Women and Capital Punishment in America, 1840-1899

Download or read book Women and Capital Punishment in America, 1840-1899 written by Kerry Segrave and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-04-30 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps the single medium in which women have been consistently treated as equal to men is the American judicial system. Although the system has met with enormous public condemnation, equality under the law has justified the legal execution of nearly six hundred American women since 1632. This book profiles the lives and cases of selected women sentenced to capital punishment in America between 1840 and 1899, most of whom were executed by hanging. The book is divided into chapters by decades, chronologically following a summary of the long and heated debate regarding women and capital punishment. Also evident is the influence of the 1870s women's rights movement on the issue. Each chapter concludes with a comprehensive list of all women executed in the United States during the respective decade, specifying age, ethnicity and criminal conviction.