The following is an extract taken from an interview with a foreign prisoner (Name withheld) who spent 5 ˝ years on Death Row before having his sentence cut to ‘Life' at the 2006 Royal Amnesty.

"Most time we did not know when they were coming. Sometimes they would lock us down early but would use an excuse like important visitors were coming into the building. They would tell us that we had nothing to fear and that we should remain calm."

"They would always come at 4:30(pm) and the sound of the steel bars and chains being unlocked and removed from the door would strike fear and terror into the hearts of every man on the Row."

"The trouble was that those men who had exhausted all possible avenues of reprieve and were on the ‘Blacklist' were spread equally amongst each of the 20 or 50 cells. There were usually 3 – 4 blacklisted guys in each cell so of course when we would hear the block door being unlocked the entire block would fall into a fearful silence."

"Even those guys who knew it wasn't their time would be overwhelmed with fear because of the hysteria generated. Fear is infectious and each time was mental torture because we all knew that some day it would be our turn."

"The group of five or six Special Officers would walk slowly up the aisle until they reached the cell that contained the guy whose god had finally called him."

"There would be a kind of vacuum in the block where every condemned man had breathed in and failed to exhale again. We could all, every last one of us; hear our own hearts beating so loudly in our chests that it was deafening."

"The man would be called to the cell door, handcuffed then led away to oblivion. You could cut the relief with a knife but what a terrible relief. Another of us had gone forever."

"I saw 21 men go this way during my time on Death Row. Every last one of them walked calmly and silently to their fate. In their heads and hearts they were already dead."

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