On June 19, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights held hear­ings on soli­tary con­fine­ment in U.S. pris­ons, includ­ing the con­di­tions of many state death rows. The hear­ings marked the first time law­mak­ers on Capitol Hill have con­sid­ered this issue. Anthony Graves (pic­tured r., along with Sen. Richard Durbin), a for­mer Texas death row inmate, described the con­di­tions of his incar­cer­a­tion in a 8 by 12 foot cage with no phys­i­cal human con­tact for years. Meals were passed through a slot, as if feed­ing an ani­mal. Graves equat­ed his time on Texas’s death row with soli­tary con­fine­ment and described it as ​“phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, and psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ture.” He added, ​“I saw guys who dropped their appeals because of the intol­er­a­ble con­di­tions. Before his exe­cu­tion, one inmate told me he would rather die than con­tin­ue exist­ing under these inhu­mane con­di­tions. I saw guys come to prison sane, and leave this world insane, talk­ing non­sense on the exe­cu­tion gur­ney. One guy suf­fered some of his last days smear­ing feces, lying naked in the recre­ation yard, and uri­nat­ing on him­self.” In 2010, Graves was com­plete­ly exon­er­at­ed and released from death row because of new evi­dence of his inno­cence. Senator Richard Durbin (D‑Ill.) said, ​“We can have a just soci­ety, and we can be humane in the process. We can pun­ish wrong­do­ers, and they should be pun­ished under our sys­tem of jus­tice, but we don’t have to cross that line.”

(See E. Goode, ​“Senators Start a Review of Solitary Confinement,” New York Times, June 19, 2012). Read the full text of Anthony Graves’s tes­ti­mo­ny from the ACLU’s Blog (June 20, 2012) below (pic­ture cred­it: ACLU blog). See also Death Row. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on death row. Watch a report and inter­view with Anthony Graves from Democracy Now!.

An Innocent Man’s Tortured Days on Texas’s Death Row

By Anthony Graves, who spent years in soli­tary con­fine­ment on Texas’ death row before being proven inno­cent in 2010. Yesterday he tes­ti­fied about the expe­ri­ence at a Senate sub­com­mit­tee hear­ing on soli­tary con­fine­ment. His website is  www​.antho​ny​be​lieves​.com .

On November 1, 1994, I heard the gav­el fall and the judge announce, ​“Anthony Graves, I here­by sen­tence you to death by lethal injec­tion.” The jury had already con­vict­ed me of mur­der­ing six peo­ple and burn­ing down their house down to cov­er up the crime. I was com­plete­ly inno­cent: they had the wrong guy. I was scared of dying for a crime I did not com­mit, but I believed in my inno­cence and hoped some­one, some­where would make it right.

What I didn’t know then was that this wrong­ful death sen­tence was only part of the tor­ture I would expe­ri­ence for the next 18-and-a-half years. I didn’t know that I would be forced to live in an 8x12 cage. I didn’t know I would have to use a steel toi­let, con­nect­ed to my steel sink, in plain view of the male and female cor­rec­tions offi­cers would walk the runs in front of my cell. I didn’t know that for years on end I would have no phys­i­cal con­tact with a sin­gle human being.

I didn’t know that guards would feed me like a dog, through a slot in my door. Instead of pro­vid­ing basic nutri­ents, the food some­times con­tained rat feces, bro­ken glass, or the sweat of the inmate who cooked it. This diet caused me health prob­lems that con­tin­ue today. The prison gave me no phone to call my loved ones, no tele­vi­sion to keep up with the world and local events, and no real med­ical care. I lived behind a steel door, with filthy mesh-cov­ered win­dows look­ing out to the run; my only win­dow to the out­side world was a tiny one on the top of the back wall of my cell. With its peel­ing, old, and dull paint, my cage was the image of an aban­doned one-room project apart­ment. If I had known when I was sen­tenced all I would have to go through before I would win my free­dom, I don’t know if even my faith in my own inno­cence would have been enough to sustain me.

I was proven inno­cent in 2010, and became death row exonoree num­ber 138. Some peo­ple say that my exon­er­a­tion, and those of 11 oth­er Texas death row inmates, proves that our sys­tem works: the sys­tem freed me before I was exe­cut­ed. These peo­ple don’t under­stand (among oth­er things) that a death sen­tence for an inno­cent per­son in Texas comes with the phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, and psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ture of soli­tary con­fine­ment. If the argu­ment is the State can hold death-row inmates until their appeals fin­ish (and they are exon­er­at­ed like me or their appeals fail and exe­cu­tion can go for­ward), shouldn’t the State at least keep us phys­i­cal­ly and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly healthy for that time peri­od? Shouldn’t they keep us whole? Because Texas did not do that for me, I suf­fer from ongo­ing prob­lems – body and mind. I’m inno­cent and I’m free, but I pay for my free­dom with mood swings, emo­tion­al break­downs, veins cal­ci­fied with plaque, sleep­less nights, lone­li­ness, and dif­fi­cul­ty being in large crowds. And it was even worse for other guys. 

I saw guys who dropped their appeals because of the intol­er­a­ble con­di­tions. Before his exe­cu­tion, one inmate told me he would rather die than con­tin­ue exist­ing under these inhu­mane con­di­tions. I saw guys come to prison sane, and leave this world insane, talk­ing non­sense on the exe­cu­tion gur­ney. One guy suf­fered some of his last days smear­ing feces, lying naked in the recre­ation yard, and uri­nat­ing on himself.

Some of us on death row were inno­cent. Some were unlaw­ful­ly sen­tenced to death and had their sen­tences thrown out. We all suf­fered the same. If you believe in the death penal­ty, I hope you would at least agree that some of us – the inno­cent ones and ones unlaw­ful­ly sen­tenced to die – did not deserve this tor­ture. Even if you believe in the death penal­ty, these tor­tur­ous con­di­tions make no sense. They dam­aged guys so much they could not repent for their crimes. Guys could not focus on the wrong they had done when they had a legit­i­mate com­plaint of being tor­tured on death row by the State of Texas.

And the tor­ture was unnec­es­sary. We all suf­fered it because since 2000 all Texas death row inmates are incar­cer­at­ed in soli­tary con­fine­ment, even if they behave. It is the only part of the Texas prison sys­tem where an inmate is forced to live in soli­tary con­fine­ment based com­plete­ly on his sen­tence, rather than based on whether he can get along in less strict conditions.

Texas’s death row is need­less­ly cru­el and inhu­mane. Before the sen­tence of exe­cu­tion can be car­ried out, the row kills men’s souls and bod­ies lit­tle by lit­tle. Whether an inmate is guilty or inno­cent like I was, it’s just not right.

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