Florida, Pennsylvania, California, Michigan, Louisiana, and Mississippi lead the nation in the use of this hopeless sentence. Since 2008, the number of women serving LWOP has grown an alarming 43 percent.
This report presents new data on the prevalence of both of these extreme sentences imposed on women. Death sentences are permitted by 27 states and the federal government, and currently 52 women sit on death row. The nearly 2,000 women serving life-without-parole sentences can expect to die in prison. Overview Nationwide one of every 15 women in prison - over 6,600 women - are serving a sentence of life with parole, life without parole, or a virtual life sentence of 50 years or more.