Marie Dean Arrington is an American criminal. In 1969 she became one of the first women to be placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the...

Originally sentenced to death

Capital punishment in the United States

Capital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...

 for the murder of a Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 legal secretary

Legal secretary

A legal secretary is a particular category of worker within the legal profession.In the practice of law in the United States, a legal secretary is person who works in the legal profession, typically assisting lawyers. Legal secretaries help by preparing and filing legal documents, such as appeals...

 who worked for a public defender

Public defender

The term public defender is primarily used to refer to a criminal defense lawyer appointed to represent people charged with a crime but who cannot afford to hire an attorney in the United States and Brazil. The term is also applied to some ombudsman offices, for example in Jamaica, and is one way...

 who unsuccessfully represented her two children on felony charges, Arrington escaped from prison

Prison escape

A prison escape or prison break is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture them and return them to their original detainers...

 in 1969 while awaiting execution by cutting through a window screen and fleeing in her pajamas.

After she was caught, she was sentenced in 1972 to 10 additional years for escape, but her death sentence was commuted to life in prison

Life imprisonment

Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

 when the Florida Supreme Court

Florida Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the State of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. The Supreme Court consists of seven judges: the Chief Justice and six Justices who are appointed by the Governor to 6-year terms and remain in office if retained in a general election near the end of each...

 struck down capital punishment as unconstitutional

Constitutionality

Constitutionality is the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution. Acts that are not in accordance with the rules laid down in the constitution are deemed to be ultra vires.-See also:*ultra vires*Company law*Constitutional law...

. She remains in prison in Florida to this day.

External links

• Photograph and brief biography from MSNBC
  MSNBC
  MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...