 you know building a death penalty case presents unique challenges when the defendant is a woman. Nicole Kreitz has a look at how that will change the lawyers tactics for both the defense and the prosecution. Yeah I'm here with Christine Whalen criminal defense attorney now. Death penalty cases already are high stakes so what changes when the defendant is a woman does anything change? Well realistically things shouldn't change but human nature men typically don't don't want to kill women. The whole the whole thought process of save the women and the children first really comes into play. However in this case we have a female judge who ultimately although the jury is going to determine mitigators and aggravators the judge really makes the determination in this case. Let's get more talking about that human nature. What is it about us as potential members of a jury as citizens in this community to hesitate when it comes to making that hard call sending women to fight our wars putting women to death when they've been convicted of a death penalty crime like this? Well it's a hard decision to make whether it's for a woman or a man. However when you're dealing with a woman you you have that sensitivity nature that people tend to have towards women. In this case there was a split in the jury verdict on premeditation and that may reflect that there there's a rift between the jurors on whether death is the way to go in this case or whether an aggravation determination that would lend itself to death is something that they want to do. So what does the defense have to play up as they build their case for mitigating circumstances when it comes time for sentencing? Well they they need to play up her as an individual. Now in this case it was a self-defense claim and that that claim although the jury determined that it wasn't self-defense in in their their verdict the the defense still needs to keep with that for the sentencing and for the mitigation phase. So the ship hasn't sailed on that even though the jury didn't buy self-defense you still keep going down that well and sticking to the story. The ship has not sailed they I expect the defense will continue down that for this next phase of the trial. So the state let's talk about what the prosecutor has to do to look towards pointing out the aggravating circumstances and overcoming potential jurors who might hesitate and just have that doubt in their mind that they should take that next step a death penalty against a woman. The the state in this case is going to focus on really the heinous nature of of the crime and the evidence that came out at trial that that is going to be their pure focus with respect to the aggravation factors. And you pointed out the judge in this case is a woman it's ultimately in her hands does that change anything? Well it could a male judge may have more of may hesitate more in imposing a death penalty than a female judge may against another female individual. Thank you very much Christine Whalen criminal defense attorney we appreciate your perspective. Thank you. Back to you.