In the 12 years since Illinois reinstated the death penalty, it has executed 12 people and released 12 innocent people. The death penalty is used on the mentally ill and the mentally retarded. Clinton presided over the Arkansas execution of a man so retarded that he was saving his dessert, a piece of chocolate cake, for after his execution. The death penalty is torture. In Texas, death row is being moved to a maximum security, sensory deprivation unit where the men will have virtually no human contact.
Cells have no bars, only solid steel doors.
They eat in their cell and go to recreation alone in a small fenced area much like a dog run. They cannot talk to other prisoners. There is no TV and few are allowed radios. The isolation will drive men to give up appeals and to commit suicide. Call to protest this move.