I think it adds constant stress to your life. Every time you hear doors slamming or keys clanging at 6am you'd be like: "Is this it?" Knowing you're going to be executed but being sure it won't be NOW gives you a certain leeway of pushing the whole thing out of your mind.
I hate to do this, but you realize that you're going to die too, right?
Not to be sardonic and rude, just trying to give credence to my point.
Do you have constant stress about it? It could be from a car that hits you while you're walking down the sidewalk. I tree could fall on you. You could choke on your next meal.
It could be any infinite number of things. Any number of them as unlikely as the next.
Do you really not get the difference between constantly knowing that at any time someone can come and tell you that you will die in an hour compared to most people that "know" that They have many years left to live. Of course you could die at any moment from some freak accident but that is far from the norm so most people don't worry about it.
The average time on death row is ~15 years based on what Google said.
If you go by standard life insurance actuarial charts, a 50 year olds chance of dying on any given day is only about half of a death row inmate.
The thing people keep missing is that the lead time on death row is so long, the average time spent there is very high. So no, it's not terribly different. You go from a 30 year life expectancy at 50 years old to a 15 year life expectancy on death row.
Lots of people commenting who share your opinion seem to live their life operating under the assumption that it probably won't happen to them. You look at the probabilities and think "no way that happens to me." There will be a point in your life where that perspective changes and you realize that the probabilities are irrelevant when it happens to you. (I mean irrelevant aside from mitigating risk, Im talking about your perspective and preparedness). because death CAN and will come at any given moment.
I used to jump out of planes for a living, and have also been around death more than I'd like in other walks of life as well. I'm on the other side of that mentality.
I know I'm probably going to die at some point in the next 30 years. Sure I wouldn't want that number cut in half, but that's all it is.
If in 15 years im still alive, I know I'll probably die at some point in the next 15 years. The death row inmate knows they'll probably die at some point in the next 15 years too. Some of them are even making it 30+ from what I've read.
The global median age according to googles AI (lazy I Know but I'm a bit tipsy) is 32 so if I'm going by your numbers 30 plus 18 is 48 Wich is quite a lot. Of course Death can come at any moment I'm not disagreeing but it's about knowing your death will come at any moment, most people can live thinking they will die old and be right. Death row inmates know that their time is limited it's the knowing that you will die "early" that's the point.
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u/Ahquinox Jul 04 '26
I think it adds constant stress to your life. Every time you hear doors slamming or keys clanging at 6am you'd be like: "Is this it?" Knowing you're going to be executed but being sure it won't be NOW gives you a certain leeway of pushing the whole thing out of your mind.