Wednesday, August 31, 1994 Page 3
A prison worker delivers mail to a death row inmate last April. Nine inmates, including Harold Lamont Otey, are sitting on
Nebraska’s death row. 1
The electric chair at the Nebraska
State Penitentiary has not been
used since the 1959 execution of
Charles Starkweather.
Harold Lamont Otey runs laps in a prison yard reserved for death row inmates.
Photos by Travis Haying
Life routine on death row
Calmness may end
as Otey execution
date approaches
By Jeff Zeleny
Concrete floors and green walls
line the long, cold corridor in the “D"
gallery of the Nebraska Stale Peniten
tiary.
Gallery “D” looks like the other
three galleries in the penitentiary in
south Lincoln, but it is distinctly dif
ferent.
“D” stands for death.
Nine men live on Nebraska’s death
row. Theirdaily schedules arc planned
down to the minute.
Breakfast — 7:15 a.m.
Lunch— 11:30 a.m.
Dinner — 5 p.m.
The men sit on wooden benches
attached to round tables and are al
lowed 30 minutes for each meal.
Their precise schedules continue
throughout the day. For one hour and
51 minutes, inmates arc allowed to get
fresh air and exercise outside gallery
“D” in an area enclosed by a barbed
wire fence.
Prisoners play full-court basketball,
lift free weights and jog inside the
perimeter of the fence. A guard casu
ally stands watch among the inmates.
In addition to exercising outside,
inmates spend their time in the death
row lounge. Basic cable is shown on a
television screen in one comer of the
room. A 3 5-ccnt token can buy a can of
Squirt, RCCola, Kick, Dr. Pepper and
7-Up. Inmates can check out fantasy,
science fiction, love, war, adventure
and horror books from the library in
the death row lounge.
Inmates time in the lounge also is
limited. Every day is routine on death
row.
“We’re bigon typical,” saysCharlcs
Hohcnstein, administrative assistant
to the prison warden.
That typical atmosphere could be
interrupted this week. Harold Lamont
Otcv is scheduled to be executed at
12:01 a.m. Friday.
This week Nebraskans struggle with
the idea of the death penalty, and the
court considers Otcy’s final appeal,
but prison officials go about business
as usual.
“Wc just carry that order out of the
court,” Hohenstcin says. “We assume
he’s guilty or he wouldn’t be here.”
Death Row
Harold Lamont Otay Is one of nine men on Nebraska's death row. Others on
death row:
^-Robert E. Williams, 57, sentenced June 30,1978, for killing two Lincoln
women and raping one in August 1977.
He has filed and lost on four state appeals. On one federal appeal, the
state was ordered to resentence with regard to one of the victims. That
matter is pending. Execution scheduled for Nov. 16.
^ Peter Lynn Hochstein, 40, and C. Michael Anderson, 42, sentenced Aug.
24, 1978, for the murder of Omaha reater Ron Abboud in October 1975.
First federal appeal pending in U.S. District Court for both men.
k*-Charles Jess Palmer, 56, first sentenced to death Aug. 7,1980, in
murder of Eugene Zimmerman of Grand Island.
Execution scheduled for Sept. 16.
^ Randolph Reeves, 38, sentenced Sept. 11, 1981, for killing near Lincoln
a second, who was
180. He was resentenced
one woman before raping her and fatally stabbinj
pregnant, to try to conceal his identity in March 1!
to death while the federal case is still pending.
John J. Joubert, 31, sentenced Oct. 9, 1984, for the 1983 murders of
Danny Joe Eberle, 13, and Christopher Paul Walden, 12, both of Sarpy
County. He has filed three state appeals, all of which were denied. His first
federal appeal is still pending in U.S. District Court.
^ Michael Ryan, 46, sentenced Oct. 16,1986, for the killing of fellow cult
member James Thimm during torture at a farm near Rulo in 1985. He has
lost two state lower court appeals and has one pending before state
Supreme Court. Has filed no federal appeals yet. _Source: AP