Examples of Long-Serving Death-Row Prisoners

Nation’s Longest Serving Death-Row Prisoner Dies 40 Years After Conviction

Gary Alvord, a Florida inmate who spent more time on death row than any oth­er con­demned pris­on­er in the coun­try, died on May 19, 2013, of nat­ur­al caus­es. Alvord was 66 years old and had been sen­tenced to death for mur­der almost 40 years before, on April 9, 1974. He suf­fered from schiz­o­phre­nia and had no close fam­i­ly. In the time Alvord spent on death row, 75 oth­er inmates were exe­cut­ed in Florida, many of whom spent half as long on death row as Alvord did. 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).

Oldest Prisoner on Death Row Dies

Viva Leroy Nash, the old­est per­son on death row in the U.S., died of nat­ur­al caus­es on death row in Arizona on February 12, 2010 at the age of 83. He was deaf, near­ly blind, con­fined to a wheel­chair and suf­fer­ing from demen­tia and men­tal ill­ness. He had been impris­oned almost con­tin­u­al­ly since he was 15. He was sen­tenced to death in 1983. (Associated Press, Feb. 14, 2010).

Brandon Jones — Served Longest Time Between Conviction and Execution

Brandon Jones was exe­cut­ed in Georgia on February 3, 2016, just short of his 73rd birth­day. He was the old­est per­son exe­cut­ed in Georgia in the state’s his­to­ry. When he was exe­cut­ed, he was believed to have served the longest time between con­vic­tion and exe­cu­tion of any con­demned pris­on­er in U.S. his­to­ry. Jones was orig­i­nal­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in October 1979, mean­ing he served about 36 years and four months between first being sen­tenced to death and exe­cu­tion. His ini­tial con­vic­tion had been over­turned because jurors had con­sult­ed a Bible dur­ing delib­er­a­tions. He was retried in 1997 and again con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death.

Michael Selsor may have been the pris­on­er who served the sec­ond longest time between con­vic­tion and exe­cu­tion of any­one in U.S. his­to­ry. He was first sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma on January 30, 1976, for mur­der and was impris­oned for about 36 years and 3 months pri­or to his exe­cu­tion on May 1, 2012. Although his sen­tence had been reduced to life when Oklahoma’s death penal­ty was over­turned in 1976, he was re-sen­tenced to death for the same crime in 1998. When asked in an inter­view about the dif­fer­ence between the death penal­ty and life with­out parole, Selsor said, ​“The only dif­fer­ence between death and life with­out parole is one you kill me now, the oth­er one you kill me lat­er. There’s not even a shred of hope. There’s no need to even try to muster up a seed of hope because you’re just gonna die of old age in here.…With the death penal­ty sen­tence I’m enti­tled to more appeals — the gov­ern­men­t’s gonna pay for it. I don’t have to do it myself if I don’t have the mon­ey for a lawyer which I don’t have. Instead I’m rely­ing on pub­lic defend­ers to do my appeals.” See the video of the interview.

(J. Rushing, ​“Interview with a death row inmate,” Al Jazeera English, May 10, 2012; Photo cred­it: Al Jazeera English).