, all for murder, in
Tehran's Ghasr prison.
On Monday, the 21st of October, Saudi Arabia publicly beheaded Noura Hamad with her male
accomplice, Al-Tarqi bin Atallah
al-Salbi, for murder and theft of their victim's car.
No other details of Noura were reported.
On Sunday, the 29th of December, Zahra Baghshirin and
Farahnaz Yuly were hanged
in a prison in Gachsaran in southwestern Iran. They
had been convicted of helping a friend get rid of her husband by stabbing him
in the back and beating him with batons.
2001 case details.
(25 executions)
2001 saw a record number of
verifiable female executions with at least 25 carried out in 9 countries. The
first was that of Wanda Jean Allen, by lethal injection, on the 11th of January
in Oklahoma for the murder of her lesbian lover.
On the same day, China executed a married couple by shooting for defrauding the
ChineseAcademy of Sciences of about £5,600. Liu Yixia used the money to pay off the debts of her unemployed
husband, Liu Shaoyang, while the rest was
"squandered away" by them. Liu was an accountant for the academy's
technological development fund so was able to forge cheques
and make out false cash transfers. Fraud and embezzlement are often punished
with death in China.
Badriyah Hussein al-Inizi
and her mother, Hameedah Saad
Qassem, were publicly beheaded on the 15th of January
2001 in Saudi Arabia. Badriyah was convicted of
murdering her father, Hussein al-Inizi, at the
instigation of her mother. Badriyah gave her father
sleeping tablets, then shot him and with the help of her mother, burned the
body in a remote area in the desert. They were executed in the eastern province
of Hafr el-Baten.
On the 16th of February, Singapore hanged 52 year old Julaiha
Maniam, along with two younger men who had helped her
to kill her husband, a retired police officer, so that she could then become
the sole owner of their $1.15 million terrace house.
In Afghanistan, two unnamed women were publicly hanged for prostitution.
These were the first executions for this offence under the Taliban.
On the 19th of March in Iran's capital, Tehran, a young woman and 4 men were
publicly hanged for drug trafficking. Fariba Tajiani Emamqoli's last words
were translated as, "May God forgive me"
before she and her fellow prisoners were blindfolded and noosed. They were
lifted, kicking and struggling into the air by lorry mounted cranes in front of
about 200 witnesses who chanted "Allah akbar"
- God is great and "Death to the traffickers, death to the
traffickers." (see also
Mariette Bosch, aged 50, became the ninth woman to be
executed in 2001 when she was hanged at Gaborone
Central prison in
An unnamed Chinese woman was executed by shooting on April the 11th for killing
her husband and Marilyn Kay Plantz, 40, was executed
in
Kuwait hanged 24 year old Qadeer Kaleeja,
an Indian maid, for strangling her elderly employer and stealing her jewellery on the 17th of June. This was the first female
execution there since 1988.
Two unnamed women were shot in China on the 21st of June for unspecified
crimes. It is thought that an unnamed woman was hanged in Iraq for drug
trafficking in June but this is not confirmed.
Thirty five year old Parvin Mirzaei
was hanged in Kouhdasht in southwestern Iran on the
3rd of July for the murder of a 65 year old woman 4 years ago because she was
afraid the older woman had learned of her decision to run away from home.
On the 11th of July, Iran executed 32 year old Maryam
Ayoubi by stoning for the murder of her husband. Her
lover was hanged for his part in the murder. China shot Yao
Wenhua and her boyfriend, Chen Zongshan,
on the 27th of July in Beijing after they murdered Yao's
husband.
China executed two women and two men for trafficking in children on the 24th of
August. The names of the women were not reported. It is likely that they were
shot.
On the 12th of September, Iran executed 37 year old Jamileh
Assadpour, who had strangled to death an old woman
before robbing her house. She was hanged alongside 3 unnamed men in Tehran's Qasr Prison. Saeedeh Qassempour Malayeri was hanged in
the same prison 6 days later for murdering her husband. Her lover, Amir-Hossein Fadaie, was also
found guilty of same 3 years ago and sentenced to death by a Tehran court. He
however won a last-minute reprieve.
