Changing the Protocol
E-Mail  by Richard Rossi  Bio/Address 

    In the gruesome business of executing people, there are specific rules that are followed step by step according to an official Execution Protocol. The policy is restricted and secret. Prisoners cannot know how they are going to be executed. Nothing is to be added or deleted from the official protocol. At least that is the way it is supposed to be. There are certain procedures that go into effect almost immediately after the condemned person receives his execution warrant. The warrants are usually dated 35 days before the event. The first thing that occurs is that you receive a copy of the execution warrant from the warden or his designee. Then you are given various other forms to fill out. These include: Last Meal Request; Execution Witness list; Application to the Board of Executive Clemency; Method of Execution; Disposal of Property; Disposal of Remains; Last Will & Testament.
    When the condemned person reaches 14 days before the execution date he or she is moved to a death watch cell for observation. Practically no property is allowed while you are on death watch. When we were at CB6 (before the move to Eyman in 1997) an officer was posted outside your cell for 24 hours a day. Your every move is recorded on a clip board. The object of this is to prevent you from committing suicide and thus cheating the state out of its ritual of execution. When your time runs down to 48 hours before the event, you are moved to the holding cell of the death house at the Central Unit.
    In September 1997 all of death row was moved from CB6 to the Special Management Unit II at Eyman Complex. The protocol remained the same. At the 14 day point, you were still transported back to CB6 to the observation cell. This procedure continued until last month.
    One morning we were awakened by the sound of inmates being moved. All 10 prisoners in pod number 2 were being moved. Before you knew it, all 10 were gone and the pod was completely empty. A few mornings later heavy construction was going on. Sparks were flying, drills were whining and hammers were banging. This racket went on for days. No one could figure out what was happening. Curiosity can drive you mad around here. One can compare this situation to that of animals in a zoo. The animals are always very anxious about any changes in their cages and surrounding environment. Especially when it is not possible to see what is occurring. It was not until 14 days before a scheduled execution that we figured out what was taking place. They moved the condemned man into the empty pod number 2, which was now going to be used as the death watch cell instead of transporting the prisoner back to CB6. Video cameras had been installed - one outside the cells and another in the exercise room. A TV monitor and VCR were installed in the guard tower. Now every move could be observed and simultaneously recorded on video tape. Twenty four hours a day.
    When you are in the observation cell you have no property. Each morning you are given an orange jump suit and your bed linens are collected. Your cell is searched and you begin your. day. In the evening, you surrender your jump suit and you are given new bed linens. All this is done so that you do not hang yourself. You are allowed one sheet of paper to write on and a 3 inch pencil.. To get another sheet of paper you must surrender the sheet of paper you have. This is bizarre. I know of no method of committing suicide with a piece of paper. It is futile to try to make sense out of these rituals. Needless to say it is difficult to write farewell letters under such circumstances.
    It was curious to watch the officers turn into predators as they participated in these activities. It started when construction work was under way to transform pod number 2 into the observation pod. The officers were running around like busy bees tending the hive. They were so happy to be able to contribute toward the preparations to kill another human being. They were humming and singing. Actually falling over themselves in the process. I asked one of the officers how they could afford to leave 10 cells empty with the remaining 110 cells filled to capacity and at least four new men on their way to the row from recent death sentences. He smiled at me and in a boastful manner said that there was no problem, "that a new day had dawned because they were going to be dispatching a whole lot of us old timers to the death house shortly." I see all of this as a sickness. There is such perverse pleasure derived on the part of these officers in the anticipation of executing us. Nothing will ever change in their eyes. We will forever be considered scum by our keepers. Life on the row is difficult and depressing enough without being confronted by the undercurrent of such hostility. The ritual itself takes its toll on you. It is designed to be a constant reminder that the state does not forget and it will have all of the suffering and pain it can get out of us before killing us.
    It appears as if the Eighth Amendment against "cruel and unusual" punishment does not apply anymore. When a person is allowed to suffer two sentences for a crime, one must wonder. Most murderers who do not get the death penalty are given sentences of 25 years to life. Usually after the 25 years in prison the gates are opened and they go free. Whereas a death row inmate's sentence can be delayed for 20 to 25 years whereupon execution still follows. No consideration is given to the additional life sentence that may have been served. Instead of taking this additional punishment into consideration at an executive clemency hearing, the state and the victim's family cry foul, arguing that it is the prisoner who is responsible for any delay after manipulating and cheating the public in order to stay alive. In reality it is the public's own state courts that cause these long delays in the process of trying to undo their faulty rulings and unjust sentences.
    This is not to say that the victims are not entitled to procure punishment of an offender for a murder, but to mete out double punishment must be considered "cruel and unusual". What legitimate penalogical purpose is served by executing an individual after he or she has already served a life sentence? Where is the written rule of law permitting such suffering? When a person serves a life sentence in general population the life style is completely different. You have many liberties and privileges. You can have a structured life, being out of your cell for most of the time. You can walk around, have contact visits. You have more personal property. You can have a job. All of these are not allowed for death row. We are in solitary confinement. Locked in our cages for 23 1/2 hours a day. This is the hardest time to do. It is long and cruel. A life sentence served on death row equals 2 - 3 life sentences in general population.
    Although delaying executions for decades is not written in the law, nor considered by the clemency board or the public as being a legitimate mitigating factor at the clemency hearing prior to execution, the suffering involved cannot be denied. It certainly is part of an unwritten execution protocol that imposes as much pain, suffering and revenge as possible on the condemned prisoner. Regardless of the fact that the judge never imposed this additional punishment, we are certainly made to endure it. I guess the proverbial "pound of flesh" is no longer sufficient payment for one's atonement. All we have left to give is our life. What more can we give? What more do they want? 
    The protocol needs to be changed and the madness must stop.

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