Texas stops sharing the latest written statements from a death row inmate

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas prison authorities have said that the last written words of death row prisoners will no longer be publicly disclosed, marking another change in day-of-day procedures in the busiest death chamber of Texas. country.

This new policy follows the outrage of a state legislator who, in 2011, also put an end to the words of Texas death row inmates who chose their last meal.

State Senator John Whitmire had reprimanded prison officials for reading the latest written statement of a racist declared after his execution last week, for the death in 1998 of James Byrd Jr., a black man.

The Texas Criminal Justice Department announced that the agency would only publicly relay verbal statements made to the enforcement branch.

Texas prison authorities earlier this month also stopped allowing the clergy to visit the death chamber.