Mona Fandy, her husband and their assistant, were
hanged in Malaysia on the 2nd of November for a witchcraft murder of a state
assemblyman and chopping him into pieces during a black magic ritual in 1993. Click here for full
details.
On the 5th of November, 21 year old Zhu Hongjuan was
shot in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou for smuggling heroin. It is
probable that more women have been executed in China under the "Strike
Hard" campaign which saw some 1,730 executions from early April to the end
of 2001.
Oklahoma carried out its third female execution of 2001 on the 5th of December
when Lois Nadean Smith was given a lethal injection
for the July 4th, 1982 murder of 21 year old Cindy Baillee,
whom she suspected of plotting to murder her son, Greg. This emptied the female
death row in that state at the time.
General.
Most female executions are for
murder or drug trafficking, although some women have been put to death for
prostitution and brothel keeping and a few for adultery and other sexual
offences in Islamic countries and for economic offences and child trafficking
in China.
Maj. Kula Samba was shot for treason in Sierra Leone on the 20th of October
1998, the only reported execution for this offence.
Virginie Mukankusi, a
school inspector in Kigali, was executed by firing squad with 3 men outside
Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, for genocide on the 24th of April 1998.
America, Botswana, China, the Congo, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait,
Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea and the United Arab
Emirates have all carried out death sentences for murder in the last few years.
China, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
have executed women for drug offences and it is thought that they all have
women on death row at this time. The Philippines also has the death penalty for
drug trafficking. There were 18 women on death row in the Philippines for drug
trafficking and murder at the end of 2000. In October 1999, President Joseph Estrada
reprieved Josefina Esparas who was due to be executed
by lethal injection for drug smuggling. Indonesia is expected to resume
executions in 2004 and has several women on death row convicted of murder and
drug offences. India too, has a small number of condemned women in its
prisons who face death by hanging, at present, if their executions proceed.
At least 3 women have been stoned to death
for incest and adultery, one in Afghanistan and two in Iran. Iran also executed
a 35 year old woman by stoning on the 25th of May 2001 for acting in
"obscene sex films'' and stoned a 35 year old woman for murdering her
husband and adultery.
It is highly probable that the real figure for stoning executions is much
greater as this form of death sentence may be handed down and carried out
locally in remote rural areas and thus not always reported. Stonings
are usually carried out in public and by the public, although the latest
stoning in Iran was carried out inside Tehran’s Evin
prison by officials. The poor woman was wrapped in a white shroud and then
buried up to her armpits in the prison yard to receive her punishment.
In Iran Article 119 of the Law of Hodoud and Qesas states, "In the punishment of stoning to death,
the stones should not be too large so that the person dies on being hit by one
or two of them nor should they be so small either that they could not be
defined as stones." Women are buried in the ground up to their armpits as
it is considered unacceptable for stones to hit their breasts.
Analysis by country:
Afghanistan.
An Afghan woman and her stepson were
stoned to death for incest in the rebel held southern Afghan town of Kandahar on the 11th of July 1996. On the 16th of November
1999, a woman identified only as Zarmeena, was
publicly shot by a single executioner with a Kalashnikov rifle in a football
stadium for beating her husband to death with a hammer as he slept. She is
thought to be the only woman to be executed for murder by the Taliban regime.
Two unnamed women who had been convicted of prostitution and "corrupting
society" were publicly hanged, also in a sports stadium, before a crowd of
more than a 1,000 people on the 23rd of February 2001. Since the overthrow of
the Taliban, there have been no reported executions in Afghanistan.
America.
