10 things that happened when a person is sentenced to death in the U.S.A
When your sentence to death in the U.S.A. the following will take place:
- The jury or the judge finds you guilty of murder
- Next come the penalty phase of either life or a sentence of death.
- Next comes the motion for new trial and the pronouncement of sentence.
- Your then sent to prison in which a special section is for death- row prisoners. Your given a packet by the court in which you must file a notice of appeal and request for the appointment of counsel on appeal. This process is in case your attorney forgets to file the notice.
- Next comes the waiting game for the court to appoint you an attorney for your first appeal, In some cases the wait can be 10 years but don’t worry an automatic stay is in place, you won’t be executed just yet.
- The attorney makes contact with you, and he goes over the process which can take from six months to two years for your first appeal to make its way through the process, then it can take another six to 11 months for the appeals court to issue a decision.
- Next comes the next appeal to the State Supreme Court in which the court has to appoint you an attorney and find and pay for the attorney to protect your rights. This process will take another 3–4 years depending how backed up the court is.
- Next comes the Federal Appeals process and the appeal all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
- In most states if your appeals are denied, The district attorney will return to court and ask the court to set an execution date which is usually 6–14 months down the road.
- Next is your second round of appeals to try and stop the execution.
Some inmates have waited 18 to 26 years for the sentence of death to be carried out. The quickest execution in Texas took 18 months from sentencing to completion as the inmate dropped all his appeals and said in his opinion that he committed the crime and he did not want to wait 18 years sitting in a cage. Continue reading

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