The Pros And Cons Of Death Row Syndrome

Imagine yourself in a poorly lit, four-by-four concrete block. No window to look out and gaze upon life outside of the place where you have been sentenced to die. The only objects in your possession are a small television set, a needle thin mattress, and a pillow that is next to useless. But you feel grateful; because not everyone gets a mattress or pillow in their cell. You’re considered one of the lucky ones. However, three days a week you can step outside into your own cage connected to the back of your cell. With all of that in mind, finding a purpose for your life is exceptionally hard to find in prison alone, but in solitary confinement? Whether your sentence gets overturned or not, you will have to live with the death row phenomenon

After knowledge of this so-called phenomenon, there has been an uproar about death row inmates awaiting time for their executions. Despite the topic of the death penalty itself, which is already a heated topic, the death row phenomenon doesn’t help the argument whatsoever. Neither death row syndrome or death row phenomenon is recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. This term became about from ex-death row inmates who have continued to live a life of pure

In 1986, Warren Hill was sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend, and then was sentenced to death for a deadly prison beating of a fellow inmate in 1990. What is special about Hill’s case is that he has seen the death chamber four separate times. Although it is not uncommon for an inmate to have numerous execution dates, all of Warren’s reprieves were last minute, during his last hour of being alive. One in which he was already strapped to the gurney and heavily sedated. Brian Evans, head of Amnesty International USA’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, states that mock executions are a form of torture under international law. Just imagine being strapped to a gurney, knowing that your life has come to an end. You think of all the good and bad things that have happened in your lifetime, in which you have finally accepted death, only to have that stripped away from