http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/moretop2/sfl-deathrowdatabase,0,1153589.htmlstory?appSession=707106300740695&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=1&cpipage=2&CPISortType=&CPIorderBy=
This link amazed me. There are quite a few death row inmates on this list that were convicted and sentenced to death in the 1970s. Some almost 35 years ago.
My question: How is it possible that their appeals haven’t run their course? Either win or lose: death, life in prison, or a reversal. How can the legal system possibly be so slow as to have these cases still on appeal? It seems like in 35 years they could have reviewed every word spoken at their trials and reviewed it for error.
I don’t mean to take a pro/anti death penalty stance and want to keep it GQ. How does a case not get resolved in 35 years?
Often it’s because their appeals have been successful, but not successful enough. Most of the guys on that list have had their death sentences vacated, but were again sentenced to death on retrial. When the original death sentence is vacated the whole trial and appeal process starts over from the beginning.
If it’s not retrial, it’s often competency - the guy’s too crazy to execute. The first guy, Gary Alvord, has had competency issues and was declared mentally incompetent several times in the appellate process. He was transferred off of death row to a mental hospital to regain competence. The second guy, Harold Lucas, had his death sentence vacated four separate times and was retried repeatedly, and the third guy, Henry Sireci also had his sentence vacated in 1987, and the U.S. Supreme Court vacated James Hitchcock’s death sentence that same year, William White got a new penalty hearing in 1999 and was resentenced to death, etc. etc.