“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. We want pleasure love and satisfaction. It. The walls of darkness crushed in on me. Life without meaning is life without purpose. But the solace within the Polunsky dungeon, the unforgivesness within society, the church Pastors and Christians. It is terrifying. Does anyone care or who I am. Can you feel me people. The Polunsky dungeon is what I call the pit of hopelessness. The terrfying thing is the US 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. Christ rose again, in Jesus name. Bye Aunt Helen, Luise, Joanna and to all the rest of yall. You may proceed Warden.”

– Johnny Johnson, convicted of sexual assault and murder, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas. Executed February 12, 2009.

After smoking the crack cocaine Johnson offered her in exchange for sex, Leah Joette Smith refused to have intercourse. Johnson became angry, banging Smith’s head against a concrete curb, and raped her. He also stomped on her head several times before leaving the scene, returning once to retrieve his wallet. Smith died from injuries. Johnson also confessed to raping 13 other women in the Houston and Austin areas.

“Is the mic on? My only statement is that no cases have ever tried have been error free. Those are my words. No cases are error free. You may proceed Warden.”

– Dale Devon Scheanette, convicted of rape and murder, lethal injection, Texas. Executed February 10, 2009.

Scheanette sexually assaulted, strangled, and drowned Christine Vu in the September of 1996. Two months later, the body of Wendie Prescott, who lived in the same apartment complex as Vu, was also found in similar condition. The murders remained unsolved for nearly four years until fingerprints and DNA samples were resubmitted to the FBI, leading the authorities to Scheanette, who had been serving a 12-month sentence for “criminal mischief.” Dubbed the “Bathtub Killer,” Scheanette was later connected to the sexual assaults of four other women in the area. While not tried for Vu’s death, Scheanette was convicted of Prescott’s murder.

“The state says killing is wrong, so why do they do it? For revenge. Where is the closure? There is none. The death penalty is an act of revenge. Many men sit on death row, some innocent, some not. So what happens when a man is executed and it’s later learned he was, in fact, innocent? He can’t be brought back.”

– Martin Link, convicted of kidnapping, rape, and murder, lethal injection, Missouri. Executed February 9, 2011.

Link kidnapped eleven-year-old Elissa Self while she waited for the bus that would take her to school. He was connected to her death after police pulled him over for a broken headlight. A jar of petroleum jelly with his fingerprints and flecks of blood, later determined to be Elissa’s, was found in his vehicle.