Female Inmates That Were Once Put on Death Row in the US

The federal death penalty applies in all US states and territories but is used relatively rarely. The federal death row comprises around 55 prisoners with most of them imprisoned in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Earlier this Wednesday, 13 January, Lisa Montgomery - the only female inmate on federal death row in the US, was executed by lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, after a last-minute stay of execution was lifted by the US Supreme Court.

Montgomery is the first female federal inmate to be put to death by the US government in 67 years.

With Montgomery's execution, 11 federal death row inmates have been put to death in the United States since July, when US President Donald Trump resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus.

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Lisa Montgomery, a federal prison inmate scheduled for execution. The undated photograph was made at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Fort Worth.

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This photo shows seven women that were on death row at the Mountain View Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, in Gatesville, Texas.
The list includes names and when they arrived at the facilities following their sentencing: Darlie Routier, arrived at the unit on 5 February 1997 and is still awaiting execution; Pamela Lynn Perillo, arrived on 4 September 1980 but was resentenced to life in prison plus 30 years on 12 July 2000; Karla Faye Tucker, arrived on 18 December 1984 and was executed on 3 February 1998; Betty Lou Beets, arrived on 14 October 1985, was executed on 24 February 2000; Frances Elaine Newton, arrived on 17 November 1988 and was executed on 14 September 2005; Erica Yvonne Sheppard, arrived on 26 April 1995 and is still awaiting execution; Cathy Lynn Henderson, arrived on 1 June 1995, died on 2 August 2015 in a hospital.

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Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos waves at members of the court and thanks Judge Victor Musleh as she leaves courtroom 4A in the Marion County Judicial Center in Ocala, Florida Thursday afternoon 22 February 2001. Wuornos is presently on death row for the murder of six men between 1989 and 1990 in Central Florida.

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Wanda Jean Allen cries as she begs the Oklahoma Clemency Board to spare her life for killing her lesbian lover 12 years ago during a hearing at the prison in Lexington, Oklahoma, 15 December 2000.

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Condemned murderess Velma Barfield is shown during the taping of an interview in October of 1984.

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Christina Riggs, the only woman on Arkansas' death row, leaves a Pulaski County Circuit Court's courtroom on 14 January 2000.

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An undated photo of Karla Faye Tucker in Gatesville, Texas, who lost an appeal on 8 December 1997, before the US Supreme Court, clearing the way for the first execution of a woman in Texas since 1863.

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This handout image provided on 29 January 2013 by the Texas Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Kimberly McCarthy. McCarthy was condemned to death in Texas for murdering an elderly woman during a robbery.

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This Texas Department of Criminal Justice 1985 file photo released on 10 February 2000, shows convicted murderer Betty Lou Beets, 62, who was executed on 24 February 2000. Beets was condemned to death for the 1985 murder of her fifth husband.

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Undated file photo provided on 9 May 2002 by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Lynda Lyon Block, a 53-year-old woman convicted of the 1993 murder of a police officer and the first woman subjected to capital punishment in the southern US state since 1957.

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Death penalty protestors hold signs as they protest against the execution of Teresa Lewis outside the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia, 23 September 2010.

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Frances Elaine Newton, condemned for killing her estranged husband and two children, leaves a Houston courtroom after receiving the execution date, 7 July 2004.