Michelle Byrom was 42 when she hired a killer to murder her husband in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, on June 4, 1999. She was sentenced on November 18, 2000. Women make up fewer than 2% of the inmates sentenced to die on death row in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. 
Patricia Blackmon was 29 when she killed her 2-year-old adopted daughter in Dothan, Alabama, in May 1999. Blackmon was sentenced on June 7, 2002. 
Tierra Capri Gobble was 21 when she murdered her 4-month-old son in Dothan, Alabama, on December 15, 2004. She was sentenced on October 26, 2005. 
Shonda Johnson was 28 when she murdered her husband in Jasper, Alabama, on November 30, 1997. She was sentenced on October 22, 1999. 
Christie Michelle Scott was 30 when she murdered her 6-year-old son and committed arson in Russellville, Alabama, on September 16, 2008. The jury recommended a life sentence, but the judge sentenced her to death in August 2009. 
Wendi Andriano was 30 when she murdered her husband in Mesa, Arizona, on October 8, 2000. She was sentenced on December 22, 2004. 
Shawna Forde was 41 when she murdered a 29-year-old man and a 9-year-old girl in Arivaca, Arizona, on May 30, 2009. She was sentenced on February 23, 2011. 
Maria del Rosio Alfaro was 18 when she committed burglary, robbery, and murdered a 9-year-old girl in Anaheim, California, on June 15, 1990. She was sentenced on July 14, 1992. 
Dora Luz Buenrostro was 34 when she murdered her two daughters, ages 4 and 9, and her 8-year-old son in San Jacinto, California, on October 25 and October 27, 1994. She was sentenced on October 2, 1998. 
Socorro Caro was 42 when she murdered her three sons, ages 5, 8, and 11, in Santa Rosa Valley, California, on November 22, 1999. She was sentenced on April 5, 2002. 
Celeste Simone Carrington was 30 when she murdered a 34-year-old man during a burglary on January 26, 1992, in San Carlos, California, and a 36-year-old woman during a burglary in Palo Alto, California, on March 11, 1992. She was sentenced to death on November 23, 1994. 
Cynthia Lynn Coffman was 24 when she murdered a 20-year-old woman in San Bernardino County, California, on November 7, 1986. She was sentenced to death on August 31, 1989. 
Kerry Lyn Dalton was 28 when she murdered a 23-year-old woman in Live Oak Springs, California, on June 26, 1988. She was sentenced to death on May 23, 1995. 
Susan Eubanks was 33 when she murdered her four sons, ages 4, 6, 7, and 14, in San Marcos, California, on October 27, 1996. She was sentenced to death on October 13, 1999. 
Veronica Gonzalez was 26 when she murdered her 4-year-old niece in San Diego on July 21, 1995. She was sentenced to death on July 20, 1998. 
Valerie Dee Martin was 35 when she murdered her boyfriend in Lancaster, California, on March 28, 2003. She was sentenced to death on March 26, 2010. 
Maureen McDermott was 37 when she murdered a 27-year-old man in Van Nuys, California, on April 28, 1985. She was sentenced to death on June 8, 1990. 
Michelle Lyn Michaud was 38 when she kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered a 22-year-old woman in Pleasanton, California, on December 2, 1997. She was sentenced on September 25, 2002. 
Tanya Jaime Nelson was 46 when she murdered two women, ages 23 and 52, in Westminster, California, on April 21, 2005. She was sentenced to death on March 26, 2010. 
Sandi Dawn Nieves was 34 when she murdered her four daughters, ages 5, 7, 11, and 12, in Saugus, California, on June 30, 1998. She was sentenced on October 6, 2000. 
Angelina Rodriguez was 32 when she murdered her husband in Montebello, California, on September 9, 2000. She was sentenced on January 12, 2004. 
Brooke Marie Rottiers was 26 when she murdered two men, ages 22 and 28, in Corona, California, on August 28, 2006. She was sentenced on October 22, 2010. 
Mary Ellen Samuels was 40 when she hired someone to kill her husband in Northridge, California, and then murdered her husband's killer in Ventura County, California on June 27, 1989. She was sentenced on September 16, 1994. 
Cathy Lynn Sarinana was 30 when she murdered her 13-year-old nephew in Riverside, California, on December 25, 2005. She was sentenced on June 26, 2009. 
Janeen Marie Snyder was 21 when she murdered a 16-year-old girl in Rubidoux, California, on April 17, 2001. She was sentenced on September 7, 2006. 
Catherine Thompson was 42 when she hired someone to kill her husband in Westwood, California, on June 14, 1990. She was sentenced on June 10, 1993. 
Manling Tsang Williams was 28 when she murdered her husband and two sons, ages 3 and 7, in Rowland Heights, California, on August 7, 2007. She was sentenced on January 18, 2012. 
Margaret Allen was 39 when she murdered a 39-year-old woman in Titusville, Florida, on February 8, 2005. She was sentenced on May 19, 2011. 
