Sound hesitant leaving presentation for execution in America (6)
I believe the answer is:
offing
'execution in america' is the definition.
(offing someone can mean killing them in US English)
'sound hesitant leaving presentation' is the wordplay.
'sound hesitant' becomes 'er' (sound made when hesitating).
'leaving' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'presentation' becomes 'offering'.
'offering' with 'er' taken out is 'OFFING'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for offing that I've seen before include "Topping'" , "In the -- means likely to happen soon" , "Region some distance offshore" , "The near or foreseeable future" , "Sea within view of shore" .)