THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Greeshma, who was awarded capital punishment in the Sharon murder case, is the youngest person in the state to receive the death sentence.

She has become the third woman to be sentenced to capital punishment and is the second woman on death row in the state.

Rafeeqa Beevi, awarded capital punishment in the Mulloor Shanthakumari murder case last year, is the other woman convict on death row.

With the verdict in the Sharon murder case, the total number of inmates on death row in the state has risen to 35.

Justice AM Basheer, who sentenced Greeshma to the maximum punishment citing the brutal nature of her crime, had also delivered the verdict in the Shanthakumari murder case.

The first instance of a woman being sentenced to death in the state was in 2006 when Binitha, convicted of murdering her husband Vidhu Kumaran Thampi, received the capital punishment. However, her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by the Kerala High Court.

Later, Rafeeqa Beevi was sentenced to death in May 2024 for murdering an elderly woman, Shanthakumari, to steal her gold ornaments. In that case, Rafeeqa’s accomplices, including her son Shefeek and Al Ameen, also received death sentences, making it the only case in the state where all the accused were sentenced to death.

Both Rafeeqa Beevi and Greeshma are lodged in the Thiruvananthapuram women’s prison.

Twenty-three of the death row inmates are housed in the Poojapura central prison in Thiruvananthapuram, four in Viyyur central prison, two in the Viyyur high-security prison, and four in Kannur central prison.