Maternal Instinct & Murder: Why America Is Suddenly Obsessed With Women on Death Row

Women on death row in the United States make up less than 2% of all death‑sentenced prisoners — yet their cases reveal some of the most shocking, complex, and misunderstood stories in the criminal justice system. In this powerful episode of The Last Clue, we break down the real numbers, the real women, and the real failures behind America’s rarest death penalty cases.

With renewed national attention sparked by Netflix’s Maternal Instinct — the documentary about the brutal murder of Reagan Simmons‑Hancock and the death sentence of Taylor Parker — we dive deep into why the public is suddenly asking: Who are the women on death row? How many are there? And what kinds of crimes lead to a death sentence for women in America?

Whether you’re a true crime researcher, a justice‑system watcher, or a listener drawn in by the Maternal Instinct documentary, this episode gives you the most comprehensive, fact‑driven breakdown of women on death row available anywhere.

The Last Clue is known for deep dives, investigative storytelling, and evidence‑based analysis — and this episode is no exception.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:32

The last clue is a production of Smith Media Team LLC. If you have any information about a case or cases, please email us at info at SmithMedia Team LLC.com. Listener discretion is advised. Some content may be upsetting to listeners.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Now we are diving into a topic that has surged back into the public conversation. Women on death row in the United States.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

I'm not one of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

And there's a reason this conversation is resurfacing right now. The recent release of the Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct has reignited national interest in the small but deeply complex population of women sentenced to die. The documentary follows the horrifying 2020 murder of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons Hancock in New Boston, Texas. Reagan was eight months pregnant when her friend Taylor Renee Parker brutally attacked her, murdered her, and cut her unborn baby from her womb. Parker had spent nearly a year faking a pregnancy, complete with a silicone belly, forged ultrasounds, and staged gender reveal events. All in an effort to keep her boyfriend from leaving her.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

This is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

After the murder, Parker attempted to pass the baby off as her own, but the infant did not survive. Parker was later sentenced to death and is currently housed at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

The brutality of that case. It's oh God. And the documentary's deep dive into Parker's deception, the investigation and the devastation left behind, it's it's pushed many listeners to ask how many women are on death row? Who are they? And what kinds of crimes led to a death sentence for women in America.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

And I want to interject here that neither one of us have seen maternal instinct. So for our listeners, if you have seen maternal instinct without spoilers, because there are still 18 of us in the United States that have not watched it yet. Without spoilers, go to our Facebook group, The Last Clue, and let us know what you thought of Maternal Instinct because we both remember this case.

SPEAKER_04 3:07

Yeah. So I don't really think there'll be any spoilers, but you don't know people. I I know. I I mean, as far as the case goes, we we know what happened, what the outcome is, but there might be some details in there that we either didn't know or had forgotten. But yeah, weigh in. Let us know what you think about it.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

So we want to answer some of those questions in this podcast. We're gonna break down the numbers, some of the cases, the history, and the reality of women on death row, a group that makes up less than 2% of all death sentenced prisoners, yet whose stories reveal some of the most complicated intersections of trauma, violence, and justice in the American legal system.

SPEAKER_04 3:53

Some of these cases I have heard of, some of them I have not. But before we get started, we want to welcome our new listeners and subscribers from Bayshore, New York, Kissimmee, Florida. Not Kissimmee, it's Kissimmee. It's Kissimmee? It is Kissimmee. Okay, Columbia City, Indiana, Eagle Mountain, Utah, and oh, Manila. We've made it to the Philippines.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

That was my Eagle.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

On a mountain?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Possibly. America.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

America. We are well, we're coming up on that.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Wherever you're listening from, thank you for being a part of this community. The Last Clue.

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And you can follow The Last Clue wherever you stream your podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, iHeartRadio, and many, many more.

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SPEAKER_04 4:53

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SPEAKER_00 4:55

So let's start with the big picture. The landscape of women on death row. Women make up only 2% of all death sentence prisoners in the United States. As of the most recent data, that's around 45 to 47 women nationwide.

SPEAKER_04 5:12

Now, some people are going to say that's kind of an uneven number, but 45 to 47 women on death row is still 45 to 47 too many. So with that, California holds the largest share with anywhere from 18 to 24 women, uh, depending on the year and reporting source that we used.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

And like you said, California has the most women on death row. Here's a quick look at some of the women that are currently sentenced to death in California. Valerie Martin, sentenced for murder of her husband in a case involving financial motives. Maureen McDermott, convicted of hiring a hitman to kill her roommate for financial gain. Sherry Rhodes killed four people and injured two others in a tribal housing meeting shooting.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

I feel like I might remember that one.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Skylar DeLeon, a transgender woman convicted of murdering a couple by trying by tying them, sorry, to an anchor and throwing them overboard. That is terrifying. We're not talking about your run-of-the-mill crimes here, folks.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

That is absolutely terrifying. And I I kind of remember this one. She met this married couple and had them like take a test drive on their boat out in the in the harbor or whatever. And then she gagged and tied them to an anchor on that boat or yacht and threw them over threw them overboard. Those bodies have never been found.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Never recovered.

