Rat-infested cells, feces-flooded cellblocks, the screams of psychotic inmates and temperatures exceeding 100 degrees are among the worst of the punishments that Mississippi Death Row prisoners have endured. But despite a federal judge’s ruling that the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) was violating the Eighth Amendment by inflicting “cruel and unusual punishment” on its Death Row inmates held at Parchman… return to article
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Reader Comments (19)Page 1 of 1 pagesI have never been an advocate of Capital Punihment and certainly find such living conditions beyond comprehension in the 21st Century. Has the MDOC no shame?
Posted by Grassrootsgertie on Dec 31, 2003 at 1:41 AM I have never been an advocate of Capital Punishment and certainly find such living conditions beyond comprehension in the 21st Century. Has the MDOC no shame?
Posted by Grassrootsgertie on Dec 31, 2003 at 1:43 AM who cares about prisoners on death row? If they’re guilty they deserve these conditions.
Posted by Joanice on Dec 31, 2003 at 10:47 AM The issue at hand is not of personal feelings about who deserves what, but violation of the eigth amendment rights. Lack of its enforcement on Death Row in Mississippi may be used to set a precident applicable to other non-capital offences. In addition, these living conditions are reflective of the institution that administering them, an institution that most of us come in contact one day or another, be it an arrest, or a parking ticket.
Posted by smith on Dec 31, 2003 at 11:15 AM The most telling fact in the story is that of 170 death sentences handed out by Missisipi courts since 1976 70 were vacated. It is therefore a reasonable presumption that a fair number of those on death row at any given moment are in fact innocent. The entire criminal justice industry is pretty much a cynical fraud.
Posted by Bruce A. Dixon on Jan 1, 2004 at 7:07 AM That anyone could make a comment about not caring about death row inmates simply confirms the aggression and lack of compassion in a society that continues to practice colonial occupation and war profiteering. Its truely a disgrace....but not a surprising one.
Posted by John Steppling on Jan 2, 2004 at 3:31 AM Dear Joanice,
I highly recommend the book “The Innocents” by Taryn Simon. I certainly hope that you never experience the knowledge that someone you know is unjustly condemned....and mistreated in custody. IF they are guilty is a BIG “if”. You have alot to learn, my friend. Did someone say “we are a Christian Nation” ???????
Posted by Amolibri on Jan 2, 2004 at 10:08 AM Joanice, how many of these prisoners are innocent? How many convictions have been overturned because of racial profiling/bullying by prosecutors and evidence not allowed at trial. How many death row inmates have been set free since DNA testing has proved their innocence? Even a state as big as Illinois, with a traditionally conservative Republican governor has put a moratorium on executions, realizing the system is severely flawed.
Who cares about them? Are you so completely buying into this bullshit from the Bush administration that everything is so black and white? That criminials aren’t human?This goddamn arrogance the people of this nation are showing anymore makes me want TO FUCKING PUKE!
Posted by neil on Jan 3, 2004 at 12:19 AM neil.
I’m against the death penalty as it stands now, because its just too damn expensive. But, the mayor of illinois stopped executions because a few northwestern students found information that led to new trials, (as far as i know, no one has been let free)
Your dna argument is bs anyway, as soon judges/juries will require a dna test to put a killer to death.
Posted by brad on Jan 3, 2004 at 11:53 PM Brad, what do you mean about the DNA testing?
As far as Illinois, The Chicago Tribune published a story about the problems with capital punishment. In this story, they studied 285 death sentances. Of 260 cases of these that were appealed, half the decisions were reveresed with orders for new trials or re-sentancing. Ryan, then governor, reacted with the moratorium. And, yes, Northwestern students were involved in the Anthony Porter case.
13 inmates had their decisions reversed right before the moratorium, which was after the article and after some investigative reporting by none other than Scott Turow the author. Five of these 13 were cleared by DNA testing.
I don’t know why Turow was involved, but he helped to clear Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez. Both men served more than a decade on death row for the wrongful conviction of the rape and murder of a lO-year-old girl.I agree capital punishment is expensive and takes a long time.
My hope is justice becomes just that. And I see DNA testing as one way of doing that. Sure, it won’t apply in a lot of cases, but, thankfully, it has saved many an innocent life since it’s been used in appeal cases.
