Title: Time on Death Row | Death Penalty Information Center
Headings: Time on Death Row
Time on Death Row
Introduction
Average Time Between Sentencing and Execution (in Months)
Background
Characteristics of Death-Row Prisoners
The Aging of the Death Row Population
International Perspectives
Death Row Syndrome/Death Row Phenomenon
Conclusion

Content: Time on Death Row | Death Penalty Information Center
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Time on Death Row
Death-sentenced prisoners in the U.S. typically spend more than a decade on death row prior to exoneration or execution. Some prisoners have been on death row for well over 20 years. Introduction
There is no accurate measure of the length of time prisoners spend on death row. Some prisoners are on death row for only a short period of time before their convictions or death sentences are overturned in the courts. Other have spent more than three decades on death row before being exonerated or being non-capitally resentenced. Half of all death-row exonerations have taken more than a decade and the length of time between conviction and exoneration has continued to grow. More than half of the exonerations since 2013 haven taken 25 years or more. The length of time prisoners spend on death row in the United States before being executed began to emerge as a topic of interest in the debate about the death penalty in the early 2000s. The discussion increased around the 2005 execution of Michael Ross, a Connecticut inmate who had been on death row for 17 years, and has been spurred by the writings of several Supreme Court Justices – most recently Justice Stephen Breyer – who have urged the Court to consider this issue. Death-row prisoners in the U.S. typically spend more than a decade awaiting execution.