Suicide in Prison: the Newest Death Sentence

I am a prison rights activist/advocate concerned about the recent trend in prisoners deaths. Although I am well aware that prisoners die in prison from all different reasons, illness, old age, at the hands of other prisoners, and the ultimate, being executions, I have noticed a rise in the number of suicides.

Some inmates at Maine's solitary confinement Supermax Unit in Warren have gone on a hunger strike to protest the October 5th suicide in that facility. Other inmates were reported to have cut themselves in an attempt of suicide only to be saved by the guards. Are these men housed in supermax cells, sensory deprived, and in isolation, so depressed they wish to end their life with a self-inflicted death sentence?

The most recent suicide I have heard about is of Michael Johnson 29, a death row inmate in Texas, scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on October 19, 2006, for the September 27, 1995, murder of convenience store clerk Jeff Wetterman, 27. Johnson was in a death watch cell in Livingston Texas. He was under observation by the guards, and checked on every fifteen minutes, which is routine when an execution is so near.

Johnson showed no signs of suicide and did not leave behind a suicide note according to reports. At 2:45 AM Johnson was found with his juggler vein slashed, as well as his artery on his right arm. He was pronounced dead at 3:40 in the hospital. The words "I didn't do it" were written on the cell wall with his own blood.

Is this the newest form of execution? This suicide has left me with many questions. Johnson proclaimed his innocence since his conviction. Why didn't he wait to see if he would be granted a last minute stay of execution? Was this his way of cheating the Executioner and the state of Texas? Was this the ultimate protest in executions, by executing oneself?

I guess we will never know for sure what Johnson was thinking. May he rest in peace. I expect to see more of these suicides in the future.