Nevada, Women and The Death Penalty

Prosecutors may be seeking the ultimate punishment for a woman accused of slaying three roommates just six months after another murder case against her was thrown out.

Christine Sanchez, 47, was in court to answer to the charges of murdering her roommates in the Las Vegas home they shared.

The murders, as reported by the Las Vegas Review, happened after Sanchez’s ride to court to force the eviction of her roommates never appeared.

The homeowner, who happened to be in another room, told law enforcement he heard shots from another part of the house. A few moments later Sanchez approached him asking him to watch her dog because she was going to jail.

If Sanchez is convicted and sentenced to die, she will form a unique sorority at Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center, home of Nevada’s death row for women. Sanchez will be the only woman currently sentenced to die in The Silver State. The sole woman legally executed in the state was Elizabeth Potts who was hung in 1890.

A double gallows was purchased from Placerville, California and invitations were sent out. On June 20, 189, Elizabeth, and her husband, Josiah, were hung simultaneously while 52 men watched.

From 1860 until 1921, hanging was the method established by law. In 1911, Nevada’s state legislature decided to offer condemned prisoners a choice between hanging and firing squad. Hanging was replaced by the gas chamber in 1921 and remained an option until 1979 when Jesse Bishop was executed at Nevada State Prison.

Is The Death Penalty Sexist?

Considered America has executed just 13 women over the past four decades, executing Sanchez would seem peculiar.

Women were responsible for fewer than ten-percent of all homicides stretching from 2000 through 2010 according to The Wall Street Journal, but makeup just two-percent of death row inmates according to a recent study by the NAACP.

Even less women get the death penalty. Death Penalty Information Center director Richard Dieter. “There’s not as much implementation of the death penalty for females,” Dieter told Business Insider.

Two huge variables chip into the small quantity of women who get the death penalty: the essence of the offense and how jurors view women. Execution is commonly the punishment used for murderers who also perpetuate other felonies such as robbery or rape.