Why Arizona death row inmates are not executed in order
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Alex Madrid has a new mugshot as the newest member of Arizona’s death row.
He was sentenced to death yesterday for killing his ex-girlfriend’s teen daughter back in 2013.
Alex Madrid is now one of the more than 100 inmates on Arizona’s death row, but just because he’s the latest does not mean he’s last in line for execution.
Attorneys will file many motions for many years to appeal a death sentence and go back through a trial and scrutinize every little thing that was said to make sure nothing was wrongly prejudicial or damaging.
But sometimes, an inmate wants to die. So, do they get their way?
The answer is - maybe.
There are currently 112 people on Arizona’s death row: 109 men and three women. So, a decades-long appeal process for Alex Madrid will likely begin soon, like most inmates on death row.
Former capital case prosecutor Susie Charbel, who began on Madrid’s case before leaving the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, said the average inmate will live on death row here for 20 years - and often longer.
She said if an inmate wants to die and waives their appeals process, that could get them five or six years ahead of others and closer to death.
Not only do defense attorneys reinvestigate a case all over again in appeal, which can vary in length for every convict and case, but she said something else a little more offbeat comes into play, too: Is the inmate healthy enough to die?
“If that person has special needs, there are a lot of mental health issues a lot of times. It’s also physical issues. A person, believe or it not, has to be healthy mentally, physically, and emotionally in order to be put to death,” Charbel said.
Former media representative for the Department of Corrections Barrett Marson also said even if an inmate wants to die, that doesn’t mean attorneys stop fighting for them to live.
“There are attorneys who represent death row inmates who believe firmly the death penalty is unconscionable and they understand the process and how to throw up road blocks and how to put off that ultimate sentence,” said Marson.
Charbel also said it doesn’t matter if somebody killed one victim or four, that won’t speed up or slow down an appeals process either; it simply is about if everything was done correctly in trial.
Charbel also said sometimes an inmate will die on death row before ever making it to the execution chamber.
For some time, Arizona had the oldest death row inmate in the nation - a man who died at 94 years old from natural causes back in 2010.
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