Why do inmates given the death penalty spend so many years on death row before they are legally executed?

Good question. It is extremely difficult to get appeals courts to revisit the question of actual innocence. They are set up to rule whether the trial met constitutional standards of fairness, not whether the verdict was correct.

Of the 130 people wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, 50 served more than a decade before exoneration. The average time served by the 130 was 9.5 years. Speed up the process and we will certainly execute innocent people.

By the way, the death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison and the bulk of its costs are upfront, for pre trial and trial level legal expenses. The rigourous process is supposed to prevent executions of innocent people.

Sources:

www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

Click on costs for reports from individual states

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/COcosttestimony.pd... page 3 and 4 on why the death penalty is so expensive

It is the appeals that make the process so long. As a society we want to be really sure, after all you are killing a human being. Even with all the built in so called safeguards, I believe at last count we have executed 138 people wrongfully. Whoops! Maybe the years and years of appeals are not enough?

They are entitled to as many appeals as possible. After all, once the sentence is carried out, if a mistake was made, there's no way to fix it. Consider how many have been either released from prison or taken off death row. The result is clearly not the same in many cases.

We house them because we fought for civil rights and there are activists who ensure we protect them.

And because inmates and their counsel exhaust every possible legal avenue first.

Wouldn't you?

People so cavalier with their freedom and life don't want to pay the ultimate price in the end.

Life's scary enough, the unknown could be terrifying for the criminal mind.

It is the law and this has prevented innocent people from being put to death.....

Probably to make sure they don't find evidence to prove them innocent?

appeals, want to make sure you got the right guy, appeals, take time. this is something our judicial process does not take lightly.

The greatest enemy of justice is error.