DEATH PENALTY DISCRIMINATES AGAINST WOMEN

Almost 1,400 men have been executed since 1976, but only 14 women

On Wednesday Texas executed Suzanne Basso, 59, for the 1998 torture-murder of Louis ‘Buddy’ Musso, 59, a mentally disabled man with the intelligence of a seven-year-old child. The execution took place about an hour after the Supreme Court rejected a last minute appeal arguing Basso was no longer mentally competent.

Basso had lured Musso to Texas from New Jersey with a promise of marriage. After she had made herself the beneficiary of Musso’s insurance policies and had taken over his Social Security benefits, Basso and five men tortured and beat the child-like Musso to death. An autopsy showed he had numerous broken bones, including a skull fracture and 14 broken ribs. He had bruises all over his body and his back was covered with cigarette burns.

Basso received the death penalty because she masterminded the scheme to collect Musso's insurance and directed her accomplices to torture and beat the victim to death. Basso’s five accomplices, including her son, are all serving long prison terms.

Basso became the second person put to death by Texas this year. Since the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976, Texas has executed 505 men and Basso became the fifth woman put to death by the Lone Star State since then.

Of the 3,100 inmates roosting on the nation’s death rows, only about 60 of them are women. Thus only two percent of death row inmates are women, although they commit 10 percent of all murders. Nationwide, since 1976, nearly 1,400 men and 14 women, including Basso, have been executed. That means 99 men have been executed for every woman put to death.

Those numbers reveal that the death penalty is highly discriminatory against women. They are not getting their fair share of executions. The National Organization For Women (NOW) and other feminist groups have long clamored for women’s equal rights. How come we don’t hear NOW screaming for more women to be executed? And why isn’t Eric Holder’s Justice Department doing anything about this obvious case of discrimination?