In most states the death penalty is nothing more than life in prison. I think after one appeal (and not after 10 years), next day adios dude, dust to dust, cowbung to cowbung and so on.
Storing these criminals for 20-30 years makes no sense. Talk about fiscal irresponsibility, holy shit. IMO if they're not going to kill em just eliminate the death penalty and make it life without parole from the get go and stop the charade. Think of the savings just in doing that from a legal haggling point of view. No more hung juries, mistrials, etc etc... = mucho money saved and trial completions accelerated freeing up the system to process more scumbags.
Of course the lawyers want no part of simplifying or cleaning up the system. They live of of delays and inefficiency, re-trials, etc etc.