What do you do? Assume the following: You have some time to yourself. You have paper, pen, sink, toilet, a few books of your choosing, maybe a radio or TV, and death in prison hanging over your head. You know that you are innocent; let’s say you were convicted on bad DNA evidence, though, so your chances are pretty poor. It’s your first day. What do you do?
Me, I’d start writing my story as fast as I could. I’d probably give up on any chance of being cleared way too fast - I wouldn’t stop my lawyer or anything, but I wouldn’t feel hope. I’d just want to get the truth out to the world.
I wonder if anyone would actually not fight it in order to become a death penalty martyr.
I would first take stock of the fact that everyone is on death row in their own way and I am in no way unique in that regard. If I start a big letter campaign, some of those people are likely to meet the executioner through tragic circumstances before I do. In some ways I would be delaying the inevitable if I can only keep myself in prison rather than being released.
I suppose it all boils down to if prison is too hellish If I find my prison life to be and what I have on the outside. I may want to clear my name if I have kids but 50 years in prison may not be a preferable way to go. The end will be the same. I could find some fame and noteriety if I made a good case to the media. I might even pick up a pen-pal bride.
I would fight for a while but after that, I would be so psycholicaly damaged that any return to a normal life might not be possible. It won’t be the first time and it won’t be the last. Everyone ends up with a life that is damaged in some way and it always end in death.
Considering how long people sit of Death’s row, I should have a long time.
If I am allowed Internet, I would be here of course and surfing all over.
If not, a good time to start working out again and taking up chess again.
I would probably start writing a lot of letters.
I guess it would be time to start racking up those corespondence courses and degrees.
I figure everyone dies eventually, with competent lawyers my date might be another decade or two off, and so now it’s time to live the best possible life given the circumstances, which, granted, are pretty shitty.
Also, plotting revenge on the DA wouldn’t be a bad way to pass the time.
It is just realistic. I lost a baby daughter earlier this year and although I always believed what I said before, it really drove it home.
Not only people on death row die. Every single person will die including you in realatively short order in the grand scheme of things.
Everyone just has to make the most of today and not assume that tomorrow will come because it may not. I was just worrying about that Boston journalist held hostage woman in the Middle East that was about to die when an aunt (age 45) died suddenly.
It sucks when there is a date and limitations attached but let’s not kid ourselves. There is nothing special about being on death row. You just fight to the best of your ability just like a million other circumstances that can present themselves.
I would fight to get out to the best of my ability. At some point I may just get tired of fighting and make the best of life in prison. You just do what you can and die when it is time. That holds true for everyone.
Try to work on my appeal—if not for my sake then to make sure they get the guy who did commit the crime. (I’d want to focus on clearing myself rather than just undermining the death penalty.)
Failing that, suicide. I’d rather not linger in prison for twenty years until they finally decide to execute me in the wimpiest method possible. I have a little more dignity than that—I’ll go with hanging myself with my underwear elastic or gnawing my wrists open, thank you very much.
You’ve never heard of poor lab procedure and then the loss of the evidence? Maybe you were just plain framed. But DNA is nowhere near as infalliable as people seem to want to believe, thanks to human error.
I’d write letters to my daughters to let them know the kind of person I am (they’re very young) and give them guidance to help them through their lives.
I’d call in any favors I’ve banked in my life for funds to launch an appeal (if still available) or a search for new evidence that may justify a new trial.
I’d probably do whatever was necessary to get included in any groups that would offer me some sort of protection inside.
IANADI but I seriously doubt the internet is allowed. I also doubt weights and chess partners are allowed. Good thing you’re too nice of a guy to wind up on death row. It would probably kill ya Jim.
I’d hang myself with whatever is handy. Might as well get it over with. And even if I was proven innocent, my life would be so fucked up afterwards that it probably wouldn’t be worth living.