Credit: Ada County Sheriff's Office
Inmate Releases Statement As She’s Set To Become First Woman Executed
A woman who has spent more than three decades on death row has released a final legal statement as she fights to avoid execution.
Robin Lee Row, the only woman currently on Idaho’s death row, was sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering her husband and two young children in a house fire that shocked America.
Now, years after her conviction, her legal team is making one last attempt to save her life.
Rather than issuing a personal farewell or emotional message, Row’s public statement comes in the form of a lengthy court appeal arguing that she should never have been sentenced to death in the first place.
The filing centres on claims that jurors never heard crucial medical evidence about her brain and mental health before deciding she should receive the ultimate punishment.
If her appeals ultimately fail and Idaho proceeds with an execution, Row would become the first woman executed by the state since capital punishment was reinstated in the United States.
The fire that killed an entire family
The case dates back to February 1992, when firefighters were called to a burning duplex in Boise, Idaho, per Murderpedia.
Inside they discovered the bodies of Row’s husband, Randy Row, 34, and her two children from a previous relationship, Joshua Cornellier, 10, and Tabitha Cornellier, eight.
Investigators quickly concluded the blaze had been deliberately started.
Prosecutors alleged that Row had carefully planned the fire before escaping the property herself, leaving her family trapped inside.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that financial gain was one of the primary motives.
Evidence showed Row had taken out substantial life insurance policies on members of her family before the fatal blaze.
The prosecution also presented testimony describing Row as manipulative and deceptive, painting a picture of someone willing to kill those closest to her for money.
In 1993, she was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson.
The trial judge imposed the death penalty, describing the murders as among the most disturbing crimes ever to come before the court.
A case that has remained controversial for decades
Since her conviction, Row has spent more than 30 years challenging both her sentence and the legal process that led to it.
While her murder convictions have remained intact, much of the legal battle has focused on whether the sentencing hearing was conducted fairly.
Her lawyers argue that jurors never heard evidence they believe could have dramatically altered their decision about whether Row deserved to die.
The appeals have stretched through both state and federal courts, with multiple judges reviewing thousands of pages of evidence developed long after the original trial concluded.
The case has become one of Idaho’s longest-running capital punishment proceedings.
Why her lawyers say the jury never heard the full story
At the centre of Row’s latest appeal are claims that her original defence team failed to investigate significant medical evidence that was already available before sentencing.
According to court filings, CT scans carried out before trial showed abnormalities including cerebellar and cerebral cortical atrophy — conditions involving deterioration of brain tissue.
Her current legal team argues those findings should have prompted neurological testing and specialist evaluations.
Instead, they say, the scans were largely ignored and never fully explained to the jury that ultimately sentenced her to death.
The appeal argues that research available even in the early 1990s linked those types of brain abnormalities to impaired judgment, emotional regulation, impulse control and decision-making.
Jurors, her lawyers say, never had the opportunity to consider whether those medical issues affected Row’s behaviour before deciding whether execution was the appropriate punishment.
A federal judge identified serious concerns
The claims gained significant traction in 2021 when a federal judge reviewed the evidence as part of Row’s habeas proceedings, per Death Penalty Info.
In a detailed ruling, the judge described the case as a ‘perfect storm’ of failures involving trial lawyers, post-conviction attorneys and expert witnesses.
The court found there was substantial evidence that Row’s legal team failed to conduct an adequate investigation into her neurological condition despite possessing medical records pointing toward possible brain damage.
The ruling concluded there was sufficient evidence to show Row may have been denied her constitutional right to effective legal representation during the sentencing phase of her trial.
Importantly, the judge did not overturn Row’s murder convictions.
Instead, the ruling focused solely on whether the jury that sentenced her to death had been deprived of potentially significant mitigating evidence before reaching its decision.
The court indicated that, unless the State successfully challenged those findings, Row would be entitled to a new sentencing hearing.
The ‘statement’ she has released before execution
As execution remains a possibility, Row’s latest public statement is not a traditional message to victims’ families or the public.
Instead, it is the appeal itself.
In the filing, her attorneys argue that executing Row without first correcting what they describe as fundamental constitutional failures would amount to a miscarriage of justice.
The appeal states that the issue is no longer whether she was convicted of murder, but whether the jury that chose death was given all of the evidence it should have heard.
According to the filing, ‘significant and powerful mitigating evidence’ was never properly developed, including medical findings relating to Row’s brain abnormalities and expert testimony explaining how those conditions could have influenced her thinking and behaviour.
Her lawyers argue that competent representation would have presented that evidence to jurors and that there is a reasonable probability at least one juror would have voted against imposing the death penalty.
Whether the courts ultimately agree remains to be seen.
For now, Row remains on Idaho’s death row as one of the longest-serving female death row inmates in the United States, with her fate resting on whether judges accept that the sentencing process that condemned her to die was constitutionally flawed.
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