Death row
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Death row is a term that refers to the section of a prison that houses individuals awaiting execution. It is also used to refer to the state of awaiting execution, even in places where a special section of a prison does not exist ("being on death row").
After individuals are found guilty of an offense and sentenced to execution, they will remain on death row while following an appeals procedure, if they so choose, and then until there is a convenient time for execution. Due to the lengthy, expensive and time consuming appeals procedure that must be followed in the United States before an execution can be carried out, prisoners may wait years before execution; nearly a quarter of deaths on death row in the U.S. are in fact of natural causes.[1]
In Great Britain, before it abolished capital punishment, prisoners were conventionally reprieved if they were not executed within 97 days of being sentenced.[citation needed] In some Caribbean countries which still authorize execution, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the ultimate court of appeal. It has upheld appeals by prisoners who have spent several years under sentence of death, stating that it does not desire to see the death row phenomenon emerge in countries under its jurisdiction.
In Haiti they continue the conventional 'reprieved if not executed within 90 days' adopted by GB before the abolition.
Opponents of capital punishment claim that a prisoner's isolation and uncertainty over their fate constitute a form of mental cruelty and that especially long-time death row inmates are liable to become mentally ill, if they are not already. This is referred to as the death row phenomenon.
As of 2008, there were 3,263 prisoners awaiting execution in the United States.[2]
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- Live from Death Row
- The Green Mile
- The Chamber
- Dead Man Walking
- Capital punishment
- List of United States death row inmates
- List of exonerated death row inmates
[edit] External links
- Letters to and from José Medellín on Texas Death Row
- Last Words from Death Row Inmates
- Dead Man Eating - An up to date listing of Death Row inmates' last meals/words.
- Texas's official Death Row website
- Arizona Department of Corrections Death Row Information
- Death row facts
- Death Row Inner-Communalist Vanguard Engagement D.R.I.V.E.
