How long will Wade Wilson be on death row?

A judge sentenced Wade Wilson to death Tuesday, but how long will Wilson be waiting for death?

The time varies depending on the inmate, but the Florida Department of Corrections lists the average as 13 to 14 years.

Wilson’s attorneys have filed an appeal, which goes directly to the Florida Supreme Court.

The appeal and execution process will take a long time.

Wilson isn’t the first death row inmate in Florida to appeal his sentence.

Ted Bundy, the notorious serial killer, sat on Florida’s death row for nine years, filing appeal after appeal.

His execution was delayed three times. It was also expensive.

Bundy’s time on death row cost taxpayers more than $5 million.

Even though Bundy was executed 35 years ago, Florida death row inmates like Loran Cole are still trying to delay their executions.

Cole is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Thursday at 6 p.m.

He’s convicted of murdering Florida State University student John Edwards in 1994 in the Ocala National Forest, and Cole’s attorneys are still appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a day before his lethal injection.

WINK News asked Wilson’s attorneys about his client’s conviction and the appeal process.

“Unfortunately, he’s going to sit and wait,” said Kevin Shirley, Wilson’s defense attorney. “These things take dozens of years before they finally get ironed out. The way Florida’s law was for a long time; it was a bare majority until they changed the law. We’ll wait and see. We’re just hopeful that one Supreme Court does the right thing.”

While Wilson’s attorneys will continue to appeal, state attorney Amira Fox says Florida will keep fighting until the end.

“He is nothing more than a vicious killer and about the poor representation of a man there could ever be,” Fox said. “He murdered a woman in her own home who did nothing to harm him, Kristine Melton, as she simply slept in her bed. He murdered another woman, Diane Ruiz, who was simply walking to work. Both these women physically suffered tremendously due to his decision to kill.”

“This is not the end,” said Felix Ruiz, Ruiz’s father. “The end is when the accused takes his last breath, and I will be there at the execution. That’s a promise.”

Wilson has been in the Lee County jail since his arrest in 2019, but he will be housed at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida, while he awaits his execution.

It’s unclear when that transfer will take place, but before it does, he’ll be back in court for a plea hearing related to his drug trafficking case. Wilson is accused of setting up drug sales from his jail cell.

That plea hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16.