Why not execute a convicted (death penalty) person, the day after the sentencing?

They have to allow time for appeals. Many convicted persons have been freed after years on death row when their conviction is overturned.

Jeezus reb!

I thought you eurovisionaries were supposed to be more enlightened & humane 0_o

Over here it works like football playoffs: We put the losers in a wild card bracket for their own special trophy. Much more competitive and entertaining.

It’s not inevitable. In the US, there can be appeal after appeal.

Police and juries make mistakes. Prosecutors lie.

I would agree with @rebbel that 95% of cases are open and shut, and the bad guys could be exeecuted immediately. It’s the 5% that are the problem

@rebbel
But why wait a day? Why not later the same afternoon? What’s the benefit to waiting?

Just give the judge a sword or an axe?

No. As @elbanditoroso wrote, mistakes are made, and we don’t want to accidentally kill innocent people.

Some of us don’t want to execute any people.

Well, it just goes to show how ridiculous the death penalty is. In order to be a deterrent, the executions would have to be done right away and perhaps publicly (and even then I’m not convinced it would really be a deterrent). Instead, in some places, executions happen many years later when the case has lost its place in the media and the public’s attention. If there is to be a death penalty at all, then executions cannot happen swiftly due to the possibility of exoneration.

What a waste of time. Why not just let the police execute anyone they think deserves to die? No need for court cases.

Oh. They already do that.

Because people (juries) get it wrong way more than we like to admit. Every person sentenced to death has automatic appeals right up to the Supreme Court. That takes many years to work through. It is still not enough. We kill innocent people….fewer than we used to thanks to DNA evidence and advocacy groups and attorneys who do that wonderful work.

I do not support capital punishment in any way.

Time gives everyone a comfortable distance from the act of murder.

Yes, one way of putting it is “95% of cases are open and shut”

Another way of putting it is as the Innocence Project does. For every 100 convictions, 4 are wrongful and 2 will be exonerated.