SPEAKER_04 6:47

Never recovered. And I wasn't she one of the first few to transition while in custody.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yep, I believe you're correct.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

Okay, yeah. I believe that was a man.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Jessica Marie Hahn, a transgender woman convicted of murdering her infant son. Lorraine Hunter convicted of murdering her two young children by intentionally causing a fatal car crash.

unknown 7:12

Ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

If you listened to our last podcast, you know that we gave our thoughts on the Netflix documentary The Crash. But you can stream all of our podcasts. You can go back to when we were just doing Timu microphones and no fancy music. Thanks, Jojo.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

Thank you. No hard feelings. Kinda.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Janine Snyder convicted of kidnapping, torturing, and murdering a teenage girl. What? Cynthia Kaufman convicted of kidnapping and murdering multiple victims with her partner.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

What in the I'm getting mad.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Socorro Cairo convicted of murdering three of her four children.

SPEAKER_04 7:55

There's a theme here. These cases vary widely from intimate partner murders to serial kidding killings to crimes involving children. That's making me mad. There's a common theme here of the children. But they all met California's threshold for a capital offense.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Another key point. Only 18 women have been executed in the United States since 1976. 1976. 1976, there have only been 18 women executed. That's centennial. That's compared to more than 1,500 men. That's about 1% of all executions in the modern era. 18 women versus more than 1,500 men.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

Well, women do make up a the lower amount of the landscape. There are a couple other cases I think we'll get into, two more popular cases that you and I have talked about off-air that we'll talk about here in just a minute. But we want to talk about Amber McLaughlin, the most recent woman executed in Missouri on January 3rd of 2023.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

And again, like you mentioned earlier, transitioned while incarcerated.

SPEAKER_04 9:17

Yes, she was convicted of stalking, raping, and murdering her ex-girlfriend, Beverly Gunther, in 2003. And she became the first openly transgender person executed in the United States.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

So while women can be sentenced to death, the system rarely carries it out. Appeals, reversals, commuting, moratoriums, they all play a role in this. And we're going to talk about that when we come back. So this is my beautiful coffee mug that says sarcasm served daily, and it is full of no-shift coffee. Shift. I want to be very careful. No shift coffee. It's a coffee brand built for workers, creators, parents, drivers, tradespeople, and anyone grinding through long days.

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SPEAKER_00 10:48

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SPEAKER_04 11:30

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SPEAKER_00 11:33

And we'll include the link in our description.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

Then a quiet club.

SPEAKER_04 11:54

Let's talk about where these women are housed. Women on death row are usually placed in high security units inside existing women's prisons, not in separate death row facilities.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

And California recently moved all death-sentenced women into the general population at the Central California Women's Facility. Their sentences remain, but their housing changed.

SPEAKER_04 12:22

Texas, on the other hand, still houses its condemned women at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, which used to be known as Mountain View, if memory serves. Florida maintains a segregated protocol at Lowell Correctional Institution.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

So we talked about Taylor Parker a little in the intro, but she's not the only woman at the O'Daniel unit convicted of a crime involving the induction of a mother and her baby. This is so crazy. Another woman housed there is Linda Cardi. She is a former school teacher and DEA informant.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

In 2002, she was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of 20-year-old Joanna Rodriguez, a young mother whose newborn son Cardi she intended to steal. Rodriguez was suffocated and her baby was found alive in a separate vehicle. Cardi has long claimed she was framed by her co-defendants who were involved in drug activity.

SPEAKER_04 13:31

Well, I believe they all were, because this is a very hair brain scheme. My brain hole cannot comprehend. So now, how do women end up on death row? Well, a capital sentence requires more than a murder conviction. The crime must meet the state's definition of a capital offense.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

And while every case is different, many women on death row were convicted of killing family members or intimate partners. And if you've listened to this podcast long enough, we have told you there are three reasons for murder. If you want to know those three reasons, go back to our catalog because we have covered it ad nauseum. There are three trails that you can follow to find a reason for murder. But often in these situations, they involve long histories of abuse.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

The appeals process can last decades, and some women have been on death row since the 80s or 90s.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

