"Sajida Mubarak Al Rishawi, the court has decided to sentence you to death along with the accused fugitives for conspiracy to carry out terror acts using explosives that led to the death of individuals," said the presiding judge.
Rishawi, an Iraqi, had been paraded on state television confessing to her role in the November 2005 attacks in which her husband blew himself up during a wedding party in an Amman hotel.
She was the only one of the accused to appear in court since the high-profile trial opened in April. Among those on the original charge sheet were three suicide bombers and top Al Qaeda operative Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi who claimed the attacks and was killed in a US raid in Iraq in June.
The others still at large include five Iraqi nationals, among them a woman, and a Jordanian.
Rishawi, who had pleaded not guilty, remained impassive in her metal cage throughout the hearing, turning her face toward a wall apparently to avoid any eye contact as the verdict was read out.
Defense lawyer Hussein Al Masri said that he would appeal.
"The verdict is not final and we will appeal it within 30 days in accordance with the law."
Rishawi, in her mid-30s, was clad in a blue prison uniform with a black scarf covering her head for the hearing, but was not handcuffed.
The judge, who cannot be named under Jordanian law, also sentenced the accused for illegal possession of explosives "for illicit use."
The state prosecutor had renewed his demand for the death penalty for those behind the attacks against one of the top US allies in the region.
"The Jordanian people, the families of the victims, and the security forces look forward to justice being done and that the highest penalty - death by hanging - be served," he said.
The judge said that he was dropping all charges against Zarqawi after having obtained proof of his death.
The Al Qaeda group in Iraq headed by the Jordanian-born Zarqawi - whose name and organization are involved in several conspiracy trials underway in Jordan - had claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Ironically, Jordan's King Abdullah II freed Zarqawi in 1999 as part of a general amnesty. The king was later to call the terror leader a "street thug."
Security was tight around the courthouse in east Amman for the verdict and reporters were prohibited from taking in mobile phones and camera equipment. Television crews were also kept at bay.
Rishawi was arrested four days after the bombings, during which her husband Ali Hussein Al Shammari, and two other Iraqis, blew themselves up.
In the dramatic televised confession after her arrest, Rishawi said that she, too, had tried but failed to activate her explosives belt at the Radisson SAS hotel as a wedding reception was in full swing.
Rishawi's lawyer failed at the onset of the trial to obtain a psychological evaluation of his client, saying that she had a family history of schizophrenia.
On one occasion Rishawi told the court that her confessions were made under duress and once she claimed to have been tortured, only to retract her statement minutes later.
Zarqawi had been sentenced to death three times by Jordan's state security court in connection with the murder of a US diplomat and two conspiracy plots.
The verdict comes almost a month after Jordan's parliament passed a new anti-terrorism law that the government wanted to fast-track after the hotel bombings.
But the law has triggered concern from experts, with the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter terrorism, Martin Scheinin, saying that it could be damaging human rights.
"The law gives considerable powers ... with regard to detention, search and arrest that effectively negate the right to privacy, freedom and movement and the presumption of innocence," Scheinin said.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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