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Thursday, November 28, 2024 — Houston, TX

Richard Treadwell


NEWS 11/13/08 6:00pm

Personal story sheds light on death penalty failings

On March 7, 2007 Lee Greenwood watched as her son, Joseph Nichols, an African-American, was brought into the death sentence chamber after he was transported there in a manner designed to scrape away at his dignity. Joseph wrote before his execution, "They cut off all my clothes and stripped me naked. I finally got a pair of boxers but my feet were shackled together, my hands were chained and then another chain bound my feet, went up over my shoulders and bound my hands. This is how our people were brought here from the motherland, naked and chained, and this is how I will leave."