America has always shown a marked
reluctance to execute women. The execution of Karla Faye Tucker was the first
in Texas since Chipita Rodriguez was hanged in 1863
and the electrocution of Judias Buenoano
was the first female execution in Florida since 1848. The last female
execution, pre 1977, was that of Elizabeth Ann Duncan by lethal gas on August
the 8th, 1962 in California.
Forty five women were put to death in America during the 20th century and 11 so
far in the 21st century. For details of these women Click
here.
Between 1984 and the end of 2007, 11 women have been put to death in
Women commit around 15% of all murders in America but represent about 1.5% of
the overall death row population.
On the 2nd of November 1984, Margie Velma Barfield became the first woman to
die by lethal injection, when she was executed at Raleigh Central Prison in
North Carolina for the murder of 4 people including that of her own mother.
No woman was executed in America from then until 1998, when 38 year old Karla
Faye Tucker was put to death by lethal injection in Texas, amid huge
international publicity on the 3rd of February. 54 year old Judias
Buenoano was electrocuted in Florida on the 30th of
March that year.
Karla Faye Tucker was executed for the brutal murder of two people with a
pickaxe in 1983 and during her years on death row, had become a born again
Christian. Judias Buenoano
was dubbed the "Black Widow" and had been convicted of killing her
son, poisoning her husband and trying to blow up her boyfriend.
There were no female executions in America during 1999.
Texas executed 62 year old Betty Lou Beets on the 24th of February 2000 for the
murder of her fifth husband. On the 3rd of May 2000, Arkansas executed
Christina Marie Riggs by lethal injection, at her request, for the murder by
the same method of her two children. The first female execution of 2001 was
that of Wanda Jean Allen on the 11th of January in Oklahoma for murder. Marilyn
Kay Plantz followed her to Oklahoma's death chamber
on the 1st of May 2001 for organising the murder of
her husband. One of her male accomplices had been executed for his part in the
killing in 2000. The execution of 61 year old Lois Nadean
Smith on the 4th of December emptied Oklahoma's female death row. (see above).
Alabama carried out its first female execution since 1957 when 54 year old
Lynda Lyon Block was put to death in the electric chair on the 10th of May 2002
for the murder of a policeman. She will most probably be the last woman to
suffer this fate as the electric chair is rapidly being phased out in America.
Serial killer Aileen Wournos was executed by lethal
injection in Florida on the 9th of October 2002. 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. There have been no female
executions in 2006 or 2007.
Bahrain.
On Monday the 11th of December, Bangladeshi born Jasmine Anwar Hussain, 23, and her co-defendant Mohammed Hilaluddin, 33, were executed by firing squad at Bahrain’s
Jaw prison for battering to death a Bahraini housewife. This is the only female execution in this
Gulf state in recent years.
Botswana.
At least 3 women have been hanged in
Botswana since independence in 1966, two tribeswomen were executed there in
1971 for killing children.
Mariette
Bosch is the last female and only white woman to have been hanged. She was executed on Saturday, the 31st of
March 2001.
China.
Although
China executes more people per year
than the rest of the world put together, only a tiny proportion of these are
women however. Up to 2002, all executions were carried out in private (but
outside prisons) immediately after confirmation of sentence by a single bullet
fired into the back of the head or into the heart. Lethal injection is now
being increasingly used, although in a lot of cases the method of execution is
not reported (it is a state secret). It is probable that the two women executed
in 2003 were given lethal injections. These executions can be carried out
either within the prison or within specially built execution vans. Only a
small proportion of executions are reported in the Chinese media so it is
probable that other women have been executed.
Four women were shot in 1996, all for murder. A further execution took place in
1997 when Han Yuji, former president of the Jilin
province Yuquan Industrial and Trade Co, was shot for
organising a huge fraud.
Yan Guangfen was shot in Chongqing on May 28th, 1998 for kidnapping 12 boys.
Four women were shot in December 1998, two each for murder and drug
offences, one of these being 18 year old Tang Linjiao
and the other 21 year old Xiong Wenna.
