Rare Glimpse Inside California’s Death row

(30 Dec 2015) With California's lethal injection protocol in limbo, the nearly 750 inmates awaiting death in the state's prison system are more likely to die from natural causes or suicide than execution.
San Quentin State Prison officials on Tuesday provided a rare glimpse inside the country's largest death row which 725 condemned men call home as they await a final decision on a proposed one-drug execution method and a 2016 vote on whether to scrap the death penalty altogether.
Hundreds of killers have been sentenced to die in the most populous state since the death penalty was restored in 1978, but just about a dozen have been executed. No one has been executed in California since 2006, when a federal judge forced the still-ongoing review of the state's lethal injection procedures.
Many inmates don't even think about the possibility of actually being executed in California and instead just act as if they are serving life sentences.
"Most of us sit here for years and years … waiting on the appeals process so it's not really something that's on the forefront of your mind," said Charles Crawford from behind a chain link fence in an exercise yard.
Crawford was sentenced to die in 2002 for the killings of two people, including a teenage girl.
"It's like an abstract thought because it's not something that happens every day," Crawford said.
"Since I've been here they've only carried out two executions, you know what I mean, so it's almost like it's not even a real punishment for a lot of people."

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