Have you ever wondered what the inside of Texas Death Row looks like? Here are some photos that were obtained by a Freedom of Information request by a lawyer. They are on the blog of Thomas Whitaker, who is on Texas death row. No death row inmate has access to the internet, so his blog is run by a friend of his.
These are the living conditions for everyone on death row, including Todd Willingham when he was on death row. Ernest Willis, an innocent person released from death row several months after Willingham was executed in 2004, also lived in one of the cells at the Polunsky Unit. Willis was on Texas death row for 17 years even though he was completely innocent. None of these photos are of Willingham’s or Willis’s cells but they lived in cells similar to the one pictured below in their last years on death row after everyone had been moved to the Polunsky Unit in 1999 from the previous death row unit.
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What an empty cell looks like, and the mattresses which are provided to us . This is basically what you get from the state after you arrive. If you have any money, you can purchase items from the commissary. I know many men who have lived for decades here in rooms nearly as empty as this. I have received some flak from people who were peeved off that I spent some of the money given to me on such men, as if this was some sort of betrayal of their intentions. I can appreciate someone wanting their gift to go where it was intended…but, come on, how could I not feel for such people? Look at the emptiness of this cell and tell me I don’t have an ethical obligation to try to help in some small way.
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- Texas Moratorium Network (TMN) is a non-profit organization with the primary goal of mobilizing statewide support for a moratorium on executions in Texas. Significant death penalty reform in Texas, including a moratorium on executions, is a viable goal if the public is educated on the death penalty system and is encouraged to contact their elected representatives to urge passage of moratorium legislation.
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