Two female executions were reported during 1999, those of Ma Yulan on the 2nd of March for brothel keeping and Zhou Mingrong, who was shot for masterminding a fraudulent
savings scheme on 25/08/99. Death sentences for "economic crimes" are
quite common in China. On the 11th of January 2001, Liu Yixia
was shot with her husband, Liu Shaoyang, for fraud
(see above). An unnamed young woman was shot for murdering her husband on the
11th of April 2001 after a mass sentencing rally. She was one of 89 people put
to death that day. Two unnamed women were shot on the 21st of June. It is
probable that several more women have been executed during this year under the
government's "Strike Hard" campaign on crime. Yao
Wenhua was executed on the 27th of July for murder
(see above). Two men and two women were shot for child trafficking on the
24th of August. On the 5th of November, 21 year old Zhu Hongjuan
was shot for smuggling heroin after being condemned at a public sentencing
rally in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The only female execution
reported in 2002 occurred on the 15th of August when old Liu Dongmeng (see above) was executed for murder in Guangzhou.
Forty six year old Yuan Xiuzhen was executed
with 3 men on the 20th of May 2003 for murder. She had earlier been sentenced
to imprisonment for embezzlement and fraud and was later released on bail for
medical treatment. While on bail, she murdered a man in his 80’s when the
latter asked her to return more than 17,000 yuan
(about 2,050 U.S. dollars) he had lent her. She knocked him down with a
liquor bottle and small iron balls and suffocated him with a towel.
On Friday, the 21st of November 2003, Bai Dezhen of Beijing, reportedly in her early 40’s, was
executed for robbing and killing her 78 year old grandmother who refused to
lend her money for drugs in March 2001. When the loan was refused, Bai knocked the old woman down and choked her with nylon
stockings. Wu Yanxia was executed on the 17th of
February 2004 for murder and on the 9th of September 2004, Fan Shue was executed by lethal injection for murder.
Congo.
Two unnamed women were executed by
firing squad for murder in the Congo on the 15th of May 1999.
Egypt.
It is reported that Egypt has hanged
7 women for murder in recent years, although the only firm information at
present concerns Zeinab Mohamed Ahmed, who was hanged
on September the 18th, 1991, Manal Abd al-Qabel, who was executed in
Tanta on May the 8th, 1999 and Saleh Mansour Hashem, who was hanged on
the 10th of September 2000. A British style noose and measured drop are used
and executions are carried out in private.
Indonesia.
Indonesia resumed executions in 2004, after a gap of some years and has to date
(March 2005), executed two men and two women.
Thirty two year old Thai national, Namsong Sirilak, was the first woman to be put to death for many
years when she was shot by a 12 man police firing squad at about 1.40 a.m. on
Friday, the 1st of October 2004 at a secret location on the outskirts of the
North Sumatra capital of Medan. She and two
male accomplices were arrested in 1994 for smuggling 12.19 Kgs. of heroin into Indonesia. The ring leader, Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey, was
executed on the 4th of August 2004 and the other man, Saelow
Praseart, at the same time as Namsong Sirilak. There is
at least one other woman on death row for drug trafficking.
On the 20th of March 2005, 50 year old Astini was
executed for murdering and mutilating 3 women on separate occasions between
August 1993 and September 1995 because they were unable to repay their debts to
her. She is the first Indonesia born woman to be put to death in the
country where it is not uncommon for women to go by only one name. The
execution took place in a secret location in East Java's provincial capital of
Surabaya, 600 kilometres east of Jakarta at 1.20
a.m. She was reportedly tied to a chair and the 12 man firing squad stood
5 meters away aiming at her heart.
Iran.
Iran is thought to have executed a
large number of women both by shooting and hanging after the overthrow of the
Shah but since 1983, reported female executions have been quite rare and are
generally for murder or drug offences.
Execution is normally by hanging without a drop and can be in private or
public. In recent years, the hydraulic jibs of breakdown trucks have been used
for public executions of both sexes. Public hanging also seems to have
become more frequently used.
