This U.S.A. Today article of July 23rd discusses the increased time between sentence and execution nationally:
The time prisoners spend on death row has nearly doubled during the past two decades. Legal experts predict it will rise further as states review execution procedures and prisoners pursue lengthy appeals.The knee-jerk reaction often heard to these numbers is "why can't we kill them faster?" Well, the answer is simple: "It's complicated." The legal process that we've developed in this country relies on both defendants and the state being able to appeal decisions and make claims regarding a trial's fairness. These are bedrock constitutional principles which are too-often cast aside as "technicalities".Waits rose from seven years in 1986 to 12 years in 2006, the latest Justice Department statistics show. In all five states with the most prisoners on death row — California, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania and Alabama — offenders spend more time in prison than they did four years ago, a USA TODAY survey of state records through 2007 found.
In California, wait times average nearly 20 years, a state commission report in June says. It costs about $90,000 more per year to house a death row inmate than other inmates.
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's lethal injection method, ending an informal halt to executions nationwide for seven months. Of the 10 states with the most prisoners on death row, five launched their own reviews of lethal injection procedures in the past two years. Those resulted in suspensions or delays in executions.
These appeals aren't because someone's toe was over the line during closing arguments. They have to do with issues like prosecutorial misconduct, suppression of minorities in juries, the constitutionality of lethal injection and access to adequate defense, just to name a few.
It can be a torturous wait for victims' families that support the execution, no question, but it's wrong to cede the basic elements of fairness that make this country what it is for the sake of expedited comfort of a few, no matter how grievous the crime.
Indiana numbers on average trial length aren't at hand but will be posted someone next week as a follow-up.
[h/t Sentencing Law and Policy]
