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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Video tour of Florida’s death row shows how inmates live as they await execution
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A tour of Florida’s death row reveals the sparest of one-person cells, lined up along one side of narrow hallways where rows of prison bars form the wall on the opposite side.
The cells are meant as a final waypoint before the death chamber, with its white hospital gurney and window of glass for witnesses in an adjacent room.
The Florida Department of Corrections provided a video recording of death row in connection with a request from the Tampa Bay Times last month for information on dealing with contraband in the state prison system.
It is a view that few people outside the prison system ever see.
Inside these cells at the Union Correctional Institution near Raiford, and in a few more at adjacent facilities, some 345 people await execution.
One of them is Tommy Zeigler, the second-longest serving death row inmate, who has proclaimed his innocence since he arrived more than 40 years ago and is the subject of “Blood and Truth,” a six-part series by staff writer Leonora LaPeter Anton appearing this week in the Times.
Since 1999, 51 people have been put to death in Florida by lethal injection. Jose Antonio Jimenez, who was convicted of killing a woman in Miami-Dade County in 1992, has an execution date set for Dec. 13.
A typical death row cell includes a thin mattress, a steel sink and toilet combination, a locker, and a small table for writing. An inmate spends an average of 23 hours a day inside the cells.
When a death warrant is signed, an inmate is moved to one of the "death watch" cells at Florida State Prison. The cells, adjacent to the execution chamber, are slightly larger than regular death row cells.
An ongoing federal lawsuit by eight inmates challenges the constitutionality of the conditions on death row. Their time there ranges from 12 to 30 years and more — a situation they describe as "permanent solitary confinement."
Source:tampabay.com, Dan Sullivan, November 26, 2018
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
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.
I once witnessed a public execution in China. It was in the early summer of 1993. As a student studying abroad, I was traveling in the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwestern China and happened to see the public spectacle of killing criminals in the town of Lhasa. Even now, recalling it makes me feel a twinge of pain deep in my chest. It’s an unforgettable memory.
Alabama is set to execute Carey Dale Grayson by nitrogen gas hypoxia Thursday evening for a brutal Jefferson County murder. It would be the state's sixth execution for the year and third in two months. It would also be only the third nitrogen gas hypoxia execution in the nation, after Alabama conducted the first execution by the then-untried method in January.
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Rosman Abdullah’s execution was the eighth this year in the city state, seven for drug trafficking and one for murder Singapore on Friday hanged a 55-year-old man for drug trafficking, its narcotics enforcement agency said, the city state’s third execution in a week as the United Nations called for a halt. The UN and rights groups say capital punishment has no proven deterrent effect and have called for it to be abolished, but Singaporean officials insist it has helped make the country one of Asia’s safest.
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