Stay of Execution in the United States

Stay Of Execution Definition

An arrest of the issuance of execution process on a judgment. It may be by direction of the judgment creditor for some cause which he conceives to be to his advantage, or it may be by composition or agreement, or it may be by way of a remedy in favor of the judgment debtor, by which, on the giving of approved security usually, the issue of process is postponed for a time fixed by statute. The statutory stay by giving security is the most commonly observed, and is the one to which the term usually refers. (This definition of Stay Of Execution is based on The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary).

United States Constitution

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, the stay of execution is an order commanding that the enforcement (execution) of a lower court judgment be suspended (stayed) pending further proceedings before that court or an appeal of the judgment to a higher court. The entry of such an order is essentially a matter of judicial nature.