For a detailed analysis of the situation in
Iraq.
It is clear that a substantial
number of female executions were carried out by Saddam Hussein’s regime up to
2003, but no details are available of the names and crimes of these
women. There was a female death row in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib
prison where it is thought that most executions were carried out by hanging,
although shooting and beheading were also used for women. One woman was hanged
in 2006 and at least 3 women are on death row in Iraq in 2007.
Japan.
Japan has only hanged one women in
recent years. She was Nobuko Hidaka, 51, who was executed with her husband, Yasumasa, 54, at a detention centre in the northern
Japanese city of Sapporo on the 2nd of August 1997. They were convicted of
killing 6 of their employees in a 1984 dormitory fire they set to obtain an
insurance payout. Executions in Japan are quite rare (typically 2–4 a
year total), and all are for murder carried out by long drop hanging in private
in various detention centres around the country.
Jordan.
For a small country, Jordan has had
a surprising number of female executions in recent years. There have been a
total of 103 civilian executions there between 1994 and 2004, of which 9 were
of women (8.75% of total). Executions are carried out by hanging in Swaqa Prison, about 45 miles (75 km) south of Amman (the
capital). Jordanian hangings are carried out in private but female ones are
always heavily attended by officials. It is unclear whether a measured drop is
given to prisoners. In the last 6 years, the following women have been put to
death for murder.
Amira Saleem, a 31 year old
Syrian woman and her neighbour, Eidah
Hussein (35), were hanged together on the 25th of June 1997 for the murder of Saleem's husband, Murad Youssef, also a Syrian, in March 1996.
According to court testimony, Saleem wanted her
husband killed because he mistreated and beat her. She got Hussein, her friend
and neighbour, to shoot Youssef,
and the two women sliced the body into 8 pieces and dumped it in a drain.
On the 28th of August 1997, Raya Musa,
aged 35, was executed for killing her husband with rat poison after he refused
her request for a divorce.
Egyptian sisters, 19 year old Rasha and 24 year old Abeer Ibrahim, were hanged on the
3rd of December 1998 for the robbery/murder of Abeer's
elderly employer.
No female executions were reported until 2002, when Ibtisam
Ahmad was hanged for murdering her husband (see 2002 above).
Twenty four year old Ibtisam Hussein was hanged for
the murder of two children on March the 1st, 2004. (see 2004 above)
Kuwait.
Three women have been hanged in Kuwait
since independence from Britain in 1961, when it has since executed a total of
50 criminals. Executions are carried out in private (since 1985) within Central
Prison by British style hanging. During 2004, the bodies of hanged male
criminals are shown to the public immediately after the drop. It is not known
whether this practice will be extended to female prisoners.
Indian born, Qadeer Kaleeja,
was hanged on the 17th of June 2001 (see above). This was the first female
execution there since 1988 when Alice Norban Barissi and Farida Taher Sheeh (both Indian) were
hanged, also for murder. A Pilipino maid
who had been convicted of murder had her death sentence reduced to life in
prison by Kuwait’s ruler in 2007.
Malaysia.
At least two women have been hanged
under Malaysia's strict anti-drug laws. Thirty three year old Hau Tsui Ling, along with 7 men,
including her boyfriend, were executed there in 1990. She and her boyfriend
were hanged together, on a separate gallows, at their request. They were
arrested in 1982 at Penang airport after being found
in possession of 28 lbs. of heroin and were convicted in 1985.
Tan Bee Lee was hanged for drug offences on the 29th of July 1994.
Mona Fandey, 45, with her husband Mohamed Affandi Abdul Rahman, 44, who
were described as a 'witchdoctor' couple and their assistant, Juraimi Hussin, 31, were hanged
before dawn on
Saudi
Arabia.
Since 1990, Saudi Arabia is reported
to have executed 35 women. Both public beheading and shooting in private are
allowed under Saudi law for women, although the latter seems to have ceased to
be used by 1990.
