Rethinking classification, programming, and housing for death row inmates.

2018 ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
Jeanne Woodford
Keyword(s):  
Death Row ◽  
Death Row Inmates

Predicting Institutional Violence among Death Row Inmates: The Utility of the Sorensen and Pilgrim Model

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline K. Buffington-Vollum ◽  
John F. Edens ◽  
Andrea Keilen
Keyword(s):  
Death Row ◽  
Institutional Violence ◽  
Death Row Inmates

Intelligent and Civilized Sentiments

Lethal State ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 111-152
Author(s):  
Seth Kotch
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
State Law ◽  
Death Row ◽  
Death Sentences ◽  
Death Row Inmates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Tangible Result

This chapter tells the history of some of the elements that contributed to the declining use of the death penalty in North Carolina. Journalist Nell Battle Lewis railed against the practice as racist, un-Christian, and barbaric. Paul Green echoed those sentiments as he campaigned to save death row inmates from death. Yet their activism had little tangible result. More significant was a change in state law that allowed juries to formally recommend mercy following a conviction, meaning that judges were no longer required to deliver mandatory death sentences. The end of the mandatory death sentences ended executions, which ceased in 1961 and would not resume until 1984.

scholarly journals Race, Ethnicity, and the Functional Use of Religion When Faced with Imminent Death

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 500
Author(s):  
Ryan A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Religious Coping ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Death Row ◽  
Spiritual Intimacy ◽  
Death Row Inmates ◽  
Murder Victims ◽  
Death Experience ◽  
Imminent Death ◽  
The Moment

This article uses religious coping theory to theorize about how and why race and ethnic groups on death row frame religious last statements at the moment of imminent death. Unique data (N = 269) drawn from death row inmates in Texas between December 1982 and April 2016 reveal uniformity in the dominance that black, white, and Hispanic inmates assign to relational forms of expressions that draw them closer to God and expressions that facilitate spiritual intimacy with others, over self-focused expressions that represent efforts to gain control over the imminent death experience or signal a transformed life. There is a hierarchy of preferred religious coping methods that changes for each group following the implementation of a new policy allowing the family and friends of murder victims (co-victims) to witness the execution of inmates. It is concluded that race and ethnic groups differ in the premium they place on preferred religious coping strategies when faced with imminent death, and a change in social context, such as the sudden presence of co-victims at executions, increases the religious content of last statements for all groups.

Decades in Death’s Twilight

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-163
Author(s):  
Emily Gray
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Solitary Confinement ◽  
Death Sentence ◽  
Death Row ◽  
Entire Duration ◽  
Eighth Amendment ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Death Row Inmates ◽  
History Of

The average amount of time that death row inmates spend on death row has ballooned over the past decade, and for death row inmates in the state of Texas, the entire duration of that increased time will be spent in solitary confinement. This raises the following question: Is solitary confinement now considered to be part of the punishment, one that may be worse than the death penalty itself? This article discusses the history of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and cites scientific literature which posits that long-term solitary confinement can cause serious psychological damage. It examines “death row syndrome,” a term that refers to the psychological illness or disorder exhibited by an inmate who has spent a prolonged period of time in harsh conditions on death row. The article reviews the Polunsky Unit, which currently houses Texas’s death row and has been described as one of the worst prisons in the United States. The article also discusses the long history of Lackey claims, which allege that prolonged confinements under a death sentence breach the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The unresolved dissent within the Supreme Court regarding this subject is presented and discussed. This article contends that the prolonged solitary confinement of a Texas inmate on death row is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, and concludes that the only solution is to end the practice of automatic and permanent solitary confinement.

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