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October 7, 2008 3:56:22 PM CDT

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Murder Earns Few Women Death Penalty

Posted Dec 30, 07 9:33 PM CST in Crime & Courts,  US 

(Newser) – With prosecutors still debating whether to seek the death penalty against Michele Anderson, charged in the murder of six members of her family on Christmas Eve, the Seattle Times looks at the odds that the Carnation, Wash., woman might actually be sentenced to death. Women rarely receive the death penalty, the paper finds, and in Washington state, no woman has ever been put to death.

In the US, of the 3,300 inmates currently sitting on death row, only 49 are women, totaling less than 1.5%, and since 1977, just 11 of the 1,100 inmates executed were females. Crime experts say family disagreements are the most common motive behind multiple killings, but they disagree over why women, especially mothers, rarely see death row: One law professor griped, “It’s like there’s something more valuable about women’s lives. Women are also treated differently when they're victims."

Source Seattle Times

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Women commit about 10 percent of the killings in the United States, but only 5 percent of the multiple slayings, the Seattle Times reports.   (Getty Images)
No woman has been sentenced to die in Washington state, the Seattle Times reports. Of the 3,300 inmates on death row in the U.S. in the last complete count, only 49 were women %u2014 less than 1.5 percent.   (Getty Images)
Death-penalty experts disagree over whether the small number of women sentenced to die in the U.S. indicates a bias favoring women, the Seattle Times says. One expert says, "It could be a bias operating...   (Getty Images)
King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, left, and Sheriff Sue Rahr address members of the media to explain charges being filed against a couple accused of killing members of the woman's family, Friday,...   (Associated Press)
Ben Anderson, grandson of a couple killed along with four other family members, watches during a hearing in a King County Jail courtroom, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007, in Seattle. Ben Anderson's aunt and her...   (Associated Press)
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crime  • death penalty  • capital punishment  • death row  • Washington state  • prosecutors  • Carnation, Wash.



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