Nasir bin 'Ali al-Mari was beheaded for murder on the
5th of January 1990.
Yemeni, Aishah bint Jaber bin Ahmed bin 'Issa was
beheaded for murder in Riyadh on the 18th of September 1992.
Noura bint Ubeid bin Aqla Al-Zuebi and Aisha bint Muhammed bin Daydan bin Aqla Al-Zuebi (mother and daughter) were beheaded on the 11th of
December 1992 for murdering Noura's husband.
Pakistani born, Rani bint Khamisullah Bashak was beheaded
for murder on the 15th of January 1993.
Egyptian, Salwa bint
Mohamed bin 'Ali was beheaded in Dhahran for murder on the 29th of January
1993.
Jumu'a bint 'Abdelkhaleq bin Mifreh al-Ghamdi was beheaded in Baha on
the 12th of February 1993 for murder.
Filipino maid, Eleanor Akola was executed on the 7th
of May 1993, also for murder.
Indonesian born Konti Vidarati
Tonotini was beheaded for murder in Mecca on the 7th
of October 1994.
Saudi born, Fatima bint 'Abdullah was executed on the
27th of March 1995 for drug offences.
Saudi murderess, Mubarak bin Masoud
al-Masoud was beheaded on the 27th of June 1995.
Laila bint 'Abdulmajid bin 'Abdulhamid and Husein bin Ahmed al-Nass were
executed on the 11th of August 1995, both for murder.
Nigerian, Rabi bint Mohamed bin Hamid
was put to death on the 25th of August 1995 for drug offences.
Pakistani, Dal Feroza Dilawer suffered for the same crime on the 25th of
September 1995.
Zaferah bint Saeed bin Mohamed al-Saleem shot
her husband, Saeed ibn Hamad al-Suleim, 3 times with his
own rifle while he was asleep. She was executed on the 18th of August 1996 in Najran, 600 miles (950 km) south of Riyadh.
On the 26th of November 1996, Pakistanis, Bakhtawar
Ghazi Khan and Sabati Khatoun
Maghrabi were executed in Jeddah for drug offences.
Nigerian, Zahra Isa Ali was beheaded on the 30th of
June 1997, also in Jeddah for drug offences.
Nigerian, Bana Mohamed Adam was executed there on the
19th of September 1997 for drug offences.
On the 30th of October 1997, 30 year old Sulikah Anam Kafiran, from East Java, was
beheaded in Mecca for the murder, with an axe, of her elderly female employer.
There were no reported female executions in 1998.
Nigerian born, Hawa Awu
Farouk was beheaded in Jeddah on the 28th of May 1999 for drug offences.
Fellow Nigerian, Aisha Saadeh
Kassem was beheaded on the 16th of July 1999 in Jeddah,
also for drug smuggling.
On the 3rd of September 1999, Nigerian, Safira Onnabi Salami suffered for the same offence.
Carlito Soriya, a Filipino,
was beheaded on the 8th of October 1999 for stabbing a Saudi to death following
a dispute.
Saudi born, Fayzeh bint Hamoud bin Khalaf al-Jo was
beheaded on the 21st of February 2000 for burning her husband to death by
setting his bedroom on fire.
Warani Samiran Awdi (Indonesian) was beheaded for murder on the 19th of
June 2000.
Pakistani national, Mokhtiyara Khadem
Hussein was executed for drug offences on the 18th of July 2000.
Singapore.
Singapore seems to practice strict
sex equality with the death penalty and hanged 9 women in the 90's. Six were
executed for drug trafficking under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1973/75 which made
drug trafficking a capital offence and 3 were hanged for murder. All
Singaporean executions are carried out before dawn on Friday’s in Changi prison
and no details are released. Prisoners are usually executed in groups (of up to
7 at a time) with men and women being hanged together using the long drop
method. Bodies are returned to the relatives for burial. Executions are
now rarely reported unless the criminal is not Singaporean. It is highly
probable that more Singaporean women have been hanged for drug trafficking
since 2000 and at least one has suffered for murder.
