Title: united states - Why do prisoners spend so long on death row? - Law Stack Exchange
Headings: Why do prisoners spend so long on death row?
Why do prisoners spend so long on death row?
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In the USA, once appeals have been exhausted, why do prisoners spend so much time on death row? My personal opinions on death penalty aside, I would expect that once the sentence is final, it should be carried out without much further delay. united-states criminal-law capital-punishment
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edited Oct 1 '15 at 17:00
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asked Oct 1 '15 at 15:45
Ciclon Saramil
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The time spent on death row is largely due to appeals, habeas proceedings, and a growing backlog. The time between an actual final appeal and execution is not astonishingly long. ( However, "final" appeal is hard to pinpoint because a death row inmate can file successive habeas petitions at the federal level). To highlight the relatively quick turnaround between a "final" appeal and execution, Richard Glossip lost an appeal to the US Supreme Court ( Glossip v. Gross) on June 29, 2015 and was scheduled for execution in Oklahoma on September 30, 2015, a delay of 93 days ( Mary Fallin Executive Order 2015-42 ). Due to unavailability of a particular drug, the execution has been further delayed until November 6, 2015 ( ibid ). The rest of this answer explains the long delay between initial conviction/sentencing and eventual execution, using California as an example.