Friday, October 26, 2007
Gender and the Death Penalty
The Justice system is supposedly based upon the ideals associated with equal treatment for all men, but what place do women fill in this system? Gender has intimate connections with the justice system, as the severity of one's punishment often relates to one's gender. Men have had a tendency to receive much harsher punishments in relation to women, especially in cases of capital punishment. There are currently 148 women according to the American Civil Liberties Union (http://www.aclu.org/capital/women/10627pub20041129.html) on death row in the United States, a very small number in comparison with the incredibly large number of men. Though on average women commit fewer brutal murders than men, even in cases where they do the punishment is rarely death. This phenomenon speaks volumes about our ideas of equality between the sexes, especially in terms of reproductive value. I feel that women are often spared the death penalty because of the emphasis placed on a woman's ability to bear children and be a vessel unto men's continuing legacy and due to the tying of morality to women's bodies throughout history.
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I was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on your last few comments. Are they inferences of your own to tied to a theory you've picked up elsewhere? Based on what you've read, does it seem as if juries are less likely to sentence women purely on their gender or because they are less likely to commit the types of murders that don't warrant capital punishment? Have you found a specific case where a woman seemed like a candidate for the death penalty and didn't receive it?
In the past, the death penalty has wavered in its application to men and women. Women receive the death penalty far less than men, where I agree with your assertion that juries consider a certain morality when sentencing women to death. I think the lower frequency of sentencing derives from the similar reason why women have not always been allowed to partake in the military: they are essential in maintaining the existence of the human population. You make another vital point concentrating on the historical emphasis on the woman’s body. Historically, various forms of art have venerated the female body and have projected it as a symbol of fertility, and a celebration of the gift of life. This reverence has been embedded in our minds and probably sways juries when making their decisions. Juries could view sentencing women with capital punishment as being too radical and deviating from the normal procession of events.
I also agree with the notion that the death penalty is applied less frequently to women due to the idea of carrying on a man’s legacy. Despite Title IX, women today in the United States still encounter prejudice issues. Women are paid less than men and encounter “job ceilings” in their occupations, where due to their gender, they are unable to climb the corporate ladder. As horrible as it may be, I also think that the general principle of killing a woman differs from that of a man, where people view women as being weaker than men, and thus being unable to handle such a harsh punishment. Men seem to be able to tolerate the horridness of the sentence better than women.
Therefore, not only do women encounter the death penalty less often due to their lower and less severe crime rate than men, but also because of the societal view of women in general. Society has always held women as fragile, and as a means of continuing the human race. These views of society initiate from the sense of reverence that has been placed on the female body throughout the evolution of our world. I do not think that this difference in application is fair, where if women commit an equally horrendous crime as that of a man, courts should not spare women and should consider them equal to a man when determining their sentence.
Certain prejudices and stereotypes are embedded in our society even though this may not be exactly fair. The idea that women are inferior to men is still a very prevelant idea that many people, including those on the juries, still believe. Due to this stereotype, I think women will continue to get different verdicts than men when it comes to whether or not the death penalty is used.
Although I agree with many of your comments, the idea that women are spared the death so that they can continue to produce offspring is untrue. Men are just as important in the creation of a new life as women. A woman does carry and nurture the baby, but the baby cannot form without a man present at first. Also, a woman on trial for murder will also probably not be interested in raising a family. Although that is very general and stereotypical, it will oftentimes be true. Women in this situation would not be the motherly type.
I don't think that she meant that a jury will spare that particular woman because she's necessarily going to have offspring. I took it as that everyone associates women with a source of life and therefore is subconsciously more reluctant to sentence a woman to death than a man.
What I find particularly interesting about this is that there is this assumption that a jury somehow leaves their prejudice at the door of a courtroom and becomes this ideal hotbed of deduction among a diverse group where everyone weighs in equally. And I was actually surprised when I first began reading about how the members of some juries are more influential than others during deliberation. But of course this is what life is and some people being taken more seriously than others within the jury room added to the ability of skilled lawyers to manipulate a common person who hasn't been trained to see through the manipulation will almost certainly end with a happenstance verdict.
Maybe we should just flip a coin blessed by holy water instead.
I think that women aren't put on death row as often because they are viewed as being inferior and because people find sympathy with women. I can't say that I would rather that they execute women more, but I do think that gender shouldn't determine whether someone is executed. I don't think she meant what she said to mean that women aren't executed because society expects them to nuture the future of the nation. I think she just meant it to say that people are more sympathetic when women are involved because of the general role that women play in society. In some cases where women have commited the most gruesome of crimes, such as Andrea Yates, the defense attorneys normally pull for a defense that don't allow for the defendant to be executed. alot of cases involving women are pleaded with insanity defense and insanity defense gets people off. I've always wondered, why they are more likely to plead women out on insanity defense? I assume it's because they think that women who do violent crimes are not in their right minds wen they do them. I don't think that's true all the time. This assumption that women have to be "crazy" in order to commit crimes makes me feel bad for men moreso than women. That implies that men commit violent acts in their right minds, thus implying that men can be mean by nature.
I disagree that this constitutes evidence that women are dealt less harsh sentences. I believe that if you look at the number of women convicted of murder and the number sentenced to capital punishment you will find that, while both numbers are low, they are proportionate to each other. I tried to use this as an argument against the death penalty in the class debate but found that the statistics don't prove too much.
I don't have any statistics to support this, but my assumption would be that women who commit captial offenses are judged more harshly, at least in the eyes of the public, since women are still regarded as weak and subordinate in society today. But perhaps this feeds into one of the earlier comments about a great deal of women using the insanity plea. You said that the historical and psychological connotations of women can influence the jury/judge to give a more leniency, but could it not also sway them to allot a harsher sentence because it is supposedly so heinous for a woman to commit such crimes?
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