death row

 
Dictionary:

death row

  () pronunciation
n.

The part of a prison for housing inmates who have received the death penalty. Also called death house.


Search unanswered questions...
Search our library...
Questions Reference
 
WordNet: death house
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: the cellblock in a prison where those condemned to death await execution
  Synonym: death row


 
Wikipedia: Death Row


For information about the Record company see Death Row Records
For information about the computer game see Deathrow (game)


This article is part of the
Capital punishment series
Issues

Capital punishment debate
Religion and capital punishment
Wrongful execution

By region

Australia Brazil Canada China
Europe France Germany India
Italy Iraq Japan Malaysia
Pakistan Philippines
Russia Taiwan United Kingdom
United States
More...

Methods

Decapitation
Electrocution
Firing squad
Gas chamber
Hanging
Lethal injection
More...

The Death row is a term which refers to the section of a prison that houses individuals awaiting execution.

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 US before an execution can be carried out, prisoners may wait years before execution; nearly a quarter of deaths on Death Row in the US 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 90 days of being sentenced to death.[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.

Opponents of the death penalty 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 January 1, 2007, there were 3,350 prisoners awaiting execution in the United States. Of these, seven were officially on Death Row in more than one U.S. state.[2]

See also

External links


 
 

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "death row" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Death Row" Read more

 

Mentioned in