Gary Alvord, a Florida inmate who spent more time on death row than any oth­er inmate in the coun­try, died on May 19 of nat­ur­al caus­es. Alvord was 66 years old and had been sen­tenced to death for mur­der almost 40 years ago, on April 9, 1974. He suf­fered from schiz­o­phre­nia and had no close fam­i­ly. Bill Sheppard, who rep­re­sent­ed Alvord for almost four decades, said, ​“Gary is a prod­uct of a sick sys­tem. He was a liv­ing exam­ple of why we should not have the death penal­ty.… I would love for the state of Florida to tell us how much mon­ey they wast­ed try­ing to kill a guy they could­n’t kill. The death penal­ty is get­ting us noth­ing but broke.” In the time Alvord spent on death row, 75 oth­er inmates were exe­cut­ed in Florida, many of whom spent half as long as he did on death row. Alvord faced exe­cu­tion at least twice, but his severe men­tal ill­ness pre­vent­ed the exe­cu­tion from being car­ried out. In 1984, he was sent to a state hos­pi­tal to receive treat­ment for his psy­chi­atric con­di­tion, but doc­tors refused to treat him, cit­ing the eth­i­cal dilem­ma of mak­ing a patient well enough so he can be killed. Alvord’s final appeal expired in 1998.

(D. Sullivan, ​“Nation’s longest serv­ing death-row inmate dies in Florida,” Tampa Bay Times, May 21, 2013). See Time on Death Row and Mental Illness. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on men­tal ill­ness.

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