This week in 2009

“The Polunsky dungeon should be compared with the death row community as existing, not living. Why do I say this? The death row is full of isolated hearts and suppressed minds. We are filled with love looking for affection and a way to understand. I am a death row resident of the Polunsky dungeon. Why does my heart ache?…The Polunsky dungeon is what I call the Pit of Hopelessness. The terrifying thing is the U.S. is the only place, country that is the only civilized country that is free that says it will stop murder and enable justice. I ask each of you to lift up your voices to demand an end to the death penalty. If we live, we live to the Lord. If we die we die to the Lord….”

— Johnny Johnson, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed February 12, 2009

The Polunsky Unit—which Johnson referred to as “the Polunsky dungeon”—is the home of death row inmates in Livingston, Texas. Johnson was sent there for killing Leah Joette Smith, forty-one, though court documents said he was tied to at least “five rape-slayings” in Texas. According to prison records, after Johnson finished his final words he began singing.