Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 26, 2006 16:17:18 GMT -5
Inmate: Page mad execution delayed----Atmosphere behind prison walls
revealed
The week before Elijah Page's scheduled execution, guards checked every 30
minutes to see whether he was still breathing.
For the inmates on South Dakota's death row, this was a constant reminder
their friend soon would die.
The routine led to an "undercurrent of tension" never before felt by the 4
prisoners with death sentences inside the South Dakota State Penitentiary,
inmate Charles Rhines recalls.
"The half-hourly checks reminded everyone, no matter what time of day it
might be, that next week, Eli would not be with us anymore, that he would
be dead," Rhines wrote in a letter this month.
Yet there was no lock-down on death row the day of Page's scheduled
execution on Aug. 29. As far as Rhines could tell, everything else was
done as it was any other Tuesday inside the prison's super-secure Jameson
Annex.
Rhines, 1 of the 4 men on death row, killed a doughnut shop employee in
Rapid City during a 1992 burglary of the store.
This month he answered several Argus Leader questions mailed to him about
the scheduled execution and Gov. Mike Rounds' decision to stop it just
hours before it was to happen.
The delay, Rhines said, angered Page.
"Still, Page is now getting a lot of what he needed as a kid: Attention
from people he calls family... so maybe we can convince him to reinstate
his appeals," Rhines wrote.
Music on death row
Page still wants to die, those who know him say.
But he also wants to learn how to play the guitar.
"He wants to learn, just to give him something to do for the next 10
months," said Pam Guettler, the mother of Page's ex-girlfriend.
"With the guitar, I hold a glimmer of hope he may change his mind,"
Guettler said.
Guettler said she's been discussing the issue with corrections officials
and trying to find a way to get Page a Fender guitar.
Page, 24, was sent to death row for torturing and killing 19-year-old
Chester Poage in the Black Hills in 2000. It's been called one of the most
brutal slayings in South Dakota history.
Last winter, Page asked Rhines to help him draft legal documents so that
he could fire his lawyers, clearing the way for him to die on Aug. 29.
Though it might seem like a small part of life outside the prison walls,
Rhines said the policy on recreation time in the cell block could play a
role in Page's decision to go forward with his execution.
Death row inmates have recreation time in 8-foot by 20-foot cages. Page
used to have recreation the same time as Briley Piper, who also was
convicted in Poage's killing.
In recent days, however, Page's recreation schedule has been changed so
that he no longer has contact with Piper, Rhines wrote. He suspects that
is because prison officials thought Piper was influencing Page to give up
on his appeals.
Now, Page's recreation schedule is the same as Donald Moeller's, who is on
death row for raping and killing 9-year-old Becky O'Connell of Sioux Falls
in 1990.
"Great move, eh? Take a guy who was molested as a kid and pair him up with
a child molester! You gotta just love the sheer brilliance of these
people," Rhines wrote.
If more lenient recreation policies were implemented, Rhines thinks, Page
might consider resuming his appeals.
"He doesn't understand why they've changed his recreation time and changed
his cell," said his sister, Desiree Page.
"Recreation schedules are at the discretion of the unit staff," Department
of Corrections spokesman Michael Winder said. "These schedules can be
impacted by cell changes."
Moving inmates to new cells is done on a regular basis for all inmates in
the so-called Administrative Segregation section, Winder said.
Page's former lawyer, Mike Butler, isn't discussing Page's case.
Rhines' view on delay
Did Rounds do the right thing when he halted the execution hours before it
was to happen?
"Of course he was justified," Rhines wrote.
South Dakota's current law, which borrows some language from an Oklahoma
doctor's 1977 letter suggesting how inmates in that state could be killed,
mentions 2 chemicals for lethal injections.
But prison officials had planned to use 3 chemicals to execute Page.
Rounds has said the discrepancy left him no choice but to call it off.
"People often say, 'Oh, he got off on a technicality,' " Rhines wrote.
"You better believe he did, just as he would have been convicted on a
technicality. The law is technical."
Page still could have been executed with two drugs, Rhines said.
"What seems to have eluded Rounds and everyone else is that all they had
to do was follow the two-drug protocol and everyone would have been within
the law and everyone would have been happy, or at least less angry."
No human contact
As South Dakota lawmakers prepare to debate the death penalty, Rhines
thinks a better system would involve 10 or 15 years in solitary
confinement, followed by life without parole.
"Believe me, solitary, even this sort, for the past 13-plus years has been
no picnic - no human contact what-so-ever. In almost 14 years, I have only
touched, made physical contact with, one person - a guard I had gotten to
know was quitting and came up and shook my hand farewell. ..."
Rhines also said he thinks capital punishment appeals to Americans in
theory, but not when it's carried out.
"I think the problem lies in the fact that Americans like the idea of the
death penalty but don't like the idea of actually killing anyone because
of it.
"It sounds good, but the actual application leaves a lot to be desired,"
he wrote.
