Become a volunteer in the US

Driving through the luscious plantations on the way up the driveway of the Louisiana State Penitentiary almost feels like entering a nice hotel complex – that is, if you can ignore the depressing concrete buildings lined with thick layers of barbed wire and the inmates working in the fields. 

Predominantly black inmates are guarded by predominantly white officers on horses brandishing shot guns, a scene horribly reminiscent of what one would have found in this spot two hundred years ago, when Angolan slaves worked the sugar cane plants. This is no coincidence – the racial divide in ‘Angola’ prison is one of the legacies of slavery.

The economically-deprived section of Louisiana society consists largely of African-Americans and Hispanics. These are the people who cannot afford to choose their own defence attorneys and are thus allocated public defenders by the state. Unfortunately, these lawyers have scant resources and lack the competence to handle complex murder cases. To exacerbate matters, African-Americans are often prosecuted by all-white juries in parishes known for racist attitudes and strict law-and-order mentalities.

Having driven across acres of prison land, I reached my destination. The words ‘Death Row’ are surrounded by an elaborate flower arrangement. It seems there is one thing the Angola administration is good at: obscuring the brutality of the situation with clever sanitization methods – sugar-coated killing. In the days of the electric chair in Louisiana, witnesses to the death would be seated behind a screen so that they would not smell the burning flesh and the ‘patients’ were firmly strapped in so as to hide their convulsing limbs. The lethal injection, arguably a more ‘palatable’ method of killing, can be enormously painful; one of the drugs administered paralyzes the victim so that the process of death looks peaceful.

I must admit I was nervous before my first ‘client welfare’ meeting with a death row inmate, waiting in the small cubicle for the shackled man to be escorted in by a guard. But when the client sat down in front of me it became clear that he was far from the monstrous being one might imagine. In fact, after an hour or two of talking it was almost like chatting with an old friend; he was sensitive and open about what went so wrong in his past and his plans for the future. This was heartbreaking since the possibility of getting him off death row, let alone out of prison, is small. However, it was also very inspiring – he was strong-spirited and his faith was unshakable. In fact, this was a prevailing characteristic in all three of the men I met that day. Conversation flowed and time passed quickly, but occasionally I would remember where I was and what I was really doing there and it would bring me up short. The grim truth that these men were sitting here waiting to be murdered by their own government was the awful backdrop to all their vitality.

It is possible that all of the men I met are guilty of first-degree murder. Certainly, all the crimes of which they are accused are heinous and caused terrible suffering. But is reciprocal justice really a solution? Surely subjecting a person to twenty-three hours a day in isolation and anticipation of their own death, in the confines of a six-by-nine-foot cell, for an average of thirteen years, does not redeem matters? The fact that that person may only have found themselves in this situation because they could not afford to escape it only makes it more painful to see. The argument for abandoning this arbitrary, discriminatory and inhumane system gains immeasurable strength when you are confronted by the forgotten human being at the receiving end.

If you would like to help prisoners on death row or learn more about the death penalty in the US, apply to become a volunteer in the US or in our London office or attend the Reprieve/Amicus Death Penalty Defence Training.

The training is held over two weekends twice a year will explain the complexities and procedures of death penalty cases in the USA, as well as provide an opportunity to learn how to interview clients, jurors and hostile witnesses. This is done through a combination of presentations and interactive workshops. It is led by leading practitioners and academics. The next training will take place over the first and last weekends of October.

The event is an invaluable way to find out more about volunteering in the USA and how you can help criminal defence teams in the USA  to save lives.  For more information and to book a place please go to the Amicus website: http://www.amicus-alj.org/events.html.