Texas death row prisoners filed a lawsuit Thursday arguing it’s unconstitutional to hold them in solitary confinement for years with minimal physical and mental health care and few avenues to seek legal help.
after hanging himself in his cramped cell. He had been on death row a decade, convicted of killing two people in Fort Bend County during an unsuccessful carjacking attempt in 2008.
Thursday’s lawsuit was brought by four condemned prisoners, who are asking that the court expand it to cover the entire population of Polunsky’s death row. The men have been on death row in solitary confinement from seven to 22 years, with two men having been on the less-restrictive death row prior to the escape attempt. The seven women sentenced to death in Texas are housed in another prison.
In Texas, the prisoners complain the isolating conditions on death row violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The complaint states that death-sentenced men are put in solitary solely based on their sentence, not because of any individual consideration of their crime or prison behavior.
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