History Main / DeathRow

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/death_row_unit_holman_prison_in_atmore_alabama.jpg]]

** In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', Simon Blackquill is a death row inmate who also serves as a prosecutor. [[spoiler:The final trial takes place the day before his execution, and you need to clear his name before finding the true culprit behind the murder he was convicted of]].

%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': As everyone knows Texas is the death penalty capital of the United States, and this has occurred on many occasions in this show:

** At the end of "In Harm's Way", the main villain, Thomas Openshaw, is sentenced to death after being convicted for his serial killing, raping and extortion spree.
** At the end of Season 9's "Deadly Situation", this likely becomes the fate of two {{Dirty Cop}}s who killed a police officer after setting his partner up for their drug trafficking ring.

In some states, a person who has been sentenced to death is put on death row and waits, typically eight years or longer, before "taking the walk"(unless his death sentence is overturned on appeal or commuted to life). Both the cells and the walkway to the death chamber are collectively identified as Death Row.

** "The Springfield Connection": Resident ButtMonkey Hans Moleman is revealed to have somehow gotten on Death Row, with an unsympathetic Lovejoy giving him his last rites. The last we see of the old man is he's being led to the execution chamber, despondent that Homer ate his last meal.

Someone who has been convicted of a capital crime is placed in a special cell on 24-hour watch (to prevent him from [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled cheating the executioner by committing suicide]]), shortly before his execution is to take place. Often, certain visitors such as the convict's lawyer or a priest, will be allowed to visit him in the last hours before he is taken out to walk to the death chamber. They may be able to request [[OneLastSmoke one last moment of personal indulgence]] or a special final meal.

* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', L picks a death-row inmate by the name of Lind L. Tailor to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koLA6IPA1nw bait Kira on national TV]], as his stand-in. Mr. Tailor was arrested in secret, his story and picture ''not'' released to the public before his appearance on TV. (He gets a WhatTheHellHero from Aizawa, and one from Soichiro in the live-action drama for doing so.) In the drama, he wants to do it again to see ''exactly'' how Kira can kill just by writing someone's name down. L's goal is also to get Light sent to one of these. For his part, Light views himself as an executioner god.

* ''Series/TheILand'': It turns out that the [[spoiler: island characters]] are really death row inmates being tested in a virtual prison (the experiment specified this, since they were already "irredeemable").

** Luther Lee Boggs from the episode "Beyond the Sea" is a mass murderer whose experience on death row triggered his psychic abilities. This time he's set to be executed once again and tries to gain a deal by saving two young people who were kidnapped. [[spoiler: It doesn't work-he's executed.]]

Someone who has been convicted of a capital crime is placed in a special cell on 24-hour watch (to prevent him from [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled cheating the executioner by committing suicide]]), shortly before his execution is to take place. Often, certain visitors such as the convict's lawyer or a priest, will be allowed to visit him in the last hours before he is taken out to walk to the death chamber. They may be able to ask for a special final meal.

Someone who has been convicted of a capital crime is placed in a special cell on 24-hour watch (to prevent him from [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled cheating the executioner by committing suicide]]), shortly before his execution is to take place. Often, certain visitors such as the convict's lawyer or a priest, will be allowed to visit him in the last hours before he is taken out to walk to the death chamber. In some states, a person who has been sentenced to death is put on death row and waits, typically eight years or longer, before taking the walk (unless his death sentence is overturned on appeal or commuted to life). Both the cells and the walkway to the death chamber are collectively identified as Death Row.

Often accompanied by an AcquittedTooLate story.

* On the two-part SeriesFinale of ''Series/{{Millennium}}'', Frank Black witnesses with some distaste the death row execution of one of his old targets, then returns to work at the FBI to find the same killer now has a copycat.

* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': "The Man Who Was Death" opens with Charlie Leadbetter sitting in his cell on death row awaiting executioner, while his executioner Niles Talbot narrates how Charlie came to be there.

* In ''[[Manga/KingdomHeartsII'', Sora and his friends are placed in a Pit Cell in [[{{Film/Tron}} Space Paranoids]] after they meddled with the computer against [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Leon]]'s warnings (with help from [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch a fluffy blue alien]]). In the manga, the trio are outright confirmed by Tron himself that they have been sentenced to death as per the MCP's desire to prove that programs are superior to the users. This is never stated in the game, but it's implied, considering that they are later placed on a DeathCourse.
* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', L picks a death-row inmate by the name of Lind L. Tailor to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koLA6IPA1nw bait Kira on national TV]], as his stand-in. Mr. Tailor was arrested in secret, his story and picture ''not'' released to the public before his appearance on TV. (He gets a WhatTheHellHero from Aizawa, and one from Soichiro in the live-action drama for doing so.) In the drama, he wants to do it again to see ''exactly'' how Kira can kill just by writing someone's name down. L's goal is also to get Light sent to one of these. For his part, Light views himself as an executioner god.

