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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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
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."
After surviving a botched execution attempt in February, Thomas Creech (pictured) was scheduled for execution a second time on November 13 in Idaho. On Wednesday, November 6, a federal district court issued a stay of execution to allow more time to consider Mr. Creech’s legal claims. The Idaho Department of Corrections announced that “execution preparations have been suspended” and the execution warrant will expire.
Hoosier prison staffers, the condemned’s friends and family members, and the victims’ family members may soon witness the state of Indiana’s first execution since 2009. But it’s likely that no independent witnesses will be included. Joseph Corcoran, who killed four people in 1997, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 18. In Indiana, the death penalty is only available for the crime of murder. It will also be the state’s first time killing a prisoner with pentobarbital instead of a traditional three-drug cocktail.
Taliban authorities in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday executed a convicted murderer by gunfire at a sports stadium, in the sixth public execution since their return to power. The condemned man was shot with three bullets to the chest by a member of the victim's family in front of thousands of spectators in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. The evening before the execution the governor's office called on officials and residents to "attend this event" on social media.
Three child rapists were executed on Wednesday after their death sentences were approved by China's top court, showing the country's "zero tolerance" against those harming juveniles. The behaviors of the three criminals, who had sexually assaulted and raped girls for a long time or several times, greatly damaged the physical and mental health of the minors and seriously challenged the legal and moral bottom line, bringing extremely negative effects to society, the Supreme People's Court said.
Paris (AFP) – Iran hanged a 26-year-old man for a second time Wednesday months after a previous execution was halted half a minute in, an NGO said. Ahmad Alizadeh was arrested in October 2018 on a murder charge, which he denied, and was sentenced to death, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), which tracks executions in Iran, said in a statement. His death sentence was carried out on April 27 in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj outside Tehran. But just 28 seconds into the hanging he was brought down from the gallows when the victim's family suddenly shouted "forgiveness". His "lifeless" body was successfully resuscitated and the execution was halted, IHR said.
Burkina Faso's military regime wants to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in the country in 2018, a government source told AFP news agency on Saturday. The latest execution in Burkina Faso was in 1988, according to rights group Amnesty International. It concerned four leaders accused of an attempted coup d’état to depose president Blaise Compaoré – defence minister Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, minister of economic promotion Henri Zongo, and two unidentified men.
On November 10, 2024, Iranian authorities carried out the execution of at least 11 prisoners across various prisons, with one of the victims being a woman. These executions, reportedly related to both drug offenses and homicide, were carried out in several cities, including Yasuj, Tabriz, Zahedan, and Rasht.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department will appeal a military judge's ruling that plea agreements struck by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and two of his co-defendants are valid, a defense official said Saturday. The ruling this past week voided Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order to throw out the deals and concluded that the plea agreements were valid. The judge granted the three motions to enter guilty pleas and said he would schedule them for a future date to be determined by the military commission.
Armin and Hatef, the primary and secondary suspects in the robbery of safety deposit boxes at the University Branch of Bank Melli, were sentenced to hand amputation by the Tehran Province Criminal Court. The Supreme Court of Iran has also charged them with “corruption on earth,” which could lead to severe punishments such as the death penalty.
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