Tina Lasonya Brown was 39 when she murdered a 19-year-old woman in West Pensacola, Florida, on March 24, 2010. She was sentenced on September 28, 2012. 
Ana Marie Cardona was 39 when she murdered her 3-year-old son in Miami on November 2, 1990. She was sentenced in 1992, the sentence was reversed 10 years later. She was resentenced on June 10, 2011. 
Emilia Lily Carr was 24 when she murdered a 26-year-old woman in Boardman, Florida, on February 14, 2009. She was sentenced on February 22, 2011. 
Tiffany Ann Cole was 23 when she murdered a 61-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman in Jacksonville, Florida, on July 8, 2005. She was sentenced on March 6, 2008. 
Kelly Renee Gissendaner was 28 when she murdered her husband in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on February 7, 1997. She was sentenced on November 20, 1998. 
Robin Lee Row was 35 when she murdered her husband and her two children in Boise, Idaho, on February 10, 1992. She was sentenced on December 16, 1993. 
Paula Cooper, once a teen on Indiana's death row, was released from prison on Monday, June 17. She spent 27 years behind bars for stabbing a 78-year-old Bible teacher Ruth Pelke in the stomach and chest 33 times. 
Debra Denise Brown was 21 when she murdered a 7-year-old girl in Gary, Indiana, on June 18,1984. She was sentenced on June 23, 1986. She is serving a life sentence in Ohio but is sentenced to death in Indiana. 
Virginia Susan Caudill was 37 when she robbed and murdered a 73-year-old woman in Lexington, Kentucky, on March 15, 1998. She was sentenced on March 24, 2000. 
Antoinette Frank was 22 when she robbed and murdered a 25-year-old police officer, a 17-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman in New Orleans on March 4, 1994. She was sentenced on September 13, 1995. 
Brandy Holmes was 23 when she robbed and murdered a 70-year-old man in Blanchard, Louisiana, on January 1, 2003. She was sentenced on February 21, 2006. 
Lisa Jo Chamberlin (aka Chamberlain) was 31 when she murdered a 34-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in March 2004. She was sentenced on August 4, 2006. 
Lisa Montgomery was 36 when she murdered a 23-year-old woman in Skidmore, Missouri, on July 16, 2004. She was sentenced on April 4, 2008. She is being held in federal prison. 
Patricia JoAnn Jennings was 47 when she murdered her husband in Wilson County, North Carolina, on September 19, 1989. She was sentenced on November 5,1990. 
Blanche Kiser Moore was 56 when she murdered her boyfriend in Alamance County, North Carolina, on October 7, 1986. She was sentenced on January 18, 1991. 
Carlette Elizabeth Parker was 34 when she murdered an 86-year-old woman in North Raleigh, North Carolina, on May 12, 1998. She was sentenced on April 1, 1999. 
Christina S. Walters was 20 when she murdered a 19-year-old woman and a 25-year-old woman in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on August 17, 1998. She was sentenced on July 6, 2000. 
Donna Marie Roberts was 58 when she murdered her husband near Warren, Ohio, on December 11, 2001. She was originally sentenced on June 21, 2003. That sentence was reversed on August 2, 2006, and she was resentenced on October 29, 2007. 
Brenda E. Andrew was 37 when she murdered her husband in Oklahoma City on November 20, 2001. She was sentenced on September 22, 2004. 
Angela Darlene McAnulty was 41 when she murdered her 15-year-old daughter in Eugene, Oregon, on December 9, 2009. She was sentenced on February 24, 2011. 
Michelle Sue Tharp was 29 when she murdered her 7-year-old daughter in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, on April 18, 1998. She was sentenced on November 14, 2004. 
Shonda Dee Walter was 23 when she murdered an 83-year-old man in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, on March 25, 2003. She was sentenced on April 19, 2005. 
Christa Gail Pike was 18 when she murdered a 19-year-old woman in Knoxville, Tennessee, on January 12,1995. She was sentenced on March 29,1996. 
Kimberly Cargill was 42 when she murdered a 39-year-old woman in Whitehouse, Texas, on June 18, 2010. She was sentenced on May 31, 2012. 
Linda Anita Carty was 42 when she kidnapped and murdered a 20-year-old woman and the victim's infant son in Houston on May 16, 2001. She was sentenced on February 21, 2002. 
Lisa Coleman was 28 when she murdered a 9-year-old boy in Arlington, Texas, on July 26, 2004. She was sentenced on July 7, 2006. 
Cathy Lynn Henderson was 37 when she murdered a 3-month-old boy she was babysitting near Austin, Texas, on January 21, 1994. She was sentenced on May 25, 1995. 
Brittany Marlowe Holberg was 23 when she murdered an 80-year-old man in Amarillo, Texas, on November 13, 1996. She was sentenced on March 27, 1998. 
Melissa Elizabeth Lucio was 38 when she murdered her 2-year-old daughter in Harlington, Texas, on February 16, 2007. She was sentenced in August 2008. 
Darla Lynn Routier was 26 when she murdered her 5-year-old son in Rowlett, Texas, on June 6, 1996. She was sentenced on February 4, 1997. 
