(Note: Dec. 1 execution of Frances Newton has been stayed by the governor.) As Texas plans to carry out the scheduled execution of Frances Newton on December 1, a new report documenting the results of a national survey of women currently on death row found that many women have been subjected to harsh living conditions and that most were sentenced for the murder of someone they knew. The report, The Forgotten Population: A Look at Death Row in the United States Through the Experiences of Women, was preapred by the ACLU and details the experiences of 56 women living on death row. It also reviews the cases of the 10 women who have been executed since 1976. It found that while women face problems similar to men’s, such as inadequate defense counsel and struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, women are often subjected to harsher living conditions because of their small numbers. The following are among the key findings of the report:
- Women on death row often had ineffective counsel and were victims of misconduct by prosecutors or law enforcement.
- More than half of the women had suffered regular physical abuse by family members or spouses.
- Half of the women on Death Row acted with at least one other person, but in most of those cases, the co-defendant received a sentence other than death - even in cases where they appeared to be equally culpable.
- Many women on death row live in almost complete isolation, which puts them at a serious risk of developing mental illness, or exacerbating existing mental illness.