why this website is important

A partial list in case it is needed

1) To assist researchers and dedicated professionals who are working on behalf of women and revealing gendered and racial injustices. The United States judicial system is predicated upon credible, reliable, evidence. At the very least, judges, lawyers, and advocacy groups should be aware of significant flaws in the quantitative data used by the media and in the courtroom. There is no one reliable data source of women's executions that spans all of American history and encompasses women's experiences with the criminal justice system. The importance of such data are evidenced in the Brenda Andrew case.

2) To account for black women's invisibility in death penalty data. See, for example, preliminary findings on Race and Executions. Organizations like the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) caution users  of  using outdated data but are reliant on researchers to provide accurate historical data. This site hopes to assist in efforts of organizations like the DPIC by being a resource for those needing evidence of the role of identity in capital punishment. 

3) That even if the data are not utilized, that this website might offer other avenues and resources for research. This project began with the aforementioned goal but was forced to accept the fact that all historical quantitative data analyses based on the Espy file are problematic. If one is to address "gender" and the death penalty, then scholarship requires awareness of men's misrepresentation in the file.

4) To promote existing and emerging scholarship that have sought to quantify experiences that are especially relevant to women (e.g., backgrounds of sexual and domestic violence, parental status, mental and health difficulties related to abuse, the relationships [i.e., accomplices] that contributed to the crime). Moreover, the aim is to provide a comprehensive hub for the sharing of scholarship and research. There are countless directions this research could take, but aside from completing the dataset, the quantitative route has become less appealing. Still, I hope that sharing my work encourages others to improve upon it and carry it forward. The DPI sentencing study, for example, was a project I once intended to pursue and publish but ultimately set aside. It analyzes death-row sentencing using data from the Death Penalty Information Center to show how gender, race, and geography shape who receives a death sentence and what happens afterward.

The central argument is that the small number of women on death row does not mean gender is irrelevant. Rather, it reflects how the criminal legal system is structured through gendered—and often heteronormative—assumptions that require direct examination. To explore this, women and men sentenced to death were matched by county and year, creating a dataset of 461 individuals: 151 women and 310 men, excluding federal cases. Outcomes were grouped into seven categories, including active death sentence, execution, resentencing, exoneration, and commutation. Preliminary findings suggest that geography and time matter significantly. Since 1972, only eight states—all in the South—have executed women. Gender and race also appear to influence outcomes: women are more likely than men to receive reduced sentences, while nonwhite people are more likely than white people to retain an active death sentence and less likely to be resentenced. Political context—such as the percentage of women or Black women in state legislatures—may also play a role. Ultimately, though, the variables were too expansive and the methodological tools too limited. The models could not fully capture the social and political complexities at play. Still, I hope another researcher may pick up this project and develop it in ways I could not. And this is just one example of "something new" I hope can be born from this work.

5) My work examines those processes in academia that serve to reinforce patriarchal and racial hierarchies in knowledge production by incorporating the critical insights of Queer, Black Feminist, and Biopolitical (necropolitical) approaches. The earlier decisions made by those responsible for inputting the data are of historical interest, but it is time to not only question their continued usage despite known issues and prevalence in academic scholarship, but to address, once again, how we are asking how far women have really come? Like the cigarette industry, capital punishment is dominated by men and is part of a gendered narrative that kills, but not indiscriminately, and somehow manages to fetishize women--even in the most grim of circumstances.

6) It has become a way for me to tout the importance and the difficulty in conducting  archival research. Of course those who already do this type of research, do not need to be told that. But the vast majority of social scientists are either unaware or no longer utilize this type of data collection. It is time-consuming, frustrating, and can cause serious heart-ache when you find out that you might have been looking in the wrong place or need to start over. It has been a humbling experience and I am looking forward to learning how I can become a better research instead of worrying about how many publications I can manifest from preexisting data.

7) This list is not in order of importance, obviously, but I am just as focused on celebrating the work of M. Watt Espy that, without the persistence of friends, family, and the work of the M.E. Grendander archivists and librarians, would not be available to the world. He was known and respected by many, but many more have yet to discover the first historian to have taken on documenting all executions carried out in the United States. I do not have a personal connection to him but feel that his story is relatable on a number of levels. If this is my last project to complete as a scholar, I will feel accomplished.This list is not in order of importance, of course, but I am equally committed to celebrating the work of M. Watt Espy—work that would not exist without the persistence of his friends and family and the dedication of the M.E. Grenander archivists and librarians. Espy was known and respected by many, yet countless others have never encountered the first historian to undertake the monumental task of documenting every execution carried out in the United States. I never knew him personally, but his story resonates with me on several levels.  And, as we all know, life is complicated. I’ve learned that not everyone who knew him is eager to talk about his work or his life, and some would prefer that he not be mentioned at all. As a transplant to Alabama, I struggle to understand why his accomplishments wouldn’t be celebrated openly, but, as I’ve said, I wasn’t there. All I have to go on are the thousands of notes, letters, and correspondences through which I’ve come to know how he conducted himself as both a scholar and a friend. And from everything I’ve read, I see a person of good character—someone moral, steady in his commitment to truth and justice, and deeply invested in his work and in helping anyone who shared that pursuit. And I will continue to operate under this assumption as it backed by thousands of documents that some might call evidence and, others in my line of work, might just say is data. Lots and lots of data. If this ends up being the last project I complete as a scholar, I will feel truly accomplished.