Federally Death-Sentenced Prisoners Allege that New Conditions of Confinement Contributed to Recent Prisoner Death

According to state­ments from sev­er­al fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers, the new ​“adverse con­di­tions” on death row in Terre Haute, Indiana, con­tributed to the December 1, 2023 death of Nasih Khalil Ra’id. Fellow pris­on­ers say Mr. Ra’id, whose giv­en name at birth was Odell Corley, died by sui­cide. Prison offi­cials have not released the report from Mr. Ra’id’s autop­sy or com­ment­ed on the cause of his death.

Two jour­nal­ists in touch with fed­er­al­ly death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers have report­ed on the cir­cum­stances of Mr. Ra’id’s death. One pris­on­er, Rejon Taylor, report­ed that Mr. Ra’id had become depressed after all fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers were moved to a dif­fer­ent part of the prison in October 2023. As a result of the move, the already harsh con­di­tions of death row became even more restric­tive. Windows in the new facil­i­ty were spray­paint­ed by prison offi­cials, accord­ing to Mr, Taylor, to pre­vent pris­on­ers from ​“look­ing out at the nat­ur­al world, the real out­doors.” Prisoners’ access to phones and email was reduced. Recreation time was ini­tial­ly elim­i­nat­ed but has now been restored, albeit at a low­er lev­el than before the move. That change was espe­cial­ly dif­fi­cult for Mr. Ra’id, accord­ing to Mr. Taylor. ​“He had been most con­sis­tent with his exer­cise rou­tine, no mat­ter how he felt. It had kept depres­sion at bay,” Mr. Taylor told Indiana Public Media. ​“When rec was even­tu­al­ly made avail­able to us, Nasih strug­gled to get back in rhythm … He’d fall­en prey to the adverse con­di­tions of our soli­tary con­fine­ment — a men­tal force stronger than any the body could withstand.” 

Death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Billie Allen told one jour­nal­ist that Mr. Ra’id asked him for help fil­ing a motion to be exe­cut­ed, but Mr. Allen refused. ​“I think every­one knew he was ready to die, because he said so on many occa­sions. He said that ​‘this isn’t liv­ing,’ and I agree.” A third pris­on­er, Edgar Garcia, said, ​“I know how it affects us and it is like strip­ping us of hope, pur­pose … We all deal with it in our own way, but Odell decid­ed he had enough of this.” Mr. Taylor report­ed that Mr. Ra’id had told him he was ​“weighed down with depres­sion, his thoughts orbit­ing around his suicide.” 

A law­suit filed in January 2023 alleges that the ​“severe­ly iso­lat­ing” and ​“unre­lent­ing soli­tary con­fine­ment” to which fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers are sub­ject­ed falls below the min­i­mum stan­dard pre­scribed by inter­na­tion­al human rights treaties for the treat­ment of pris­on­ers and vio­lates the U.S. con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­hi­bi­tion against cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The class action com­plaint on behalf of 38 fed­er­al­ly death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers seeks to end auto­mat­ic soli­tary con­fine­ment and require the fed­er­al Bureau of Prisons to allow pris­on­ers ​“to be out of their cells for mul­ti­ple hours a day and to engage in congregate activities.”