Angela Johnson

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Angela Johnson is the first woman sentenced to death by the United States federal government since Bonnie Brown Heady was put to death in the gas chamber in 1953. Forty-nine women have been executed under state laws since 1900.

Angela was found guilty of involvement in the murder of five people in the state of Iowa in 1993 in an attempt to derail a methamphetamine investigation. Iowa is one of only twelve US states without a capital punishment law.

The jury that convicted her also recommended the death sentence. The judge presiding over the case has stated "I am troubled by the lack of certainty in the record concerning the precise involvement of Angela Johnson in these crimes". However under federal law, the judge had to accept the juries' recommendation.

She is the first woman sentenced to die by a federal court in over 50 years.

Her former boyfriend, Dustin Honken, is currently on death row, having been convicted of the murders. It was Honken who actually pulled the trigger to kill the three adults and two children who Johnson lured to their deaths. Johnson is the mother of two children.