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To U.S. Death Row Inmates, Today's Election is a Matter of Life or Death

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You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."
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Oklahoma set to execute 2 men this month; will be 5th, 6th executions for the state this year

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The state of Oklahoma is scheduled to execute 2 convicted killers this month.

Ronald Clinton Lott is to be put to death Tuesday for the deaths of 2 elderly women in the 1980s while Johnny Dale Black is set for execution on Dec. 17 for the stabbing death of man in Ringling. The 2 men will be the 5th and 6th people put to death by the state of Oklahoma this year.

Lott, 53, was convicted in Oklahoma County of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder for the deaths Anna Laura Fowler, 83, in September 1986 and Zelma Cutler, 93, in January 1987.

Authorities said Lott broke into the women's homes and brutally attacked them, causing broken bones and bruises. DNA samples taken from the victims were matched to Lott.

At a clemency hearing in November, Lott apologized to the victims' families and asked for their forgiveness.

"I'm so sorry for what I've done. And I'd ask them to forgive me," Lott told board members, victims' family members and others during a teleconference from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester.

"I caused them so much hurt and pain."

Lott initially told members of the state Pardon and Parole Board that he wanted to waive his clemency hearing, but made a statement after his attorney pleaded with him to do so. He refused to ask the board to spare his life, though, despite his attorney's pleas.

Jim Fowler, the son of Anna Fowler, urged the board to spare Lott's life "and let him rot in that damn cell."

The Board voted 4-1 against clemency.

Black is to be executed Dec. 17 for the 1998 roadside attack that killed Bill Pogue, 54, a horse trainer from Ringling.

Black, 48, said he and others mistook Pogue and his son-in-law, Rick Lewis, for someone they had been searching for. A van carrying the Blacks pulled up to the Pogue's SUV and a fight broke out.

Pogue was stabbed multiple times and suffered broken ribs and punctured lungs. Lewis suffered 13 stab wounds but recovered.

During a November clemency hearing, Pogue apologized for his actions to members of the victim's family and his own family.

"I'm truly sorry. It's been on my mind every single day for 15 years," Black said from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester.

The state Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 to deny commuting the death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Source: Associated Press, December 8, 2013
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