Erica Yvonne Sheppard was 19 when she murdered a 43-year-old woman in Houston on June 30, 1993. She was sentenced on March 3, 1995.
- Sister Helen Prejean, portrayed in "Dead Man Walking," wants court to review death row case
- Michelle Byrom could be executed Thursday, but her son confessed to her alleged crime
- She's on death row for the 1999 murder of her husband, which prosecutors said she plotted
- Byrom has "suffered a lifetime of abuse" and "struggles with mental illness," writes Prejean
Editor's note: Sister Helen Prejean has long been a high-profile voice in the national dialogue on capital punishment. She campaigns against the death penalty, counsels death row prisoners and works with murder victims' family members. CNN's original series "Death Row Stories" explores America's capital punishment system each Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Join the conversation about the death penalty at facebook.com/cnn or Twitter @CNNorigSeries using #DeathRowStories.
(CNN) -- If the attorney general of Mississippi has his way, Michelle Byrom will be executed Thursday for allegedly hiring someone to kill her husband, Edward Byrom Sr.
Michelle Byrom, who has suffered a lifetime of abuse -- first at the hands of her stepfather and later at the hands of her husband -- also struggles with mental illness.
On the night of June 4, 1999, when her husband was killed, Byrom was in the hospital recovering from ingesting rat poison. At her trial, jurors bought the prosecution's version of the crime and found her guilty of murder for hire. Defense attorneys did not call the alleged killer to testify on her behalf, nor did the defense present the son's multiple confessions. Judge Thomas Gardner imposed a death sentence.
Now, evidence is coming to light revealing that it was the son, Edward Byrom, Jr. -- aka Junior -- who killed his father and that Gardner knew of the son's confession before the trial, but on a technicality, the jury wasn't permitted to see his jailhouse confession letters.
No wonder, with such exculpatory information withheld, Michelle Byrom was found guilty and received a death sentence.
Read more about Michelle Byrom
As is often the case in these harrowing tales of justice, only now, 14 years after the trial, have dedicated post-conviction lawyers' investigations shed light on the son's confessions. In letters to his mother, Junior wrote in stark detail how he killed his father and why.
He also confessed to forensic psychologist Criss Lott in the course of a pretrial interview. Those confessions are corroborated by the fact that it was Junior who led police to the murder weapon and that it was his hands that tested positive for traces of gunpowder.
In one of his admissions to his mother, Junior wrote:
'Here I am going to death row' 
Breakthrough? A police notebook 
'The picture was innocent' "I sit in my room, for a good 1 ½ - 2 hours and dad comes in my room and goes off on me, calling me bastard, nogood, mistake, and telling me I'm inconciderate (sic) and just care about my self, and slaps me, then goes back to his room. As I sat on my bed, tears of rage flowing, remembering my childhood, my anger kept building and building, and I went to my car, got the 9mm, and walked to his room, peeked in, and he was asleep. I walked about two steps in the door, and screamed, and shut my eyes, when I heard him move, I started firing. When I opened my eyes again, I freaked! I grabbed what casings (sic) I saw, and threw them into the bushes, grabbed the gun, and went to town."
Junior's letters were barred at the trial. Gardner precluded the jury from hearing them as a sanction against Byrom's lawyers, who failed to share them with the prosecution in a timely manner. What the jury did hear was the prosecutor's scenario that Junior was part of a murder-for-hire conspiracy, with his mother as mastermind and his friend Joey Gillis as the shooter. In a deal with prosecutors for a reduced sentence, Junior testified against his mother.
What Junior said to a sheriff when he was interrogated cannot be verified. County authorities say the recording was lost. But in a letter, Junior said:
"I gave them (the sheriffs) one bulls**t story after another, trying to save my own ass. ... I was so scared, confused, and high, I just started spitting the first thought out, which turned into this big conspiracy thing, for money, which was all BS, that's why I had so many different stories."
As evidence now shows, Gardner also knew of Junior's confession of guilt to psychologist Lott even before the trial. Driven by conscience, Lott had told the judge what Junior had voluntarily revealed to him, but the judge did not disclose this to the jury and went so far as to instruct Lott not to share the information with the defense. When the defense took the unusual step of asking the judge, instead of the jury, to pass sentence, Judge Gardner chose death.
The big question now is whether the Mississippi Supreme Court will grant Byrom's request for a hearing to consider the newly revealed evidence, including Lott's affidavit stating that he told the trial judge about Junior's confession.
I'm holding my breath.
Sister Helen Prejean
I'm holding my breath.
I know all too well what happens in such successor petitions in some higher courts.
In my book "The Death of Innocents," I tell of two men in Virginia and Louisiana denied hearings on new evidence of innocence because the higher court held their petitions to be "procedurally barred" or because Southern supreme courts, almost as a matter of course, uphold prosecutors' positions on death cases.
Those two men were executed, and I accompanied them to their deaths.
I hope and pray that Byrom, a victim of both physical and constitutional abuses, fares better.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Helen Prejean.
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