I would say much more likely that it was because she was poor and couldn't afford a good lawyer.

What? Women are much more sympathetic figures when it comes to crime and punishment. And there are 10x more men in prison in america than women. If you were trying to "introduce" some nefarious law enforcement system to the US you would use it on undesirable men first (drug addicts and gang members)

You think they deliberately chose to do this to a woman? Why?