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Since childhood, Montgomery has been subjected to ceaseless sexual violence, abuse, and torture, which has had extreme psychological impacts together with complicated PTSD, routine dissociation from actuality, and a extreme discomfort with being alone with males below any circumstances. As Prism reported, her traumatic background is one shared by most of the girls who in the end find yourself sentenced to dying within the U.S. Similarly, each her solitary confinement and the dearth of private privateness are additionally illustrative of the methods girls on dying row are handled throughout the nation, the place girls endure harsh situations for many years earlier than lastly being executed. According to attorneys representing Lisa, this remedy can also be not doled out persistently, underscoring how gender bias emerges at each stage of capital sentencing. At FMC-Carswell, the place male dying row prisoners are additionally detained, the go well with alleges that “defendants have not forced condemned men to experience anything like Mrs. Montgomery’s current conditions of confinement.”
The fixed solitude, omnipresent surveillance, lack of private privateness, and stripping away of all significant belongings have triggered the non-public traumas that she has confronted all through her life, thus amounting to torture. In that have, she’s not alone.
‘The surer you are, the slower you move’
For most, a capital sentence quantities to 2 types of torture: not solely the execution itself, but additionally the years-long incarceration main as much as it. In the previous 40 years, individuals sentenced to capital punishment have seen the size of time spent on dying row—that’s, the time interval between their sentencing and their execution or exoneration—develop into more and more extended. In reality, the typical period of time spent on dying row is about 20 years.
Prior to the reinstatement of the dying penalty in 1976, time spent on dying row was far shorter, amounting to some years or simply weeks. Lengthy intervals on dying row solely turned a fixture of capital punishment within the wake of reforms ushered in after the reinstatement of capital punishment. These reforms sought to increase the appellate evaluate course of with a view to enable extra time for protection groups to enchantment capital sentences. In a 2001 interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers commented on the size of the dying penalty course of, saying that “overwhelmingly, people say it [the death penalty] should exist for certain heinous crimes. At the same time, people are just as adamant that every avenue should be exhausted to make sure there is no chance they are not guilty. The surer you are, the slower you move.”
While prolonged stays on dying row could create house and time to collect proof that might doubtlessly exonerate condemned defendants, in addition they create what has come to be referred to as “death row syndrome,” or the adversarial psychological impacts of extended time spent on dying row. The deterioration of psychological well being whereas on dying row stems partially from the stress of continually anticipating one’s personal dying whereas managing the looming uncertainty of the precise date execution will happen. The use of solitary confinement in extraordinarily small cells can also be a major stressor, with many on dying row dwelling in cells no bigger than a parking house. Multiple research have discovered solitary confinement to trigger suicidal ideations, hallucinations and delusions, psychosis, and different psychological well being issues—even amongst people who find themselves non-capitally sentenced and are subjected to solitude for comparatively shorter quantities of time.
While latest lawsuits and laws in states like Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana have challenged the usage of solitary confinement on dying row, it’s nonetheless extensively practiced. In reality, dying row exists as a separate sphere inside prisons as a result of in most states, individuals condemned to capital punishment are refrained from the final inhabitants. The comparatively small variety of girls who’re capitally sentenced nationwide signifies that some states could solely have one lady confined to dying row at a time, leading to them being saved in solitude by default. Solitary confinement can imply being subjected to life in a single cell for as much as 24 hours per day. In states the place feminine dying row populations are bigger, similar to Texas and California, girls on dying row could also be housed collectively, however many are nonetheless denied contact visits with family members.
Dr. Mary Atwell, professor emeritus of felony justice at Radford University, says {that a} notably surprising instance of the diploma of solitude that individuals on dying row are positioned in was the case of Teresa Lewis, who was executed by the state of Virginia in 2010.
Her chaplain, who came visiting her, needed to come and meet along with her by sitting exterior her cell and attempting to speak to her by a crack within the floor-to-ceiling door, Atwell defined. Those conferences have been nearly the one affiliation Lewis had with one other individual whereas she was on dying row.
Atwell says the widespread use of solitary confinement for individuals on dying row is a comparatively latest phenomenon rising within the Nineties in tandem with different tough-on-crime insurance policies which have formed a lot of how the carceral system presently operates. Before the ‘90s, girls on dying row have been usually allowed to spend time with each other and had entry to non secular applications, substance abuse remedy, recreation, and visitation, which some discovered to be therapeutic experiences.
For girls, dying row brings added horrors
While all individuals on dying row face the distinctive tortures of extended sentences and solitary confinement, girls who’re capitally sentenced are additionally topic to the horrors of rampant sexual abuse and violence.
According to a 2004 ACLU report, one in 5 girls on dying row who have been surveyed reported being assaulted or harassed whereas in jail, and a 3rd stated that corrections officers noticed them whereas showering, utilizing the bathroom, and getting dressed. Women’s experiences of sexual violence on dying row mirror these of incarcerated girls who should not capitally sentenced. As Ms. Magazine reporter Chandra Bozelko wrote final summer season, “the problem of prison rape, mainly for women, is epidemic and we’re doing very little about it.” While girls comprise lower than 10% of the U.S. incarcerated inhabitants, they account for 75% of all reported assaults—a proportion that’s doubtless even greater given the dangers of retaliation for individuals who do report.
The lack of privateness afforded to those girls can usually exacerbate the previous trauma that an amazing variety of these girls have skilled—trauma that’s usually linked to the crimes for which they have been sentenced to dying.
The outsize impression of gendered violence is a standard thread within the lives of incarcerated girls not solely on dying row, however inside the jail system at massive. In addition, girls’s traumatic experiences on dying row—and the more and more lengthy quantities of time spent topic to what could also be a uniquely torturous form of incarceration—mark one space the place the motion to reform or abolish the dying penalty intersects the motion for jail abolition. The situations confronted by girls awaiting execution reveal how these two programs and the push to abolish them are inseparable from each other, and why they belong in the identical dialogue.
This story is a part of Prism’s collection on girls and the dying penalty within the United States. Click right here to learn half one on Lisa Montgomery and the widespread historical past of gendered abuse many ladies on dying row share, right here to learn half two on how girls might be condemned partially for defying gender stereotypes, and right here to learn half three on the distinctive burdens Black girls face in capital circumstances. In subsequent week’s installment, we’ll stay up for the long run and look at how abolitionists are working towards a world with out capital punishment.
Tamar Sarai Davis is Prism’s felony justice employees reporter. Follow her on Twitter @bytamarsarai.
Prism is a BIPOC-led nonprofit information outlet that facilities the individuals, locations and points presently underreported by our nationwide media. Through our authentic reporting, evaluation, and commentary, we problem dominant, poisonous narratives perpetuated by the mainstream press and work to construct a full and correct document of what’s taking place in our democracy. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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