Detailed ritual on death row
2009-12-07 22:39
Lucasville - For US prisoners condemned to death, the final 24 hours before an execution is often marked by a detailed ritual.
At the so-called "death house" prison in Lucasville, Ohio some 400km from death row, prisoners wait 10 or sometimes 20 years before execution.
When the appeals process has been exhausted and requests for clemency denied, they come here, to wait in this building of narrow rooms, with yellowing walls and air permeated with the odour of urine and prison kitchen soup.
In the hours leading to his final breaths, the condemned waits in the cell, his every move recorded for archives as three prison guards who rotate in shifts watch over him.
Last-ditch appeals
Outside the prison, lawyers for the convict are often filing last-ditch appeals, and telephones fixed to prison's walls hold the mostly-unfulfilled promise of a way to convey news of a last-minute reprieve.
The prisoner's final 24 hours begin with a medical examination that will be followed by three more, during which medical personnel looks at the convict's veins, agreeing the best way to administer the lethal injection and fitting an intravenous entrance if the veins are too weak.
Next the convict must decide how to dispose of any possessions, and whether his relatives will receive his remains or he prefers the state of Ohio take responsibility for his funeral.
A last meal is requested, to be prepared in the prison kitchen and served 18 hours before the execution
"It has to be reasonable," says Julie Walburn, communications chief of the Ohio Department of rehabilitation and correction.
"We do not buy private meals in a restaurant, it has to be reasonably acquirable."
Relatives
On the afternoon of their final day, the convict can bring relatives into his cell for a few hours.
Throughout the night, they have telephone access to make calls and can receive visits from a spiritual advisor, Walburn said.
On the morning of the execution, the convict is offered breakfast, which they rarely choose to eat, then the chance to take a final shower behind a grimy shower curtain before dressing in the clothes that will be the last they ever wear.
For two final hours, the convict can meet relatives, two at a time, from behind a screen of reinforced glass.
At 09:45 a guard arrives to read the death warrant from the Ohio Supreme Court authorising the prison authorities to execute the man in the next 20 minutes.
Execution
The process begins with the insertion of two catheters into the convict's veins.
He then begins the walk to the execution chamber, some 17 steps along the hallway, where he is strapped to the execution bed, his arms secured either side of his body.
"Generally, inmates are very calm. They're going their own pace," says Walburn.
In his final few minutes the condemned is observed from two galleries, one holding his relatives, the other the family members of his victims.
The condemned says his final words and a warden signals almost imperceptibly that the moment has arrived.
In a darkened room attached to the execution chamber, the lethal chemicals are pushed from a syringe and begin to flow towards the convict's veins.