The Guardian - For 135 days, Marion Bowman Jr has been locked in a solitary cell narrower than his arm span, cut off from nearly all human interaction, counting down the days until the state of South Carolina executes him.The 44-year-old is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection on Friday, the third man on South Carolina death row to be executed in rapid succession as the state aggressively revives capital punishment. The cases have sparked outrage over concerns about wrongful convictions, the racist application of the death penalty and the painful, drawn-out method of killing.
As the state resumes killings following a 13-year-pause, the men on death row and their advocates are raising alarms about the brutal conditions they endure once placed on “execution watch”, forced into nearly 24/7 isolation for months on end as their scheduled execution nears.
“Inhumane is an understatement,” said Bowman in a recent conversation with his lawyer, which was summarized for the Guardian. He has been singing spirituals and reciting scripture to himself, and re-reading notes other men have written him as they suffered the same conditions before their executions. One note reminded him, “Don’t let the prison turn you into the animal they think that you are, the monster they think you are … We are not what the state portrayed us to be. We are kind, caring, loving people, and it’s a shame the world can’t see that.”...
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