There are also those sentenced to death in countries with a moratorium on executions, for whom no term has been theorized, but for which there are also a number of psychological ramifications.
According to some psychiatrists, the results of being confined to death row for an extended period of time, including the effects of knowing one will be killed and the living conditions, can fuel delusions and suicidal tendencies in an individual and can cause insanity in a form that is dangerous.
[5] Since the re-institution of the death penalty in 1976 to January 1, 2017, 145 prisoners have waived their appeals and asked that the execution be carried out; most notably, the case of Gary Gilmore in Utah brought the ten-year national moratorium to a halt following Gregg v. Georgia.
[7] Earlier, however, in 1950, a justice of the United States Supreme Court, in Solesbee v. Balkcom, remarked that the onset of insanity while awaiting execution of a death sentence is not a rare phenomenon.
[3] The Supreme Court of Canada cited the death row phenomenon, along with a few other concerns about execution, to declare the risk of a prisoner being executed after extradition to another country to be a breach of fundamental justice — a legal right under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution of Canada.
Earlier, in 1991, some Supreme Court justices had, in Kindler v. Canada (Minister of Justice), expressed skepticism about the legal argument regarding the phenomenon, writing that the stress was not as severe a punishment as the execution itself, and writing that the prisoners themselves choose to appeal their sentences, thus being responsible for the prolonged stay on death row.
In Burns, however, the Court acknowledged that the mere process of execution, including making sure that the sentence is carried out justly, "seems inevitably to provide lengthy delays, and the associated psychological trauma.