here's where he'll go if death sentence imposed
In Terre Haute, prison’s ‘death row’ talk of the town
If jurors choose death over life in prison for Christensen at the end of a sentencing phase that begins Monday in Peoria, he may spend a decade or more living in his own cell in the third-floor Special Confinement Unit at the Indiana federal prison before seeing the inside of the chamber — if he does at all.
For federal death row inmates, the appeal process “typically lasts at least a decade — and often significantly longer,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. “Six times as many prisoners who are sentenced to death have had their sentences overturned than have been executed.
“You’re much more likely to have your death sentence overturned than you are to be executed.
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like inmates in the general population, those on death row are housed in single-person cells, Beaver said. They do everything there — eat, shower, use the restroom. They don’t freely share space with anyone.
When a condemned inmate on death row is moved from his cell, he is fully secured in chains and escorted by two to three security guards, with another watching their every move through security cameras, Beaver said.
There’s a caged area where death-row inmates can go — one at a time, for fresh air and limited recreation, such as using a bar to do pull-ups. It’s a tiny area, Beaver said, with a view of the sky but nothing else.
For those on death row, “literally, it is choreographed all day long,” he said. “It’s the most restrictive measures. It’s very, very stringent and labor intensive. ... It is a cumbersome, very secure operation.”
Ben Zigterman @bzigterman
