Roy Lee Pippin, who is scheduled to be executed next week, complains that life on Texas' death row is "a living hell." He has been lingering on death row for 12 years under what he considers horrendous conditions. His complaints have been taken up by Amnesty Internatioal, the London based human rights group.
In a letter to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Amnesty International accuses Texas of violating international human rights agreements by the way the State operates its death row unit. The group listed the following violations: The condemned are isolated in small cells 23 hours a day; they are not allowed to watch television; they have no work program; and they are not allowed to participate in group recreation and religious services. Amnesty International claimed that such "inherently inhumane" treatment can cause severe physical and mental harm.
Pardon me, while I get out my hanky and wipe away my tears. Heaven forbid that we should be so cruel to cold blooded killers. Have these bleeding hearts considered that the victims of death row inmates are isolated six feet underground in cramped coffins 24 hours a day and kept from working, watching television, or recreating? Is Amnesty International suggesting we turn death row into Club Med? That group disregards the fact that those on death row are not there for singing off-key in a church choir. Pippin, for instance, is there for killing two men who were believed to have stolen $1.6 million from his Columbian drug cartel bosses.
Amnesty International should concentrate on ensuring that prisoners of war are treated humanely. If they are concerned about the treatment of incarcerated criminals, they should spend their efforts at improving the conditions under which inmates serve time in many Latin American, Asian and African prisons. The living conditions in those prisons are far worse than those on Texas' death row. Of course, all this has really more to do with Amnesty International's vehement opposition to the death penalty than with its complaints about death row. So, Amnesty International, butt out of Texas!
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