Title: Why does it take so long to execute someone on death row? - Quora
Headings: Why does it take so long to execute someone on death row?
Why does it take so long to execute someone on death row?
Jamie Scoverski
Quora User
Ming Chun
Rihan Chowdhury

Content: The system can make tragic and irreversible mistakes. DNA is rarely available in homicides, often irrelevant and can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people. Capital juries are dominated by people who favor the death penalty and are more likely to convict. So far, there are 161 known cases where wrongly convicted people were sentenced to death. They were eventually exonerated and released from death row after an average of 11.3 years. If the process was faster, many of them would now be dead. The list continues to grow- even since DNA technology has been around- innocent people get sentenced to death. Appeals courts aren’t set up to revisit the critical question of actual guilt or innocence. Their purpose is only to make sure that the trial met constitutional standards of fairness, not that the jury reached the right conclusion. That's why the appeals process can hinge on technical errors.