Texas remains one of the states where support for the death penalty is highest. In the city of Huntsville, life revolves around the prison called the Walls Unit, the oldest state prison. Inside the building is the execution chamber, the most active in the United States: in fact, 583 prisoners were executed from 1982 to March of this year. In Prison City, as the town of cottages is called, every second family has at least one person who works for the prison system.
“The procedure” by Luigi Montebello, created for “Il Fattore Umano”, broadcast on Monday September 11th at 11:15 p.m. on Rai 3, in collaboration with Tommaso Javidi and Irene Sicurella, tells the story of the death penalty from the perspective of former prisoners Prison wardens, prison guards like Jim Willet and Buster McWhorter, who took part in 89 and 197 executions respectively, and lawyers and journalists whose work requires them to witness executions and are forever scarred by them.
The practice of the death penalty always triggers outrage and questions. An anesthesiologist and professor of medical ethics has shown that the death caused by this practice is not “sweet” at all. Many pharmaceutical companies have chosen not to supply lethal injection products, which has resulted in convicts over the years being subjected to experiments with unsuitable drug mixtures, often obtained from unreliable suppliers. The drug boycott has in some cases led to previously scheduled executions being suspended or postponed, but has also pushed some states to resort to outdated methods. Like in South Carolina, where a new law passed by the House in 2021 allows convicts to choose how they want to die, whether in the electric chair or by a firing squad. The viewer is accompanied on this “journey to hell” by the narration voice of Antony Graves, who was imprisoned for eighteen years, including twelve years on death row in Texas, and was convicted of a crime he never committed. He told his story in a book and is now an activist fighting to reform America’s prison system.