High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution ("being on death row"), even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists. After individuals are found guilty of an offense and sentenced to death, they remain on death row during appeal and habeas corpus procedures, and if those are unsuccessful, until execution. Due to the complex, expensive, and time-consuming appeals procedures mandated in some jurisdictions, e.g. the United States, before an execution can be carried out, prisoners may wait years before execution; nearly a quarter of deaths on death row in the U.S. are due to natural causes.