And you know, their their daily life is just like any other prisoner, kind of. It often includes 23-hour lockdown, limited programming, restricted visitation. I can't imagine. I wonder why. Minimal contact with other inmates, and you know, there's some constant uncertainty because you don't know if you're going to have the opportunity to tell your story again. You don't know if new evidence is going to come up in the case. You just there there's constant uncertainty because you're so segregated, but it's the crime you committed that's has segregated you from life as you know it.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

And of course, it depends on where you're at because they just in was it California, they put everybody in gen pop. So I I think it's I gonna do that. It's just constant uncertainty. But there's a couple other cases that I kind of wanted to throw out here that we didn't talk about because we were kind of focused on California.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

I love this.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

One of them that has come back into the mainstream more recently is Darley Routier. I don't know if you remember this one. It was also in Texas back in '96. She had fallen asleep. Sorry, allegedly, she had fallen asleep on the couch and uh woke up to an intruder and chased him out of the house and found that she had been, her throat had been cut, and that two of her three children had also been stabbed to death.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

My Microsoft 98 processor is is firing on this. I am slowly remembering this, but I would like to hear more.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

So her kids were like five and six or six and seven, somewhere, somewhere around those ages, but both of those boys died, and she was convicted of murder of one of them and is on death row for that. And she's never been tried for the other one at this time. But at the time, her husband and infant were upstairs sleeping and were not harmed. So she's sitting on death row, and this one's coming back in because they are saying doing more and more DNA testing. I guess there was like a socket and a fingerprint found at the crime scene.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

So the so the husband and one of the children is upstairs asleep unharmed through this entire scenario.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Correct. She is injured and two children pass.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

She's on the couch. Downstairs. We guess. Yeah, downstairs. And she wakes up to an intruder. Chases him out while a husband and child are upstairs unharmed.

SPEAKER_04 17:22

Mm-hmm. That well, I mean, she's on death row for the for the murder of one of the boys, but her obviously, and I say obviously, but I'm sure you can imagine she is now divorced.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Oh, really? Yes. So she's on the market.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

Yeah. But her ex-husband believes she's innocent.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

And this is the ex-husband that was upstairs asleep? Yes. Okay. I mean, of course he thinks she's innocent. If she woke up to an intruder, if she legitimately woke up to an intruder, and the husband and one of the children is upstairs unharmed during this entire scenario, I would take a look back at the picture as a whole. Because again, I hate to keep harping on this, but there are three reasons for murder. And one of them potentially could be upstairs.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

You're not wrong. I the the DA is alleging that there were numerous errors during the trial, but apparently there was somebody involved in the trial or investigation initially that is now has like a history. He's like a Scott Foster of basketball. This the guy that investigated has a history of looking over things or just saying, Oh yeah, that's right, put it away, and just not fully investigating. So we we might have some more darley routineer news coming up because now there are a lot of people that are on the fence with this one.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Well, and and I've got to ask the question now with Netflix churning out documentary after documentary after documentary, they're looking for this these stories. Do you I mean, in your opinion, do you think there's going to be one down the pike from Netflix? Because if she ultimately thinks that she's innocent and was only tried for one of the murders of the two dead children. And there there's potential new DNA evidence that could support her theory about an intruder in the house. Uh Netflix has got to be like trying to count out money to put in the briefcase to put this together because that's what they're looking for. Folks, we we covered this in the last podcast. The documentaries that you see on Netflix, Hulu, etc., they are letting you hear what you want to hear. They are going to tell the story that they want you to know. They're edited that way. I've seen, I've never been a part of that I recall, but I have seen some of these reality and documentary type shows filmed. So I I have a little bit of working knowledge about them. They're going to tell you what they want to tell you. If you're watching a documentary and you think you're getting the entire story, you're wrong. You're wrong. You're 100% wrong. It's a fascinating tale with pretty pictures and these unbelievable videos and everything else. But if you're watching a documentary and you think that you are getting 100% of the story, you're a fool. You're an absolute fool. They're not telling you the whole story.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

Especially if it's a true crime, because the only way you're going to get 100% of the truth is if you hear from the deceased person. And nine times out of ten, that's not going to happen unless you believe in the clairvoyancy and afterlife. And one of those murderers on Death Row in California killed her clairvoyant because her fortune did not come true. Just throwing that out there.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Side note, I have seen one documentary that contradicts what you just said. It is a fascinating documentary. The video is not great. I will tell you that right now. The video is from a bank across the street, and that's all the video you have. But if you have the opportunity to see a documentary called The Fire That Took Her, that is an amazing documentary. To my knowledge.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

Oh, I okay. I remember this one now.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

To my knowledge, this is the only person, not male, not female, this is the only person that testified in their murder trial. It is a fascinating documentary. Now, again, like I just said, I'm not going to contradict myself. You're not hearing the whole story in that documentary. But if you follow the story as it goes, for that woman to hold on long enough to be able to tell the detective what happened and that testimony ending up in her own murder trial. It's fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

One more time for those that want to write the name of that documentary down.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

The fire that took her. That is the documentary. I don't know where you can find it because that just hit my brain hole. I apologize. If any of our listeners know, you can put it in the comments on our Facebook page. But the fire that took her is a fantastic story. Tragic ending, of course, because most true crime stories are, but that is a fascinating documentary. The only person that I'm aware of that has ever testified in their own murder trial.