Posted by neil on Jan 4, 2004 at 5:27 AM It can be argued that as human beings the inmates have a right to live in good conditions, but surely they gave up that right the day they took an innocent life.
The same compasion they showed to their victims must be shown to them - AND THAT IS NONE.
Even If they are living in S**t and filth, it has to be better than how the familes of the victims are living - and that is hell.
Part of the punishment.
Posted by BoB on Jan 6, 2004 at 1:28 PM Bob, my earlier comments will point out why I disagree with you.
Convicted murderer? Maybe. Racial predjudice, profiling, poverty and the desire for an impatient public to catch somebody quick are some of the reasons innocent people have been coerced into a confession and sentanced to death.
With hope, no one will be sentanced to death in the future, society will have better ways to deter crime and as long as this abomination of a death penalty is still around, hopefully DNA testing will set innocent people free.
It’s barbaric and ineffective.
Posted by neil on Jan 8, 2004 at 2:34 AM This article exemplifies the most heinous of societial ills within this country. Human value seems to decrease, while that of the dollar becomes increasingly more important.
Perhaps the gents in Washington can allow Mississippi to build a concentration camp as a step up! This article infuriates me, yet does not shock me. This country is filled with hypocrits which bend the laws to fit their views and justify the indecency they perpetuate. The author of this article brings into light more than just the violation of the eighth amendment, more than the violation of morality, and more than a violation of ethics. Hughes points out all that is wrong with our political system and and a society whose ignorance allows these injustices to continue. I look forward to a follow up story from this author.
Posted by Michele M. McManmon on Jan 11, 2004 at 6:02 PM “of 170 death sentences handed out by Missisipi courts since 1976 70 were vacated. It is therefore a reasonable presumption that a fair number of those on death row at any given moment”
No it is not a reasonable presumption or assumption. Not at all.
The vast majority of punitive sentences, including death sentences, that are overturned are overturned simply for legal error.
In other words, there has not even been any attempt to show or claim innocence of the convicted defendant, but that a procedural or substantive legal error took place during the trial.
Death sentences are not generally vacated because of new factual evidence.
“coerced into confession and sentenced to death”
This is why I have a real problem with the allegation that confessions are coerced.
What will happen if I confess? The State will execute me. What will happen if I don’t confess? Somebody will punch me, I will be kept up for 36 hours, I will be badgered.
I know which I would choose. (And yes, I have been arrested)
Many people don’t realize it, but it is extremely hard to convict a person of a capital crime in this country.
Posted by Nus on Jan 14, 2004 at 2:02 PM Those poor abused death row inmates.
It is this man’s First Amendment “right” to relive the horrors of his crime and speak to his victim’s relatives by name on the Internet.
Trawick stopped sending out new stories about murder after Gach’s mother and others complained last year. But Trawick’s old writings are still on the Web, along with gruesome drawings of murdered women.
In one letter posted on the Internet, Trawick reveled in the Gach slaying.
“I would do the whole thing again knowing death row was waiting for me,” Trawick, 56, wrote from Holman Prison.
Trawick confessed to kidnapping Gach, 21, from a Birmingham-area shopping mall in 1992. He took her to an isolated area where he beat her with a hammer, strangled her and stabbed her through the heart.
Gach’s body was thrown off an embankment, where it was found the next day. Trawick was convicted in 1994 and he was convicted the next year in the slaying of Aileen Pruitt, 27, killed about four months before Gach.
Posted by Nus on Jan 14, 2004 at 3:24 PM Okay, Nus,
My brother was beaten to death with an aluminum bat back in 1990. Some teenagers came upon his dead body and poked his eyes out, beat his body, threw his cans of groceries at him, then drove over him when they stole his truck, which they later smashed into a stone wall.
We had to have a closed coffin funeral. And to make matters worse, I had to tell my dad he had lost yet another son, goddammit!Angry as hell, yes. But I could take no comfort in swift justice since the bumbling of the police had the five black teenagers confessing to his murder. They were far from innocent, sure, but they were so mis-represented, and yes, dumbass, COERCED into a murder confession that they were facing a possible death sentance. Due to this screw up, the real murderer of my brother only received 25 years and his accomplice 50 years for armed robbery. WTF? Armed robbery gets you more time than murder? All in Illinois, no less, where I’m originally from.
