All the men condemned to death in Texas – about 250 of them – are held at the same place, on death row in Livingston, Texas. The Allan B. Polunsky Unit allowed Bill Whitaker and his 60 Minutes camera crew inside to speak with some of the men, just weeks before their executions.
Three of the 250 are members of the infamous Texas 7, a group of prisoners who escaped from another Texan prison on December 13, 2000. On the lam, they robbed a sporting goods store and killed a police officer. After they were featured on the TV show America’s Most Wanted, 6 of the 7 were apprehended. (Larry James Harper committed suicide before caught.) Three of the Texas 7 have already been executed; another three are awaiting execution. Joseph Christopher Garcia, 44, Randy Ethan Halprin, 38, and Patrick Henry Murphy, Jr., 54, are in the Polunsky Unit. Garcia was serving a 50-year sentence for murder when he escaped in 2000. At the age of 19, he stabbed a man, Miguel Luna, 19 times after Luna gave him bad driving directions. 60 Minutes airs Sundays at 7pm on CBS.
