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What is death row?
Death row is a section of a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution for capital crimes. The term also applies to the status of prisoners awaiting execution even if there is no separate facility. Inmates on death row typically spend many years in solitary isolation while their cases go through the judicial appeal process.
Opponents of capital punishment argue that the isolation and uncertainty on death row can cause mental disorders. This has led to the term "death row phenomenon" to describe the psychological effects of living on death row.
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Why do some prisoners end up on death row?
Prisoners end up on death row primarily as a consequence of being convicted of capital offenses, most of which involve various forms of murder, though some federal capital offenses include espionage and treason. The decision to sentence a convicted murderer to death is determined by juries, who weigh aggravating factors to warrant capital punishment.
However, the death penalty is steeped in racial bias and poor legal assistance, and is mostly imposed on poor people who cannot afford effective lawyers. For every eight people on death row, one has later been found innocent. Opposition to the death penalty has grown in the 21st century. Since 1973, more than 190 death row inmates have been released after having their convictions overturned.
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What is life like for people living on death row?
Life on death row typically involves prolonged solitary confinement, sometimes for decades, while inmates appeal their cases. Opponents of capital punishment suggest that this isolation, combined with uncertainty, can cause mental disorders. The term death row phenomenon describes the psychological effects of living on death row, including how prolonged solitary confinement could affect prisoners’ judgment and will to live.
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How are people chosen to be on death row?
People are sentenced to death row after being found guilty of a capital crime. In all jurisdictions that still have capital punishment, the jury decides or expresses an opinion on whether the death penalty should be imposed if the defendant is found guilty.
The U.S. federal government lists 41 capital offenses that could be punishable by death, including espionage, treason, and various forms of murder. In the U.S., 24 of the 50 states have banned the death penalty. The use of the death penalty has declined in the 21st century, while opposition to it has grown.
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What rights do death row inmates have to appeal their sentence?
Death row inmates have the right to appeal their sentence through the judicial system, a process that can last for many years. In the Anglo-American legal systems, a convicted defendant can file a motion for a new trial or appeal to a higher court. In the United States, defendants can appeal to state or federal appellate courts and, if their U.S. Constitutional rights are violated, can turn to the federal court system. Even after regular appeals are exhausted, they can apply for a writ of habeas corpus, challenging the legality of their imprisonment. Opponents of capital punishment cite the lengthy appeals process as a reason why capital punishment may be considered cruel.
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What arguments do people make for and against having death row and the death penalty?
Arguments for death row and the death penalty involve deterrence, preventing convicted murderers from repeating crimes, and sufficing as a unique restraint on violent offenders. Some believe that it is possible to ensure that only those deserving of death are executed.
Arguments against death row and the death penalty include that there's no credible evidence that it deters crime more effectively than long imprisonment. Opponents maintain that the historical application of capital punishment is arbitrary and discriminatory. The death penalty is viewed as immoral by many religions and is considered a form of torture. Some point out that the process cruelly forces those condemned to death to endure long periods of uncertainty.
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death row, the part of a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after they have been sentenced to death for a capital crime. The term also applies to the status of prisoners who are awaiting execution in regions where a separate facility for housing them does not exist; nevertheless, they are referred to as “being on death row.”
History of death row in the U.S.
The term death row may have first appeared in print in 1894, in the Denver newspaper Rocky Mountain News, which referred to an inmate occupying a cell on death row at Colorado’s Canon City Penitentiary. But it came into popular consciousness from the trial and sentencing of Giuseppe Zangara, a 32-year-old unemployed bricklayer from New Jersey, who on February 15, 1933, had attempted to assassinate U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami. While Roosevelt was not injured in the attempt, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was accompanying the president, was shot and killed. Zangara pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to death. According to Florida law, prisoners awaiting execution were not permitted to share cell space with other prisoners. When Zangara was sentenced, the prison where he was to be held had a “death cell,” but this was already occupied by another man convicted of murder. Consequently, prison officials expanded the waiting area from the single death cell to a death row.
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In the U.S. 24 of the 50 states have banned the death penalty. Another 6—Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee—allow capital punishment but have formally or informally suspended all executions, granting death row inmates a reprieve. The federal government also has a provision for capital punishment, for relevant federal crimes. In 2023 more than 2,300 inmates were on death row across the United States.(See capital punishment in the United States.)
The use of the death penalty, and subsequently the number of inmates on death row, has declined sharply in the 21st century, and opposition to the death penalty has grown. Since 1973 more than 190 people on death row have been released after their convictions were overturned, which has added to the call for the end of the death penalty in the United States. In 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court held, in the case of Atkins v. Virginia, that it is unconstitutional to execute individuals who are deemed to have an intellectual disability. However, as of 2022, over 2,400 prisoners were still on death row, more than half of whom were in California, Florida, and Texas.
Execution around the world
China executes the most people per year, and Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Egypt also execute a significant number of prisoners per year. As of 2021, 55 countries were using the death penalty for ordinary crimes. Belarus remains the only country in Europe to continue to use the death penalty. In India the Prisons Act of 1894 stipulates that prisoners sentenced to death shall be confined in a cell apart from all other prisoners and shall be placed under the charge of a guard at all times. In the Cellular Jail, a British colonial prison located in India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, inmates sentenced to death used to be housed in a special row of cells facing the gallows.
Life on death row
Death row inmates typically stay confined in solitary isolation for many years, sometimes decades, while their cases are appealed through the judicial system. Viva Leroy Nash, who was sentenced to death in 1983 for first-degree murder in the state of Arizona, died of natural causes in 2010 while appeals against his execution continued to be heard.
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Opponents of capital punishment have argued that prisoners’ isolation, coupled with uncertainty over their fate, creates a high likelihood that they will develop mental disorders. The term death row phenomenon has been used to describe the psychological effects of living on death row, notably in legal arguments on prisoners’ behalf that prolonged solitary confinement could affect their judgment as well as their will to live.
Death row in popular culture
Death row has figured prominently in several works of fiction. Stephen King’s novel The Green Mile, which was adapted into a successful movie of the same name, features a death row supervisor’s interaction with a convict who has supernatural abilities. John Grisham’s The Chamber delves deeply into the legal aspects of the death penalty and the related appeals process. In the television series Prison Break, the protagonist enters a prison to help his wrongfully convicted brother escape from death row. Works featuring death row or death row inmates typically focus on innocent inmates who attempt to secure release or on the psychological profile of inmates during the lead-up to their execution.