Facts about Colorado's 'Death Row'

Cellhouse 1, Pod A, from ground level inside the Sterling Correctional Facility

KUSA - Currently in Colorado, there are three inmates awaiting execution in the Department of Corrections.

Colorado does not have a physical 'death row.' Instead, inmates sentenced to death are placed in maximum security 'administrative segregation' at Sterling Correctional Facility.

Executions are carried out at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City, Colorado. The inmate is transported there from Sterling during the week of their execution date, set by a judge.

On 'death row' in Colorado are Sir Mario Owens, Robert Ray, and Nathan Dunlap.

Owens was sentenced to death in 2008 for the killings of two people in Aurora in 2005. One of the victims had been set to testify against a friend of Owens in a murder trial.

Robert Ray has been awaiting execution since 2009, when he was sentenced to death for plotting the murder of a witness who was set to testify against him in another murder trial. His accomplice was Sir Mario Owens.

Nathan Dunlap opened fire in a Chuck E Cheese in 1993, killing four people at his former workplace. He was sentenced to death in 1996.

In 2013, Governor Hickenlooper granted Dunlap a 'temporary reprieve' of his death sentence, meaning as long as Hickenlooper is in office, Dunlap will not be executed.

All three are held at Colorado's Sterling Correctional Facility.

Colorado's first execution at the state penitentiary was carried out in 1890. A convicted murdered named Noverto Griego was killed by hanging. That's how all executions were carried out until 1933, when Colorado's capital punishment was changed to a gas chamber execution until 1967.

In 1997, Colorado's first execution in 30 years, and the first to be administered by lethal injection, was carried out on 53-year-old Gary Lee Davis.

In the state of Colorado, 78 men have been executed. The state has never put a woman to death.

45 of the executions were carried out by hanging, 32 by lethal gas, and one by lethal injection, the state's current method.

Each day an inmate is held awaiting an execution the cost to the state is $102.28. Inmates wear standard issue clothing, which includes prison-made green shirts and green pants.

Death row inmates in Colorado spend 23 hours per day in their own cell. The one hour outside their cell each day is for exercise and showering.

Death row inmates are permitted a television, two books, newspapers, and magazines in their cell.

If the inmates comply with their educational and program requirements, they are permitted to view movies shown by the facility.

Death row inmates are permitted visitors a couple of hours per week. During the inmate's last week, or "warrant week," they may have increased visiting hours.

Each time the inmate is moved, it is done with full restraints and a minimum of two correctional officers.

Regular meals are served three times per day and brought to the inmate's cell. The inmate's requested 'last meal' must be selected from the correctional facility's main menu.

Generally, a death row inmate will serve a minimum of ten years before the sentence of death is carried out.

Read full details on the inmate's execution day here.

Source: 9news, Kelly Somaryva, KUSA, Augsut 7, 2015

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