Pitman to remain in cell near gallows

DEATH ROW prisoners who have exhausted all of their appeals are expected to face the hangman’s noose as early as next week. Sources revealed that Government has requested from the prison authorities a list of all the prisoners on Death Row who are eligible for execution. The list will be reviewed and warrants prepared over the weekend. Prison sources revealed that other Death Row prisoners, numbering about 80, who have exhausted all their appeals are now fearing the worst. However, only a few of the 80 Death Row prisoners fall outside the Privy Council ruling on the Jamaican case of Pratt and Morgan.

Prisons Commissioner John Rougier yesterday said condemned prisoner Lester Pitman, who was moved from his cell at the condemned section and put in a cell closer to the gallows in the Port-of-Spain Prison, will remain there pending the outcome of his court matters. Rougier dismissed reports that Pitman’s clothing was changed from blue to cream. He also denied that Pitman was measured, weighed and had his blood pressure taken after the death warrant was read to him on Wednesday.

“Yes he was moved to another division of the condemned section,” was all Rougier was prepared to say. He pointed out that he was not even aware that Pitman had been asked to choose his last meal. Newspaper reports suggested that Pitman was being weighed every day and the mechanism of the trap door, over which condemned prisoners are placed to be hanged, was being checked using weights corresponding with Pitman’s. Pitman, who suffered severe head injuries in a fall some years ago, insisted yesterday that he was innocent of the three Cascade murders in 2001.