Hanged for drug trafficking were:
Hong Kong born, Cheuk Mei-mei,
aged 29, who was executed on the 3rd of March 1994 followed by Hong Kongese born, Tsang Kai Mong Elke on the 16th of December 1994. Twenty five year
old Angel Mou Pui- Peng,
who was from the Portuguese
Tong Ching-man (24) and Poon
Yuen-chung (22) who were both from Hong Kong and were
only 18 at the time of their crime, were hanged on the 21st of April 1995.
Thai national, Navarat Maykha
(32), was executed on the 28th of September 1996.
Four women have been hanged for murder up to
2004:
Flor
Contemplacion aged 42, a Filipina maid, who was
executed amidst strong protests from the
Teo Kim Hong, a 36 year old prostitute, was hanged on
the 6th of September 1996 for stabbing another prostitute to death and Gerardine Andrew, also 36, was executed on the 26th of
February 1999 for her part in the murder of her landlady.
On the 16th February 2001, Julaiha Maniam was executed for murder (see 2001 above).
South Korea.
On the 30th of December 1997, South
Korea hanged 5 unnamed women and 18 men for various murders. These are the
first reported female hangings there since two unidentified women were hanged
on December the 18th, 1991, also for murder. A measured drop is used and
executions are carried out in private within prisons. There have been no
executions of either sex since.
Thailand.
Samai Pan-intara (59) was
executed by machine gun in Bangkwang prison on
November the 23rd, 1999 for heroin trafficking, together with two male
murderers. She was the first woman to be executed in Thailand for over 20
years. There were at least 11 other women on death row there. Lethal
injection replaced shooting from 2003.
United Arab Emirates.
Eighteen year old Sithi Faruk from Sri Lanka was
executed by firing squad in the United Arab Emirates in April 1995 for the
murder of her employer's baby.
The UAE also executed a woman by firing squad on the 23rd of December 1997 for
killing her Emirates husband. Egyptian born, Zainab
Ramadan Zaki, had been convicted of the premeditated
stabbing murder of her husband in the emirate of Ras
Al Khaimah, one of the 7 that make up the United Arab
Emirates. Her 6 children insisted on the sentence being carried out. They would
have been allowed to spare her under Islamic law.
Fatima Yossef al-Din Sayed
was put before a firing squad in Doha Prison (Qatar) on the 14th of June 2000,
along with her two male accomplices for the murder of her husband.
Vietnam.
Vietnam executes women by firing
squad in public, principally for drug offences. On the 3rd of March 1998, Lai Thi Ngan, the only woman among 7
members of a drug’s ring, was tied to a wooden stake and publicly shot at 5:30
a.m. at a firing range in Hanoi by 5 policemen.
Amidst considerable international outcry, Nguyen Thi Hiep, who had dual Canadian/Vietnamese nationality,
suffered the same fate on the 25th of April 2000, also in Hanoi, after being
found guilty of trafficking in heroin in 1996. There were no more
reported female executions until 2004, since when at least 9 have been carried
out (see 2004 above). No female executions were reported in 2007 but 2 were
carried out in May 2006.
Women and the death penalty.
Women account for less than 1% of
all executions carried out worldwide in recent years and there is a marked
reluctance to execute them in most countries.
Only China, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Vietnam regularly execute
women without any apparent sex bias. The penal codes of most countries prohibit
the execution of pregnant women, who are either reprieved at once or, in
theory, liable to be executed after they have given birth. In practice, I can
find no case where this has happened and all such death sentences have been
commuted.
Women tend not to commit the more heinous murders in the main and are more
likely to be convicted of domestic murders, which are often perceived as less
serious.
My own research shows the vast majority of respondents of both sexes do not
feel that women should be treated more leniently than men.