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Noticing some gendered realities of death penalty administration

By Douglas A. Berman

This local article from Alabama, headlined " Death row-worthy crimes largely committed by men," spotlights a couple of issues about death penalty administration that I always find notable.  Here are snippets: If a Franklin County judge overrides a jury's recommendation and sentences Christie Michelle Scott to die by lethal injection, she would be the first woman in the county to receive the death penalty. Franklin Circuit Court Judge Terry Dempsey will impose her sentence Aug. 5. The jury who convicted her of killing her 6-year-old son, Mason, recommended Friday that she be sentenced to life in prison without parole.  Dempsey is not obligated to accept the jury's recommendation and could instead sentence her to death. A death sentence for Scott, who was convicted of three counts of capital murder Wednesday, would also make her one of a few women in Alabama ever to be sentenced to die for a crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 12, 2009 (boomark / email).