Most residents voiced fatigue at having to wait for a resolution, but Jim Jenkins, former sheriff and former mayor, said the town is just a small part of a much larger argument that needs to be contemplated. We're putting someone to death here. We are the leader of the free world. Yet, the resumption of federal executions will now inevitably define this town in the Wabash Valley, home to the world's largest polyethylene plant and a Sony factory that presses a million compact discs a day The U.S. Penitentiary employs 500 people and confines more than 1,720 inmates, a small number when compared with Terre Haute's population of 60,000. The town's population has decreased for the past three decades.
Many teenagers spend their time dreaming about Chicago or Bloomington.
And now we are on the map for one more reason. For at least a month, however, death has been forestalled. After today's announcement, a man drove his pickup down State Road 63, where the prison is located, and shouted to news crews.