If the executions are carried out, it will set a new record for the number of deaths by lethal injection in a single year. A small Texas Baptist group recently toured the Huntsville Unit better known as the Walls Unit for its 30-foot brick exterior and visited with some of those who discharge their duties inside the Death House. The Baptists are members of a committee formed in response to a motion at the 1999 Baptist General Convention of Texas asking the convention to explore the issue of capital punishment. Jim Young, coordinator of restorative justice ministries with the BGCT and former chaplain with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, arranged for the tour so that committee members would have a clear sense of how the death penalty is carried out. Years ago, Texas housed Death Row inmates at the Walls Unit.
Females awaiting the death penalty are at a separate facility.
None of us involved in this enjoy the job we have to do, Willett said. We just try our best to do it professionally. We want to conduct it with all the dignity that is within us, and treat everyone involved with dignity. The process begins when a prison van transports the condemned prisoner to the Walls Unit, backing up through a series of gates and a long alley to the Death House door at about 1 p.m. He is immediately placed inside one of the eight holding cells within the small, brick building.