The New York Times
Friday, September 10, 1999
"There are 544 people on California's death row; 10 are women. Only three women have been executed nationwide since 1976. The last woman put to death in California was in 1962."
California Woman Sentenced To Death
By The Associated Press
VISTA, CA (AP) -- A woman who shot her four sons to death and blamed it on drugs, alcohol and bad relationships with men was sentenced Thursday to death.
Susan Eubanks showed no emotion when jurors issued their decision following two days of deliberations.
Superior Court Judge Joan Weber can choose ignore the jury and sentence Ms. Eubanks to life in prison at a sentencing hearing later this year.
``It's a terrible thing to have to condemn someone, but in the end, she condemned herself every time she pulled the trigger,'' juror Debra Goodwin said outside the courtroom.
Ms. Eubanks, 35, killed the four boys, ages 4 to 14, in October 1997 because she was apparently despondent over her broken relationships with men. She was separated from her second husband, Eric Eubanks, and she had broken up with her boyfriend that day.
The unemployed nursing assistant wrote five suicide notes before the killings. One to Eubanks stated: ``You betrayed me. I've lost everybody I've loved. Now, it's time for you to do the same.''
She shot all the boys in the head, two of them twice, and stopped once to reload the .38-caliber handgun.
She killed the oldest boy, Brandon, while he was watching television. The other boys -- Austin 7, Brigham, 6, and Matthew, 4 -- were shot in a bedroom, where they were sitting on their bunk beds playing a video game with their 5-year-old cousin. He was not harmed.
She then shot herself in the stomach.
Defense attorneys contended Ms. Eubanks killed the children in a moment of weakness culminating several years of addiction to prescription drugs for work injuries and her failed relationships with men.
There are 544 people on California's death row; 10 are women. Only three women have been executed nationwide since 1976. The last woman put to death in California was in 1962.
