Introduction to Carol

Carol King has been on death row in the U.S for 19 years. Carol is a former nurse and is now a prison activist. Carol is committed to raising awareness of the death penalty through her communications with those on the outside. In a series of articles she will share with us her experience of living under a sentence of death.
 
Hello! My name is Carol King and I have been on death row at SCI Muncy in Pennsylvania, U.S.A for 19 years now.
 
I am easy going, open minded, very cheerful and easy to talk too. I love helping others and that is the reason I became a nurse. I used to enjoy swimming in the summer and skiing in the winter. I used to be a very active person in the winter with outdoor sports. An active life is just my cup of tea.
 
I enjoy doing many things; art, listening to music, outdoor activities, reading good books especially biographies, crafts, knitting, reading newspapers/magazines and watching TV. I love animals and have always felt a special connection to them.
 
I like communicating with others about interesting things and just the outside world in general. Perhaps that is due to my character and or longing for friends on the outside.

Getting A Death Warrant Signed
During my time here I have had 2 death warrants signed. I will try to explain to you what happens when you have a death warrant signed and are given an actual execution date. Yeah! A day to die! That is something all of us think don’t we? We feel that we can better prepare ourselves if we know when we will die, well, that was not true for me at all.

Now, I will try and take you through step by step of what happens when a death warrant is signed here. You are asked to come to your cell door and they handcuff you and walk you to another cell with the Superintendent, Deputy and the Head of the Psychology Department. The Superintendent will read the death warrant to you and give you the date of execution and then they ask you “do you have any questions?”

 As soon as they leave there is a guard posted with you 24 hours a day and they change shifts every 8 hours. This person is with you when you go to the bathroom, shower and for anything you do. Once you leave you cell for a shower which is 3 times a week for 10 minutes at a time you must be strip searched even though you have nothing on but a bra, underwear, t-shirt and a jumpsuit you still must be removed from that cell and taken to another cell and strip searched. After the strip searching they will handcuff you and put shackles on your ankles and you are escorted to the shower with 2 guards. Once you are in the shower there is a wicket where they will remove the shackles and handcuffs while you shower and once finishes you are escorted back to a cell and strip searched again and then taken back to your cell.

While I was under death watch I read, wrote letters, oh and to write a letter you have to request your writing material, you are no longer allowed to write with a regular pen but you have to use what is called a flex pen which is an inter core of the pen slipped in a clear plastic case. Once you are finished with writing your letter you are able to turn it in along with all of your writing materials. You can request to read a book, paperback only and once you stop reading you need to return the book until you are ready to read again. You are not able to keep anything in your cell.

All of your food is served on styro foam and there is someone that goes to put up your tray directly from the kitchen and they actually watch it prepared and that same person delivers it to you. I guess this is done so that no-one can kill you or someone else might kill you or at least attempt to.

You are allowed outside for one hour and you have to be strip searched again and hand cuffed and shackled and escorted to the kennel where you can walk around for an hour in area that looks just like a dog kennel.

I existed like this for almost 60 days when I had my first death warrant signed and approximately 20 days the second time. You may ask why I am telling you all this, it’s because I would like to give you some insight into what life is like here when you get a warrant signed.