Death row

Death row, in English-speaking countries that have capital punishment, is the place, often a section of a prison, that houses prisoners awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution ("being on death row"), even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists. After persons are found guilty of an offence and sentenced to death, they remain on death row during appeal and habeas corpus procedures.

Opponents of capital punishment claim that a prisoner's isolation and uncertainty over his or her 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. In extreme cases some inmates may attempt to commit suicide.

In the United States, prisoners may wait years before execution can be carried out due to the complex and time-consuming appeals procedures mandated in the jurisdiction. The time between sentencing and execution has increased relatively steadily between 1977 and 2010, including a 22% jump between 1989 and 1990 and a similar jump between 2008 and 2009. In 2010, a death row inmate waited an average of 178 months (roughly 15 years) between sentencing and execution. Nearly a quarter of deaths on death row in the U.S. are due to natural causes.

Death row (disambiguation)

Death row most commonly refers to the section of a prison where inmates await execution, or the state of awaiting execution ("being on death row").

Death row may also refer to:

In film and television

In games

In music

Artists and labels

Works

See also

Death Row (album)

Death Row is the tenth studio album by German heavy metal band Accept, released in 1994. It was recorded at Roxx Studios.

Stefan Kaufmann was still the official drummer for Accept, but drums on "Bad Habits Die Hard" and "Prejudice" are by Stefan Schwarzmann according to the liner notes. Stefan Kaufmann had to leave the band for the subsequent tour because of health problems, and Stefan Schwarzmann then handled drum duties.

Track listing

All lyrics and music written by Accept and Deaffy, except "Drifting Apart" by Wolf Hoffmann and Peter Baltes, and "Pomp and Circumstance" by Sir Edward Elgar. "Sodom & Gomorra" includes 1:24 minutes of "Sabre Dance" by the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian.

On Death Row

On Death Row is a television mini-series written and directed by Werner Herzog. The series of four episodes grew out of the same project which produced Herzog's documentary film Into the Abyss. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2012 on Channel 4.

Each episode of the series focuses on a specific murder case and those convicted of the crimes, each of whom was on death row during filming. The four cases profiled are:

Production and release

One of the originally planned episodes of the series was expanded to feature length and released theatrically as Into the Abyss in November 2011. Both the film and the series used the same production crew.

Herzog's visits with the inmates were very constrained, and he was typically granted only two hours for filming with each inmate. In an introduction to the broadcast of the first episode, it was stated that Herzog only was allowed two sessions of one hour each with his first subject, James Barnes.