That's the title of an analysis written by Jack Elliott for AP, via the Gulfport Sun-Herald. LINK
The three longest serving inmates on Mississippi's death row have been there a combined 88 years. Logic would suggest they'd be next in line for execution, but they're probably not.
Richard Jordan (33 years), William Wiley (28 years) and James Billiot (27 years) have appeals pending in the federal courts, and their cases could be tied up another year or two.
The recent executions of Paul Everette Woodward and Gerald James Holland have prompted Attorney General Jim Hood and Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps to say as many as three more death sentences could be carried out this year.
Epps said his staff at the Parchman penitentiary can handle the job, particularly with the first back-to-back executions over two days in nearly 50 years.
And:
Mississippi has not executed more than two inmates in any year since 1961, when five were put to death, according to records at the Department of Corrections.
In Texas, 450 convicted murderers have been executed in the last 25 years. Mississippi has executed 43 since March 1955, including Holland and Woodward.
Marcie Walker of Wiggins - sister of 15-year-old Krystal King of Gulfport, who was killed by Holland - witnessed Holland's execution. She told reporters the state shouldn't let people sit on death row for years: "Mississippi should be like Texas and put in an express lane."
In 1997, Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice told a newly formed criminal justice study group that the state lets prisoners linger on death row too long.
"Texas executed two in one day again the other day. Arkansas has done the same thing," Fordice said. "Both of those states are continually working down their inventory on death row, and ours continues to grow."
Hood said the situation has improved since federal law was changed during the Bill Clinton administration to allow death penalty cases to be expedited if the state can show it has provided competent defense.
He said the Mississippi Supreme Court has taken steps to prod trial judges to act more quickly on post conviction claims in death row cases.
Earlier coverage begins with this post. To date, Texas has carried out 458 executions since 1982
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