Death Row

Where are Death Rows Located?

According to data collected by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, thirty-seven of the thirty-eight states that use the death penalty had death-sentenced inmates in 1999. Ten states (Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming) had 10 or fewer death-sentenced inmates. Ten states (Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington) had between 13 and 43 death-sentenced inmates. Six states (Mississippi, South Carolina, Missouri, Louisiana, Nevada, and Tennessee) had between 60 and 100 death-sentenced inmates. Six states (Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, and Oklahoma) had between 116 and 199. The remaining five states (California, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas) each had over 200 death-sentenced inmates and accounted for over 51 percent of all death-sentenced inmates in the United States.

The number of death-sentenced inmates that a state has is important because, in many respects, the number of such inmates affects the availability of programs. For states that have as few as one death-sentenced inmate, it is not feasible in terms of economic costs and staff utilization to provide a wide range of programs. Having few death-sentenced inmates adversely affects women inmates more frequently than men inmates. Of the seventeen states that had death-sentenced women as of 1999, nine had only one death-sentenced female inmate.

Average Length of Time on Death Row

In the United States, because of concerns for fairness, due process, and other constitutional issues, the appeals process for individuals sentenced to death is lengthy. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average amount of time spent on death row before execution during 1999 was nearly twelve years.

Several factors contribute to this lengthiness. First, states that allow the death sentence usually have mandatory appellate procedures to allow higher courts to review actions of lower courts. Second, issues that are pertinent to capital cases may not be not pertinent to other cases—for example, whether the defendant is mentally retarded. A third factor that can increase the time between sentencing and execution is a change of counsel for the defendant. Often a defendant is unable to afford private counsel to prepare a defense for his or her first trial, and thus court-appointed counsel handles the case. As the case proceeds to the appellate stages, attorneys who specialize in death penalty cases and who are funded by public interest groups provide counsel to the defendant. These attorneys are sometimes able to pursue avenues of appeal that the previous counsel had not attempted. The final factor that contributes to the lengthy appellate process is the finality of the death penalty: There is no way to bring an individual back to life if he or she is later found to be innocent. Therefore, it is imperative that ample opportunity be given to the defendant to explore all avenues that might result in the reversal of the sentence.

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