Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film stars out of 4. He compared "Death Sentence" to the "Death Wish" films starring Charles Bronson, saying: "In the Bronson movies, the hero just looked more and more determined until you felt if you tapped his face, it would explode. In "Death Sentence", Bacon acts out a lot more." Ebert called "Death Sentence" "very efficient", praising "a courtroom scene of true surprise and suspense, and some other effective moments", but concluded that "basically this is a movie about a lot of people shooting at each other".