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Photographing the Community on Tennessee’s Death Row

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From 2010 to 2015 I was incarcerated in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the Tennessee prison that houses death row for the men’s system. On one side of a gate, 250 of us lived in a “support staff” unit working maintenance, landscaping, kitchen service or whatever else kept the facility operational. On the other side of the gate were maximum-security prisoners and those in protective custody, and a unit just for the condemned.
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Mississippi executes Benny Joe Stevens

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The state of Mississippi executed death row inmate Benny Joe Stevens (left), 52, at 6:22 p.m. today.

Stevens was convicted in 1999 of killing his ex-wife, Glenda Reid; her husband, Wesley Lee Reid; her 11-year-old son, Dylan Lee; and Lee's 10-year-old friend Heath Pounds.

He used his final moments to ask his victims' family members for forgiveness.

"What I've taken from God and you, I can't replace,'he said. I'm sorry."

Prior to his execution, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Stevens expressed remorse over the crime, particularly the deaths of the 2 children.

"None of them deserved what I did,"Epps recalled.

The U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Haley Barbour denied Stevens' last-ditch pleas for clemency.

Still, Epps said he remained talkative throughout the day. Stevens, who had no infractions during his time behind bars, showered and took a sedative - Valium - before being led to the execution room.

Stevens becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Mississippi and the14th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Stevens becomes the 15th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1249th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Clarion Ledger, Rick Halperin, May 11, 2011


Mississippi execution uses sedative for first time

WASHINGTON — Benny Joe Stevens, who was convicted of killing four people, including two children, has been executed by the state of Mississippi with a drug normally used to euthanize animals.

Stevens, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:22 pm (23:22 GMT) at the state penitentiary in the town of Parchman, according to Mississippi prison officials.

It was the first time the southern state had used the sedative pentobarbital instead of sodium thiopental, whose US manufacturer recently said it was no longer making the drug. Pentobarbital is also used in assisted suicides in two US states and as an animal euthanasia.

Mississippi is the latest US state to adopt pentobarbital as part of a three-drug protocol after Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and soon Alabama.

Pentobarbital, which produces an unconscious state, is followed by an injection of pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the inmate, and finally potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

Ohio and the state of Washington use one single, massive dose of pentobarbital. The Danish company that makes the drug, Lundbeck Inc., has said it opposes the drug's use in executions.

The US Supreme Court denied a stay of execution, prison officials said.

Stevens appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court over the change from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital, but his appeal was rejected last week.

Stevens was condemned to death for the 1999 murder of his ex-wife, Glenda Reid, Reid's husband, Wesley Reid, their 11-year-old son Dylan and the boy's friend Heath Pounds, in a mobile home park in rural Marion County following a custody dispute over Stevens' daughter.

The daughter, Erica, was wounded, and was a witness against Stevens in his trial.

Source: AFP, May 11, 2011
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