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Murder Earns Few Women Death Penalty

Will slaughter of 6 family members draw capital punishment for Wash. woman?

By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 30, 2007 9:33 PM CST

(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."

Women commit about 10 percent of the killings in the United States, but only 5 percent of the multiple slayings, the Seattle Times reports.
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)
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 or it could just be there are so few cases of women committing crimes like...
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, Dec. 28, 2007, in Seattle. Michele K. Anderson and Joseph Thomas McEnroe, both 29, were charged Friday with...
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 boyfriend were accused in the slayings of her parents and four other family members in a...
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)
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.
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)
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NJ abolishes the death penalty
Time

 
death penalty • crime • execution • capital punishment • Washington state • death row • prosecutors • Carnation, Wash.

 
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