* ''Film/AssassinsCreed2016'': After his BackStory sequence ends, Cal Lynch is seen in his cell awaiting execution for killing a pimp (in self defense). He is visited by a priest before the walk. The execution itself is faked so the Templars can plug him into the Animus.
* Selma in ''Film/DancerInTheDark'' is wrongly convicted and given the death penalty. She is deeply distraught as she awaits her death. Although a sympathetic female prison guard named Brenda tries to comfort her, the other state officials show no feelings and are eager to see her executed. On her way to the gallows, Selma goes to hug the other men on death row while singing to them. However, on the gallows, she becomes terrified, so that she must be strapped to a collapse board. Her hysteria when the hood is placed over her face delays the execution.
* In ''Film/TheManWhoWasntThere2001'', the protagonist writes his story to sell to a pulp magazine while waiting on death row. Shortly before dying, his cell is opened and he goes outside the jailhouse, where he sees a UFO; he stays in jail nonetheless. Finally one morning he is walked to the electric chair and strapped in. He reflects on his fate, regretting none of his decisions and hoping to see Doris in the afterlife, both of them free of the mortal world's imperfections.

* ''Series/AfterschoolSpecial - CBS Schoolbreak Special'': The installment "Dead Wrong: The John Evans Story," is the true story of a convicted murderer who was executed in 1983 for his crimes. Evans agreed to share his story for the TV special as a cautionary tale, urging teen-agers to make good decisions, make the right friends and stay away from drugs. The interview is wrapped around a re-creation of Evans' crimes, which begin with him as a juvenile and progressively grow worse until a 1977 crime spree that culminated in the slaying of a pawn shop owner in Alabama (a young Nicole Eggert plays one of the businessman's daughters, who witnesses the crime). A re-creation of Evans' execution in the closing moments of the special provides a chilling end to re-inforce the message; the real Evans was put to death days after he gave the interview.
* ''MurderInCowetaCounty'': The critically acclaimed 1983 made-for-TV film is the true story of John Wallace (1896-1950), a wealthy and corrupt landowner from Meriwether County, Georgia, who was executed for the 1948 murder of Wilson Turner, an autistic sharecropper whom Wallace accused of stealing cattle from his property. Wallace had the Meriwether County sheriff under his thumb, but he and his goons made the mistake of killing the sharecropper in neighboring Coweta County, whose sheriff (Lamar Potts) not only was no-nonsense but couldn't be bought. Wallace was eventually arrested, tried and convicted of Turner's murder and despite appeals was put to death in the electric chair. It was the testimony of two of Wallace's former minions (who happened to be African-American) and some say Wallace's own arrogance that led to his downfall. The TV movie starred Andy Griffith as Wallace, and Johnny Cash as his nemesis Potts, both in highly memorable and universally praised performances.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': Dennis Weaver is on death row, and he's trying to convince everyone it's AllJustADream. Remade on ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'' with Peter Coyote in the Weaver role.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS10E14TheExecutionersSong "The Executioner's Song" (S10, E14)]], Sam and Dean travel to West, Livingston, Texas, to investigate the disappearance of a serial killer from his locked cell on death row.
* ''Series/{{Oz}}'': Killing another prisoner or a CO generally puts an inmate on death row, which is located in a small wing of Oz, and the characters there are generally used as a "B-plot" in Seasons 2 and later, with different inmates appearing until their execution (or transfer, in some cases, as a number are spared).
* ''Series/TheILand'': It turns out that the [[spoiler: island characters]] are really death row inmates being tested in a virtual prison (the experiment specified this, since they were already "irredeemable").
* On the two-part SeriesFinale of ''Series/{{Millennium}}'', Frank Black witnesses with some distaste the death row execution of one of his old targets, then returns to work at the FBI to find the same killer now has a copycat.

* "When You Leave That Way You Can Never Go Back," a country song made famous by Confederate Railroad in 1993. The ending of the song sees the main character – a young drifter who had made multiple poor choices in his life – sitting on death row for killing another man (who had walked in on him trying to have sex with his wife). Near the climax, the inmate shouts at the priest to go away when he comes to read him his last rites.
* "Hallowed Be Thy Name" by Music/IronMaiden is from the point of view of a prisoner on death row trying to come to terms with his imminent demise. True to trope, the Priest does make an appearance.