Had the police followed procedure, which it was later revealed they had not, the accompice wouldn’t have been granted complete immunity for coming clean about covering for the five teens convicted of murder.It’s arrogant of me to push my anti-capital punishment views based on this. However I, and my two late brothers were against the death penalty before. I know those kids screwed up, it was horrible what they did, but to die? No.
Your comments don’t mention anything of the people who have been released based on DNA evidence.
Posted by neil on Jan 15, 2004 at 4:26 AM “his accomplice 50 years for armed robbery.”
“the accompice wouldn’t have been granted complete immunity for coming clean about covering for the five teens convicted of murder”
I’m confused - did the accomplice get complete immunity or was he sentenced to 50 years in prison?
What was the accomplice covering for concerning the 5 confessors? If they were innocent, they needed no one to cover for them.
I don’t know what your complaint is. It seems everyone involved was arrested, convicted and sent to prison.
Yes, DNA has freed some prisoners. That does not make what I have said about the reason most convictions are overturned wrong.
I am unequivocably anti-death penalty. That question is not at issue here. I am not particularly big on prisoner’s rights.
Posted by Nus on Jan 15, 2004 at 9:40 AM Nus,
The prosecutor was absolutey convinced the five had killed my brother. When the real killer’s accomplice was found (his sister turned him in), the prosecutor saw this as the guy hired to cover for the five teens, that somebody was protecting them and this guy was going to take the fall.
All along he had said they weren’t involved and he had no idea who they were--that it was just the two of them and he described the crime. Not convinced, the prosecutor said he would grant him complete immunity if he would just tell the truth. And he was. To make matters worse, he made a racial comment to the press about behaviour as such is higher from the poor black community. He lost his job over it.
The five kids were put on a year’s probation and the real killer was found based on his buddy giving him up by telling the truth. And because the prosecutor had said he would grant him complete immunity, the judge set him free. The killer was sentanced to 25 years and the oh-so-sensitive cop standing next to my mother said to her, “yeah, he’ll probably only serve eight.” Thank you for your words of comfort.My complaint? Are you kidding me?
My point is even though I wanted to strangle these five kids, they didn’t kill my brother. They signed confessions to his killing and had the sister not turned in her brother for taking part in the actual killing, one of these teens might have seen death row. That’s not right and that’s how easy it was to convict somebody of murder in Illinois. Do you see my point? Death row is the worse place a prisoner can be kept. The further mistreatment is beyond contempt, especially when capital punishment is barbaric. And if these people are innocent, which some have been found to be, they’re suffering was expouned on.
Yeah, a part of me wanted someone to die, but that’s too good for some people. That’s wrong of me to think that, too.
Dont’ get me wrong, crime deserves punishment. The penal system is so screwed up as it is and I don’t have a clue how it could improve. I agree with smith from Virginia’s comments.
I’m sorry I threw in the dumbass comment--I was worked up and it was wrong--I shoud have cooled a bit before sending it. All the arguments on here make good points and it’s nice to see people do take the time to think about such issues besides the pResident.
Posted by neil on Jan 15, 2004 at 10:20 PM Tough problem, no easy solution. The guilty ones deserve the treatment but the innocent ones deserve to be let free. . .
All I know is, neil has a good personal anectdote about how innocent people can be convicted - Although I don’t think I could bring myself to be as forgiving of those teenagers for mutilating my brother’s body. If they’re that cruel, odds are they would do that to a living person at some point and are basically scumbags who deserve prison time in any event.
The problem is, alot of these people are basically human garbage. I say that with compassion and love, but try spending time in a jail cell with them. I have, and the sad fact is that soem people are just garbage.
Too bad we don’t know for sure when people are innocent. Summary executions for rapists and murderers would go a long way in that case.
Sidebar: Can anyone explain to me why a man can get 7 years in prison for raping a woman and get 15 years for selling marijuana? That right there is indicative of how far astray our justice system has gone from common sense.
Posted by Ed Mellon on Jan 23, 2004 at 5:27 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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