SPEAKER_04 22:37

I might have to watch that one.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Sorry, I did not mean to just derail. I know you have another one that you want to bring up.

SPEAKER_04 22:43

No, no, no. That was actually great insight. I'm glad you put that information out there. But I also thought it was interesting that you said, you know, wondering what else Netflix has coming down the pike.

unknown 22:56

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Because there, boy, that's a segue. It was a segue. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 23:02

The other one that I wanted to talk about is Krista Pike.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

You didn't even know it, did you? This is the hook in my mouth, just wow.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

So she was convicted of murder in 1995 in Tennessee of a classmate. I can't remember her first name. Her last name was Slemmer, but you know, kind of lured her out into, you know, a woody area, yep, lured her elsewhere, and then just basically bashed your skull in. Because she thought that this other woman was after her man. Women, ladies, girls, there is no man on this planet that is worth any of this.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

But there are three reasons for murder, and you do not want to be involved in any of the three of them. That that is our words, please. Don't don't end up on the last clue.

SPEAKER_04 24:03

Please don't end up on the last clue. You know what?

SPEAKER_00 24:05

If you put us out of business, that'd be great. If you want to be a guest, that's five. We would love to have you as a guest. Don't end up being the feature on the last on the last clue.

SPEAKER_04 24:15

Fact. So is correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't or isn't Krista Pike like the only woman on death row in Tennessee or the longest standing woman on death row? She's she's a statistic in any case. But she kept a piece of the skull as a souvenir.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

So I mean Don't do that either.

SPEAKER_04 24:37

No, no, please.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Don't keep a souvenir. It's it kind of goes back to the the breakup, you know, when you when man and woman like each other, man and woman are gonna live happily ever after. Man and woman don't like each other anymore. They break up. Don't keep the sweater. Just go. Just just let it clean break. Let him have it.

SPEAKER_04 24:56

Clean break.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Let him have it back. It's you'll find another sweatshirt.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

Take your cat, leave the sweater. Sorry, you know, Keith Urban there. But in any case, she actually has an upcoming scheduled execution date, assuming all appeals and so on are denied, don't go through, exhausted. She's scheduled for execution on September 30th of this year, 2026.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Yeah, that's gonna be that's gonna be an event in Tennessee. I know a lot of people were have been recently focused on the Carmelo Anthony trial, et cetera, et cetera. But uh you talk about an event and where there's going to be a lot of boisterous opinions and heat, fire, that that is one that that's gonna captivate a region if not a nation, because that that story is wild.

SPEAKER_04 25:57

Yeah. But uh, yeah, look out for look out for that, Krista. September 30th. You have an expiration date set, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

We're gonna take one last break, and when we come back, we're gonna come back with clueless.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

And now for our opinion segment, Clueless.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Women make up a tiny fraction of death row, but their cases expose some of the biggest contradictions in the American justice system. We sentence them to die. But most will never be executed, not because they're innocent, but because the system is inconsistent, political, and often arbitrary. California has more women on death row than any other state, yet hasn't executed anyone in nearly two decades. Meanwhile, Texas continues to pursue death sentences aggressively, even as questions about fairness, trauma, and prosecutoral bias pile up. Nearly every woman on death row has a history of trauma. Childhood abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, yet the courts routinely treat that trauma as irrelevant. And when women commit violent crimes, the public reaction is often harsher, more sensational, Netflix, more moralistic. We don't just punish the crime, we punish the violation of what society thinks a woman is supposed to be. The truth is this the death penalty is not applied evenly, consistently, or even rationally. It's shaped by geography, it's shaped by politics, it's shaped by race, gender, and the resources you have or don't have when you're arrested. Women on death row are rare, but injustice is not. And if maternal instinct taught us anything, it's that the stories behind these cases are never simple, and the system that judges them is far from perfect.

SPEAKER_04 28:24

The Last Clue is a production of Smith Media Team LLC. If you have any information regarding a case or cases, please email us at info at smithmedia teamlc.com. You can follow The Last Clue wherever you stream your podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio, and many more.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

And for exclusive exclusive content, you can subscribe only on Buzzprout for just five dollars a month.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

And as always, keep searching for the last clue.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Follow the stuff.