First Woman Executed in U.S.

Date: November 2, 1984 • Location: Washington, United States

Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is called a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term capital refers to execution by beheading, but there are various other methods of execution.