# Lawyers: Death Penalty Appeals and Death Warrant



## wainscottbl (Feb 24, 2015)

So, in my novella one of the main characters is on death row. This crime is based on a real case and some of the story. A man kills two  young children, raping and cutting their throats. The older sister lives. He is sentenced to death. In prison he begins a new life, repenting and doing penance for his crime. The sister who lived has hate, rage and everything in her heart. So one day she goes to see him to tell him just how she feels. He tells her to do so. That is it just for her to do so because he must do penance for his sins. So she keeps coming. Eventually she starts to pity him. Anyway, he waives all his appeals. How long would it take someone to get their death warrant if they waived all appeals? Here is the case it is based on. Very graphic, but a moving story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Allen_Chapman


This case was about 7-8 years. Is that average? Can it be longer/shorter? Is there a minimum length. Just want to be accurate.


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## InstituteMan (Feb 24, 2015)

This is very far removed from my areas of legal work, so take everything I say (such as it is) with a grain of salt.

Most applications of the death penalty in the US occur under state law, making the actual procedures and timelines vary from state to state. Plus, the governor of each state is (as I understand it) going to be involved in signing the death warrant and scheduling the execution, which makes political attitudes (both of the governor and the electorate) matter a lot. Generally, if you are in some state like Texas (with a lot of executions), my guess is that it wouldn't take too long to get a death warrant. If you are someplace like Illinois where (last I heard) a Republican governor had imposed a moratorium on executions, you would wait forever for a death warrant.


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## wainscottbl (Feb 24, 2015)

It seems our state is not executing very many people. Kentucky. It's a red state, but they are just slower to do it, I think. These guys have been there a while

http://corrections.ky.gov/communityinfo/Pages/DeathRowInmates.aspx


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## InstituteMan (Feb 24, 2015)

wainscottbl said:


> It seems our state is not executing very many people. Kentucky. It's a red state, but they are just slower to do it, I think. These guys have been there a while
> 
> http://corrections.ky.gov/communityinfo/Pages/DeathRowInmates.aspx



Yeah, despite the official positions of governmental officials and the politics of a state, with only a few notable exceptions (like Texas) the actual application of the death penalty in the US is slow and seldom. I believe there are several states that officially re-instituted the death penalty after the Supreme Court decided it was constitutional again, but for whatever reason haven't actually performed any executions. It isn't just the appellate process taking a long time or the use of habeas corpus and other collateral attacks on the sentence slowing things down, it's logistical details like finding doctors willing to participate and obtaining the drugs for injections (multi-national drug companies have been refusing to sell their products for use in an execution). Plus, even a politician who campaigned in support of capital punishment might prefer to let the next governor sign the death warrant.


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