(source: Argus Leader)
revealed
The week before Elijah Page's scheduled execution, guards checked every 30
minutes to see whether he was still breathing.
For the inmates on South Dakota's death row, this was a constant reminder
their friend soon would die.
The routine led to an "undercurrent of tension" never before felt by the 4
prisoners with death sentences inside the South Dakota State Penitentiary,
inmate Charles Rhines recalls.
"The half-hourly checks reminded everyone, no matter what time of day it
might be, that next week, Eli would not be with us anymore, that he would
be dead," Rhines wrote in a letter this month.
Yet there was no lock-down on death row the day of Page's scheduled
execution on Aug. 29. As far as Rhines could tell, everything else was
done as it was any other Tuesday inside the prison's super-secure Jameson
Annex.
Rhines, 1 of the 4 men on death row, killed a doughnut shop employee in
Rapid City during a 1992 burglary of the store.
This month he answered several Argus Leader questions mailed to him about
the scheduled execution and Gov. Mike Rounds' decision to stop it just
hours before it was to happen.
The delay, Rhines said, angered Page.
"Still, Page is now getting a lot of what he needed as a kid: Attention
from people he calls family... so maybe we can convince him to reinstate
his appeals," Rhines wrote.
Music on death row
Page still wants to die, those who know him say.
But he also wants to learn how to play the guitar.
"He wants to learn, just to give him something to do for the next 10
months," said Pam Guettler, the mother of Page's ex-girlfriend.
"With the guitar, I hold a glimmer of hope he may change his mind,"
Guettler said.
Guettler said she's been discussing the issue with corrections officials
and trying to find a way to get Page a Fender guitar.
Page, 24, was sent to death row for torturing and killing 19-year-old
Chester Poage in the Black Hills in 2000. It's been called one of the most
brutal slayings in South Dakota history.
Last winter, Page asked Rhines to help him draft legal documents so that
he could fire his lawyers, clearing the way for him to die on Aug. 29.
Though it might seem like a small part of life outside the prison walls,
Rhines said the policy on recreation time in the cell block could play a
role in Page's decision to go forward with his execution.
Death row inmates have recreation time in 8-foot by 20-foot cages. Page
used to have recreation the same time as Briley Piper, who also was
convicted in Poage's killing.
In recent days, however, Page's recreation schedule has been changed so
that he no longer has contact with Piper, Rhines wrote. He suspects that
is because prison officials thought Piper was influencing Page to give up
on his appeals.
Now, Page's recreation schedule is the same as Donald Moeller's, who is on
death row for raping and killing 9-year-old Becky O'Connell of Sioux Falls
in 1990.
"Great move, eh? Take a guy who was molested as a kid and pair him up with
a child molester! You gotta just love the sheer brilliance of these
people," Rhines wrote.
If more lenient recreation policies were implemented, Rhines thinks, Page
might consider resuming his appeals.
"He doesn't understand why they've changed his recreation time and changed
his cell," said his sister, Desiree Page.
"Recreation schedules are at the discretion of the unit staff," Department
of Corrections spokesman Michael Winder said. "These schedules can be
impacted by cell changes."
Moving inmates to new cells is done on a regular basis for all inmates in
the so-called Administrative Segregation section, Winder said.
Page's former lawyer, Mike Butler, isn't discussing Page's case.
Rhines' view on delay
Did Rounds do the right thing when he halted the execution hours before it
was to happen?
"Of course he was justified," Rhines wrote.
South Dakota's current law, which borrows some language from an Oklahoma
doctor's 1977 letter suggesting how inmates in that state could be killed,
mentions 2 chemicals for lethal injections.
But prison officials had planned to use 3 chemicals to execute Page.
Rounds has said the discrepancy left him no choice but to call it off.
"People often say, 'Oh, he got off on a technicality,' " Rhines wrote.
"You better believe he did, just as he would have been convicted on a
technicality. The law is technical."
Page still could have been executed with two drugs, Rhines said.
"What seems to have eluded Rounds and everyone else is that all they had
to do was follow the two-drug protocol and everyone would have been within
the law and everyone would have been happy, or at least less angry."
No human contact
As South Dakota lawmakers prepare to debate the death penalty, Rhines
thinks a better system would involve 10 or 15 years in solitary
confinement, followed by life without parole.
"Believe me, solitary, even this sort, for the past 13-plus years has been
no picnic - no human contact what-so-ever. In almost 14 years, I have only
touched, made physical contact with, one person - a guard I had gotten to
know was quitting and came up and shook my hand farewell. ..."
Rhines also said he thinks capital punishment appeals to Americans in
theory, but not when it's carried out.
"I think the problem lies in the fact that Americans like the idea of the
death penalty but don't like the idea of actually killing anyone because
of it.
"It sounds good, but the actual application leaves a lot to be desired,"
he wrote.
(source: Argus Leader)