On Death Row

April 2002

Its easy to lose hope when you are aware of what awaits you, what the future holds.

Lying on the top bunk of an aluminum bed, Zoe was dressed in the usual orange prison attire, which she hated because orange was never her color.

Zoe was the youngest inmate on death row at the time, she was twenty four and did not belong where she found herself but life often takes unexpected turns and it had led her here.

She was basically lifeless, her body was present but everything else that made her human was gone, including hope, she had none of that left, her only activity was using stones to count the number of days she had spent on death row as she waited for her untimely demise in the hands of an executioner, She was like a cancer patient whose disease had spread beyond control. Her end was only a matter of time.

It had been six months since the jury pronounced Zoe guilty of murder in the first degree, the prosecutor pushed for the death penalty which was taken upon by the judge and he sentenced her to death by lethal injection which was not much of a surprise to the jury nor the public in the court, she walked into the court a guilty person and the whole trial was a mere formality, the jury didnt have much to discuss and the judge already knew his verdict after one look at the case files.

There wasnt an appeal or any such but to be fair, it was all going to be futile. She knew the consequence of her grievous crime and was resigned to her fate; it was time to leave this cruel world that had not been kind to her. She was held at the Fluvanna Correctional Centre awaiting the day she would be executed.

Behind every tragic ending is an unknown story of grief, regret and sadness. Everything leading to the age old question, HOW THE FUCK DID I GET HERE?