* ''VideoGame/PrisonArchitect'' gives you the option to ''build your own'' Death Row! But it's not to be taken lightly. Aside from having to research it first along with building an execution chamber and Death Row-only cells, prisoners on Death Row are rare. You can't deliberately take them in, either. You have to wait for them. And when you get them, executing them immediately is a ''terrible'' idea. You have to wait for their clemency chance to drop below 5% (10% if you have your AmoralAttorney research the reduced clemency perk) before you can safely execute them, because if someone is executed and later found innocent, it's one strike towards a GameOver (plus all the other Death Row inmates are immediately extracted from the premises).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' imagines that Mr. Ratburn puts him on one of these (all the while giving him tons of math homework to do.)
* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', Chuckie [[AllJustADream envisions]] potty training as being led to the electric chair, with Tommy as the priest, a bunch of creepy looking adults in diapers as other prisoners, Phil and Lil as the officers that [[DeadManWalking lead him down the hall]], and Angelica as the executioner who flushes him down the toilet.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Dr. Psycho manages to fake his own execution and escape from death row by gaining access to his powers when his captors thought them blocked and sending an ectoplasmic copy of himself to the chair to be executed.

* Ryoma Hoshi, one of the 16 participants in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony's'' killing game is a former death row inmate for slaughtering the mafia [[that killed his family and lover]]. It's a major reason behind his DeathSeeker mentality.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': Dennis Weaver is on death row, and he's trying to convince everyone it's AllJustADream.

* In ''[[{{Manga/KingdomHeartsII}} Kingdom Hearts II]]'', Sora and his friends are placed in a Pit Cell in [[{{Film/Tron}} Space Paranoids]] after they meddled with the computer against [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Leon]]'s warnings (with help from [[{{Disney/LiloAndStitch}} a fluffy blue alien]]). In the manga, the trio are outright confirmed by Tron himself that they have been sentenced to death as per the MCP's desire to prove that programs are superior to the users. This is never stated in the game, but it's implied, considering that they are later placed on a DeathCourse.

* ''Disney/LadyAndTheTramp'': "Poor Nutsy is takin' the long walk."

Someone who has been convicted of a capital crime is placed in a special cell on 24-hour watch (to prevent him from [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled cheating the executioner by committing suicide]]), shortly before his execution is to take place. Often, certain visitors such as the convict's lawyer or a priest, will be allowed to visit him in the last hours before he is taken out to walk to the death chamber. In some states, a person who has been sentenced to death is put on death row and waits, typically eight years or longer, before taking the walk (unless his death sentence is overturned on appeal). Both the cells and the walkway to the death chamber are collectively identified as Death Row.

* ''Film/MonstersBall'': Hank and his son are both death row guards. Hank particularly gets into it with his son when Sonny screws up a condemned man's "last walk" by breaking down puking in the middle of it.

* ''MurderInCowetaCounty'': The critically acclaimed 1983 made-for-TV film is the true story of John Wallace (1896-1950), a wealthy and corrupt landowner from Meriwether County, Georgia, who was executed for the 1948 murder of Wilson Turner, an autistic sharecropper whom Wallace accused of stealing cattle from his property. Wallace had the Meriwether County sheriff under his thumb, but he and his goons made the mistake of killing the sharecropper in neighboring Coweta County, whose sheriff (Lamar Potts) not only was no-nonsense but couldn't be bought. Wallace was eventually arrested, tried and convicted of Turner's murder and despite appeals was put to death in the electric chair. It was the testimony of two of Wallace's former minions (who happened to be African American) and some say Wallace's own arrogance that led to his downfall. The TV movie starred Andy Griffith as Wallace, and Johnny Cash as his nemesis Potts, both in highly memorable and universally praised performances.

** Luther Lee Boggs from the episode "Beyond the Sea" is a mass murdered whose previous experience on a Death Row triggered his psychic abilities. This time he's about to be executed once again and tries to gain a deal by saving two young people who were kidnapped.
** Episode "The "List" featured prisoners on Death Row and an execution in electric chair. The main villain was a sadistic prison guard.

* ''Series/{{Oz}}'': Killing another prisoner or a CO generally puts an inmate on death row, which is located in a small wing of Oz, and the characters there are generally used as a "B-plot" in Seasons 2 and later, with different inmates appearing until their execution.

** "The Springfield Connection": Resident {{Buttmonkey}} Hans Moleman is revealed to have somehow gotten on Death Row, with an unsympathetic Lovejoy giving him his last rites. The last we see of the old man is he's being led to the execution chamber, despondent that Homer ate his last meal.

%%* ''Film/IWantToLive'' -

* In ''Film/TheManWhoWasntThere'', the protagonist writes his story to sell to a pulp magazine while waiting on death row. Shortly before dying, his cell is opened and he goes outside the jailhouse, where he sees a UFO; he stays in jail nonetheless. Finally one morning he is walked to the electric chair and strapped in. He reflects on his fate, regretting none of his decisions and hoping to see Doris in the afterlife, both of them free of the mortal world's imperfections.