While women represent a small fraction of the death-sentenced population globally, their cases reflect the same systemic flaws and injustices found throughout capital punishment. Whether in the United States, the Middle East, Asia, or Africa, women face uniquely harsh treatment when sentenced to death—often shaped by cultural norms, gendered assumptions, and deeply flawed justice systems.
1. Global Overview
According to Amnesty International and the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, as of 2024, at least 500 women were believed to be under sentence of death globally. The numbers are difficult to confirm due to poor transparency in countries like China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, where death penalty practices are often shielded from public view.
Women in many countries face capital punishment under laws that criminalize not only murder, but moral and religious offenses. In some places, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, women have been executed for adultery, drug trafficking, or political dissent. In others, such as Sudan and Afghanistan, execution can follow accusations of “honor-based” offenses or alleged apostasy.
2. United States
As of the beginning of 2023, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund reported that 50 women were under sentence of death in the United States. The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) confirms this figure and notes that, while the number is relatively low compared to men, the issues of racial bias, prosecutorial overreach, and inadequate defense remain just as troubling.
Separate from those sentenced to death, an additional nearly 2,000 women are serving life without the possibility of parole. According to The Sentencing Project, this population has grown in recent decades even as violent crime by women has not. Many of these women are survivors of abuse, sentenced harshly in a system that often fails to account for trauma, coercion, or self-defense.
3. California: The Outlier
California holds the largest number of women on death row in the United States. As of 2024, 18 to 19 women remain under death sentence in the state, although all have been transferred out of death row housing and into general population units at the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), following the 2024 closure of California’s death row programs.
The state’s death-sentenced women, like their male counterparts, are covered under Governor Gavin Newsom’s statewide moratorium on executions, issued in 2019. However, the sentences themselves remain in place, and women continue to live under conditions shaped by capital punishment policies.
4. Racial and Ethnic Breakdown in California
California’s population of death-sentenced women reflects racial and ethnic disparities seen throughout the U.S. criminal legal system.
As most recently reported:
Black: 2
White: 11
Mexican: 4
Latino (non-Mexican): 1
Asian/Pacific Islander: 2
While the raw numbers are small, the disparities are real. Women of color make up approximately two-thirds of California’s condemned female population—a ratio that tracks with racial biases observed in male capital cases as well.
5. Context and Consequences
Women are more likely than men to be sentenced to death in cases involving the death of a family member, partner, or child—often labeled as “domestic” homicides. These cases frequently receive outsized media coverage and prosecution, despite often involving deep histories of abuse, coercion, or mental illness.
Several women on death row in California and beyond have alleged that gender stereotypes played a role in their death sentences—either painting them as manipulative and remorseless or denying them the same legal nuance afforded to male defendants in similar situations.
Internationally, the situation is even more fraught. In Iran, for example, numerous women are on death row for acts deemed morally or religiously deviant, including self-defense against abusive spouses. In countries with religiously driven penal codes, women have been executed or remain under threat of death for acts that would not be criminalized in most other parts of the world.
6. The Broader Picture
The death penalty for women is rare. But rarity does not equal fairness. When women are sentenced to death, the same issues that infect the broader death penalty system—racial bias, prosecutorial misconduct, poor legal defense, and a failure to account for mitigating circumstances—are often present.
Globally, women face additional barriers: gendered laws, discriminatory cultural norms, lack of access to education and legal resources, and poor prison conditions. In some cases, women give birth on death row or are denied adequate health care, legal counsel, or access to their children.
Understanding the profile of women on death row is crucial for any serious reflection on the viability and morality of the death penalty itself—not just in the United States, but across the world.
Acronyms Defined:
DPIC = Death Penalty Information Center
CCWF = Central California Women’s Facility