Death row (in prison)

Death row is a section of a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution. These inmates have been convicted of capital crimes such as murder, treason, terrorism, aggravated rape, genocide, and aircraft hijacking. Not all defendants convicted of capital crimes receive the death penalty, however. Once a jury finds a defendant guilty of a capital crime, it must unanimously decide whether the individual should receive a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Only individuals who have received a death sentence live on death row, where they are kept in isolation, sometimes for decades, while their cases are appealed. Living in such harsh conditions under a veil of uncertainty for many years can cause inmates to become mentally ill, a condition known as death row phenomenon. Some legal experts consider death row to be a form of cruel and unusual punishment.

Background

As of 2019, more than half the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty while seventy-two countries, including the United States, retain it. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in 2019 the death penalty was legal in thirty American states. Twenty states and Washington DC abolished the practice. Since 1977, the states of Texas (464), Virginia (108), and Oklahoma (94) have executed the most death-row inmates.

Of the approximately 3,000 prisoners awaiting execution in the United States, the vast majority are white and black men. Forty-two percent of death-row inmates are white, 41 percent are black, 13 percent are Latino, and fewer than 2 percent are Asian or Native American. Fewer than 2 percent of death-row inmates are women.

Most death-row inmates are executed by lethal injection. More rarely, they are executed by electrocution, the gas chamber, or firing squad.

In addition to state laws regarding capital punishment in the United States, the federal government may issue the death sentence for federal offenses such as the murder of a government official, a kidnapping resulting in death, treason, and running a large-scale drug operation. Timothy McVeigh was executed on July 11, 2001, by lethal injection. McVeigh had been convicted on fifteen counts of murder for the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. McVeigh was the first federal prisoner to be executed in thirty-eight years.

Overview

Those who favor life imprisonment without parole over capital punishment do so in large part because of the conditions under which prisoners live on death row. Death-row inmates live in solitary confinement in a small cell, which may be about 8 feet by 10 feet, about the size of a small bathroom. Prisoners sentenced to death sleep on a steel bed or concrete slab. Death row cells usually also contain a steel toilet, a steel sink, and a small writing desk.

Death-row inmates receive little, if any, human contact and are served meals through a slot in the door. They remain in isolation for twenty-two to twenty-four hours a day. Some have “exercise time” outdoors a few times a week, but even then, they remain in small cage-like enclosures. Death-row inmates have severely restricted visitation rights. When visiting with family or friends, they must stay behind a Plexiglas wall. Prisoners are also in arm and leg restraints during visits.

Conduct is irrelevant for death-row inmates’ sentences. They are not granted privileges for good behavior. Their sentence demands that they remain on death row until they are executed.

The length of time prisoners must spend on death row is another point of contention. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2010, the average time spent on death row was 14.8 years. Even in Texas, where executions are commonly carried out, the average time spent on death row is 11 years. Legal appeals are mainly responsible for this long length of time, and experts contend that these appeals are necessary to avoid the execution of innocent individuals. However, the amount of time spent on death row is exacerbated by breakdowns in the legal system such as inadequate legal counsel, the suppression of evidence favorable to the defendant, and illegal execution protocols.

Spending so much time in isolation can be mentally and physically debilitating for death-row inmates. This mental breakdown is referred to as death row phenomenon or death row syndrome. Living in a small cell alone without human contact or going outdoors takes its toll on a person’s mind. Some death-row inmates have psychotic delusions, hold long conversations with themselves, or attempt suicide. Some sleep most of the day. The many mental and physical problems death-row inmates develop include hypersensitivity to external stimuli, hallucinations, lack of impulse control, severe depression, chronic headaches, nightmares, dizziness, self-mutilation, and lower-than-normal levels of brain function. In time, many death-row inmates’ minds deteriorate to the point that they are no longer competent to make rational decisions regarding appeals.

Incidents in which prisoners spent decades on death row are commonplace. Jack Alderman was convicted of taking part in the murder of his wife, who was beaten to death with a crescent wrench. Alderman served more than thirty-three years on death row before being executed in Georgia in 2008. Gary Alvord spent thirty-nine years on Florida’s death row. Alvord, who was sentenced to death for a triple murder, died of a brain tumor in 2013. Raymond Riles has spent more than forty-one years on death row in Texas. Riles was convicted of a murder during a robbery in 1974. Riles’s unstable mental state has prevented his execution. Riles and nine other death-row inmates in Texas signed a petition to stop their appeals and hasten execution. However, because the state found that Riles is mentally unfit, it is likely that he will remain on death row for the rest of his life.

In 1985, a German national named Jens Soering was dating an American woman from Virginia. A year after her parents were found stabbed to death, Soering, who was in the United Kingdom, admitted to the murders but claimed that his actions were in part due to a mental abnormality. The US government required Soering’s extradition to face murder charges in Virginia. Soering appealed the United Kingdom’s decision to send him back to the United States, arguing that the conditions in Virginia’s death row were so terrible and the delays so long that a stay on death row there constituted “inhuman or degrading” punishment. Soering was extradited on the condition that the state of Virginia would not seek the death penalty.

Bibliography

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“The Death Row Phenomenon.” Human Rights News, Views, & Info, rightsinfo.org/stories/the-death-row-phenomenon/. Accessed 4 Sept. 2019.

“Facts about the Death Penalty,” Death Penalty Information Center, Sep. 2019, https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/pdf/FactSheet.f1567691323.pdf. Accessed 4 Sep. 2019.

“History of the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/history-of-the-death-penalty. Accessed 4 Sep. 2019.

Liptak, Adam. “Lifelong Death Sentences.” New York Times, 31 Oct. 2011, rightsinfo.org/stories/the-death-row-phenomenon/. Accessed 4 Sep. 2019.

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“Time on Death Row.” Death Penalty Information Center, deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row/conditions-on-death-row/time-on-death-row. Accessed 4 Sept. 2019.