Women and the death penalty

In the United States, for instance, 2. While some observers have taken these statistics as proof that gender bias affects capital sentencing decisions, others have pointed out that death-eligible crimes are often crimes of violence and that these are more frequently committed by male offenders. While information on the gender of death row inmates is difficult to obtain, our research indicates that women are under sentence of death in less than half of the countries that retain the death penalty 37 countries out of 93 non-abolitionist countries worldwide.

Capital punishment -- the death penalty Basic reasons that people give to support or oppose the death penalty Sponsored link. Common reasons in support of capital punishment The Bible: The Bible requires the death penalty for a wide variety of crimes, including practicing evil sorcery, adultery, some form of homosexual behavior, doing work on Saturday, women but not men who are non-virgins when they marry, people who try to persuade others to change their religion from the only approved state religion, murder, etc.

It even calls for some criminals e. However, Bible passages are still used to promote the retention of capital punishment for murderers. A very few conservative Christians support the policy of six predominately Muslim states and advocate that sexually active homosexuals also be executed.

They feel that certain crimes are so heinous that executing the criminal is the only reasonable response. This belief even extends to some Christians where their need for vengeance overrules their ability to forgive, even though the concepts of forgiveness and mercy are expressed in passages of the Christian Scriptures a.

Many people feel that the death penalty will deter criminals from killing. This does not seem to be confirmed by an analysis of the available data or by the opinions of leading criminologists.

Death Penalty Database

However, it feels intuitively correct for many people. Critics often ridicule this position by asking why the state is systematically killing people in order to demonstrate that killing people is the ultimate evil. Once a convicted murder is executed and buried, there are no further maintenance costs to the state.

This appears to be invalid; the cost to the state paying for multiple appeals is generally much greater than the cost of imprisoning an inmate. Once a convicted murderer is executed, there is zero chance that he will break out of jail and kill or injure another person.

Some Christians feel that they are no longer bound by the legal codes of the Hebrew Scriptures, and that the death penalty is no longer required.

Over the years since the Bible was written, society became more tolerant. We eliminated the death penalty for pre-marital sex, adultery, practicing a different religion, engaging in prostitution, homosexual behavior, blasphemy, rebellion by teenagers, etc.

We should eliminate it for murder as well. The Christian Scriptures New Testament: She had been sentenced to death by stoning, but Jesus used a cleaver ploy to gain her freedom.

He suggested that the accuser who was without sin cast the first stone. None were free of sin and thus none could start the execution. However, many theologians believe that this story, John 8: The beliefs of the early Christian church: They were unalterably opposed to the death penalty.

Early Christians would not take a person to court if there were any possibility that they could be executed if found guilty. Executing a person kills him before the time of their natural death.

Some Christians believe that God places people on Earth for a purpose. Some feel that permitting premeditated murder is totally unacceptable, even if committed by the state. Capital punishment lowers the value of human life as seen by the general population and brutalizes society.

It is based on a need for revenge.

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A Quaker group suggests that It "violates our belief in the human capacity for change We do not believe that reinforcement of that idea can lead to healthier and safer communities.

The death penalty has not been shown to be effective in the reduction of the homicide rate.Considering the United States has executed only 13 women in the last 40 years, a death sentence would seem highly unusual.

Women committed less than 10% of all murders in America between and. Several countries provide by law that women may not be subject to the death penalty, either categorically or under certain circumstances. In four countries (Belarus, Guatemala, Russia, and Tajikistan), the law provides that women may never be sentenced to death.

Colm Wallace is the author of Sentenced to Death: Saved from the Gallows (Somerville Press), about 30 Irish men and women who had the death penalty imposed on them between and It is.

Death Penalty Worldwide’s analysis of the application of capital punishment to women, with bibliographical references and case law - part of a series of International Legal Issues.

DPIC | Death Penalty Information Center

WOMEN AND THE DEATH PENALTY: RACIAL DISPARITIES AND DIFFERENCES HARRY GREENLEE, ESQ.* SHELIA P. GREENLEE, PH.D.** ABSTRACT The death penalty in America has been studied, discussed, and written about extensively. The vast majority of researchers, however, have focused their study of the death penalty, or capital punishment, on male prisoners.

Considering the United States has executed only 13 women in the last 40 years, a death sentence would seem highly unusual. Women committed less than 10% of all murders in America between and.