Penalty Box

NEVER has the grim reaper been denied so unjustly for so long. Between 1977 and 1996, the average time that a condemned prisoner sat on death row almost tripled, from just over 4 years (51 months) to over 11 years (134 months). In some states, especially the unfortunate Western block of states trapped in the sprawling, liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, delays were even longer. In California, the average delay is 13 years and 5 months. Arizona’s capital cases languish in the federal courts for more than 8 years on average.

In April 1996, Congress tried to do something about this dysfunctional system by passing the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). The act greatly reined in habeas-corpus petitions, the suits that death-row inmates file in federal court for review of their state death sentences; it ensured that habeas petitions could no longer be dragged out for a decade or more. Such suits would have to be filed within 180 days after either final affirmation of the condemned man’s conviction by a state court or expiration of the time for seeking such review.

AP

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Andrew Peyton Thomas

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NEVER has the grim reaper been denied so unjustly for so long. Between 1977 and 1996, the average time that a condemned prisoner sat on death row almost tripled, from just over 4 years (51 months) to over 11 years (134 months). In some states, especially the unfortunate Western block of states trapped in the sprawling, liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, delays were even longer. In California, the average delay is 13 years and 5 months. Arizona’s capital cases languish in the federal courts for more than 8 years on average.

In April 1996, Congress tried to do something about this dysfunctional system by passing the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). The act greatly reined in habeas-corpus petitions, the suits that death-row inmates file in federal court for review of their state death sentences; it ensured that habeas petitions could no longer be dragged out for a decade or more. Such suits would have to be filed within 180 days after either final affirmation of the condemned man’s conviction by a state court or expiration of the time for seeking such review.