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Biden Has 65 Days Left in Office. Here’s What He Can Do on Criminal Justice.

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Judicial appointments and the death penalty are among areas where a lame-duck administration can still leave a mark. Donald Trump’s second presidential term will begin on Jan. 20, bringing with it promises to dramatically reshape many aspects of the criminal justice system. The U.S. Senate — with its authority over confirming judicial nominees — will also shift from Democratic to Republican control.
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America's 10 Worst Prisons: Polunsky

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Typical Polunsky Death Row Cell
"The most lethal [death row] anywhere in the democratic world" is also probably "the hardest place to do time in Texas," writes Robert Perkinson, author of the book TexasTough. Indeed, the all-solitary Allan B. Polunsky Unit houses condemned Texans under some of the nation's harshest death row conditions. The prisoners are housed in single cells on 22-hour-a-day lockdown, and even during their daily "recreation" hour, they are confined in separate cages. With no access to phones, televisions, contact visits, they remain in essentially a concrete tomb (PDF) until execution day—a stretch of at least three years for the mandatory appeals, and far longer if they opt to keep fighting. Some have been known to commit suicide or waive their appeals rather than continue living under such conditions.

The backlash: At Polunsky, the "emotional torture" of awaiting death in total isolation is "driving men out of their minds," former prisoner Anthony Graves told senators last year at the first-ever Judiciary Committee hearing on solitary confinement. "I would watch guys come to prison totally sane and in three years they don't live in the real world anymore," recalled Graves, who was exonerated in 2010, after spending more than 18 years on death row.

Graves detailed for the senators some of the profoundly erratic behavior of his fellow prisoners. "I know a guy who would sit in the middle of the floor, rip his sheet up, wrap it around himself, and light it on fire. Another guy…would take his feces and smear it all over his face as though he was in military combat."


Source: Mother Jones, May 2, 2013

Texas' death row is a disgrace to the State of Texas. Click here to view 50 recent annotated pictures of the 'living' conditions on Texas' death row. These photos were provided by the State of Texas in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by attorney Yolanda Torres. These photos were then posted on Thomas Whitaker's blog, "Minutes Before Six". Thomas Whitaker is currently on death row in the State of Texas.
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Biden Has 65 Days Left in Office. Here’s What He Can Do on Criminal Justice.

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Judicial appointments and the death penalty are among areas where a lame-duck administration can still leave a mark. Donald Trump’s second presidential term will begin on Jan. 20, bringing with it promises to dramatically reshape many aspects of the criminal justice system. The U.S. Senate — with its authority over confirming judicial nominees — will also shift from Democratic to Republican control.
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Saudi Arabia executed more than 100 foreigners in 2024: AFP tally

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

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Trial Judge Declares Melissa Lucio to be ​“Actually Innocent,” Recommends Texas CCA Overturn Conviction and Death Sentence

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Iran | Group Hanging of 10 Including a Woman in Ghezel Hesar Prison; Protest Outside Prison Violently Crushed

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USA | Pro-Trump prison warden asks Biden to commute all death sentences before leaving

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