A former corrections officer has described the eerie silence that descends on a prison unit when an execution is imminent.
David, who worked in a prison for 14 months, spoke on the Rise Above podcast hosted by Kevin Lanning about the single execution he witnessed during his tenure. He recalled how the atmosphere shifted dramatically in the weeks surrounding the event, affecting staff and inmates alike.
“They executed one inmate while I was there and the whole unit changed in the few weeks leading up to it and about a week afterward,” he shared on the podcast.
“Everything was just quiet. Like, eerily quiet. People were not doing their [recreational] times. It was a really high tense, high stress situation during that time.”
David also detailed the intensive monitoring process that begins 72 hours before an inmate is put to death. The prisoner is moved to the infirmary, the prison’s medical center, where a dedicated team maintains constant surveillance.
“72 hours before the execution they take him up to what’s called the infirmary,” David explained. “It’s basically their medical center and he’ll be monitored by two officers and a corporal, and medical will check on him every 3-4 hours.”
He continued: “He basically has a whole team that monitors him the 72 hours leading up to his execution. People [will be] sitting there watching him 24/7.”
The inmate David observed had already learned through his lawyer that his appeals had failed and the governor would not intervene. David described the man’s reaction as startlingly detached from his circumstances.
“It was wild to see a person that had just got that news and what mattered to him in life – and nothing really seemed to matter,” David recalled.
“He wasn’t violent, or angry, or upset or anything, it was like he had left. His body was there but he had just checked out completely.”
The inmate began distributing his belongings to fellow prisoners, seemingly resigned to his fate. David noted that the man “knew it was over with.”
Capital punishment remains legal in 27 American states, including Florida, Tennessee, Kansas, and Utah. The method of execution has long fueled national debate, with lethal injections drawing renewed scrutiny following recent incidents.
Last September, convicted killer Christa Pike survived a botched execution attempt when the execution team failed to properly administer lethal drugs into her bloodstream. The 49-year-old, who has spent three decades on death row for the 1995 torture and murder of a classmate, was rushed to hospital and later returned to prison to recover.
Pike’s case highlighted ongoing concerns about execution procedures as the death penalty approaches its 50th anniversary since reinstatement in 1976.
David’s account adds a rare firsthand perspective from prison staff who witness the human toll of capital punishment beyond the inmate facing execution. His description of a unit gone “eerily quiet” underscores how the procedure reverberates through an entire prison community.
The Marshall Project continues tracking execution rates and procedural challenges across death penalty states.