The U.S. is one of the modern developed countries whose justice system includes punishment through execution. Nearly 2% of inmates are on death row, and most convicts are men (Fazio, 2020). In October 2020, the court submitted a woman’s execution for the first time in more than half of a century. The New York Times article U.S. Schedules First Execution of a Woman in Nearly 70 Years written by Marie Fazio describes the crime and discusses if sentencing a woman to death row is an act of justice.
The article begins by sharing the news that on October 16, 2020, the U.S. Court scheduled the execution for Lisa Montgomery from Kansas. The inmate was convinced of murdering a pregnant woman and trying to pass the baby off as her own in 2004 (Fazio, 2020). Federal executions resumed in July 2020, and Lisa Montgomery’s death by lethal injection will be the ninth one for the last 20 years (Fazio, 2020). The New York Times reporter describes the crime and highlights the inmate’s mental illness as a reason for her deviant, violent behavior. Lisa Montgomery was sterilized, yet in 2004 she started convincing everyone she was pregnant and then killed a pregnant woman to take the baby out and pass off as her own (Fazio, 2020). The inmate confessed to the crime, and no attempts of appealing conviction were successful.
The article includes the opinion of Montgomery’s federal public defender, Kelley Henry, who finds the death penalty act of injustice due to the mental illness and violent abuse the woman experienced in her childhood. The advocate points out that the convict was raped, sex-trafficked, and abused by her mother, and traumas she got as post-traumatic disorder must have been considered by the court (Fazio, 2020). The reporter then provides information about the previous federal death penalties to help a reader evaluate Montgomery’s sentence.
Two examples of crimes that led women to death row and execution were described in the article. First, in 1953, Bonnie Heady kidnapped and killed a boy, and second, in the same year, Ethel Rosenberg was sent to the electric chair after conviction in espionage (Fazio, 2020). The reporter describes these cases’ circumstances and shares the statistical data from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) about the number of inmates on death row.
The gender factor plays a significant role in crime commitment, and the article provides evidence to this statement. Fazio (2020) shares the words of Robert Dunham from the DPIC that “most murders committed by women are domestic murders, which are often considered acts of passion and not eligible for the death penalty” (para. 16). Moreover, the stereotypical perception of women as less violent and not dangerous for society takes place in the criminal justice system.
The statistics about executions for women provided in the article to highlight the rarity of such a sentence. Fazio (2020) claims that “since 1632, there have been 575 documented executions of women of the more than 15,000 confirmed executions in the United States” (para. 19). A brief history of the death penalty in the U.S. shared by the reporter included cases with female convicts who murdered multiple people to get capital punishment.
To conclude, the article provides information about the current situation in the federal execution system. The reporter mentions that a new drug is now used instead of injection, and the resume of executions of federal inmates announced by Attorney General William P. Barr occurred a year ago (Fazio, 2020). The death sentence is the tool Department of Justice uses regularly, and the article ends with paragraphs about the other two recent schedules for execution.
Reference
Fazio, M. (2020). U.S. schedules the first execution of a woman in nearly 70 years. The New York Times. Web.