stay of execution
Death row delay
A stay of execution is a court order temporarily halting a scheduled punishment, most often used for death sentences: The governor granted a stay of execution hours before the lethal injection.
More broadly, it refers to any postponement of an inevitable outcome: The company's new loan was just a stay of execution.
- reprievePostponement of punishment
- deferralAct of delaying action
- hopeDesire for good outcomes
- eleventh hourLatest possible time
- judgeOne who decides
delay · condemned prisoner · habeas corpus · death penalty · last meal · moratorium · postponement · restraining order · continuance · injunction · judicial review · suspension · abeyance · appeal · writ · gallows · last minute · clock is ticking
- mercyclemency, compassion, forgiveness, leniency, lenience
- clemencypardon, amnesty, clemency, reprieve, commutation
- court orderscourt order, injunction, order, subpoena, summons
- executionlethal injection, firing squad, gas chamber, electric chair, the chair
- legal holdsasset freeze, injunction, restraining order, moratorium, cease and desist
- capital punishmentdeath penalty, death row, death sentence, lethal injection, electric chair
stay of executionexecution
Completing a planned task
death warrant · execution order · lethal injection · electrocution
stay of executionpardon
Official release from punishment
commutation · full pardon · presidential pardon · appeal denied · exoneration