Renowned photojournalist Caroline Planque visits USU
In 2005 Caroline Planque, a renowned photojournalist, interviewed her first death row inmate; on Monday she visited Utah State University to educate students more on capital punishment in the U.S.
Planque was born in Valenciennes, France and graduated from The University of Texas in 1999. In 2005 she began working with inmates who were on death row to discover more about the U.S. judicial system and how they handle the death penalty. What she discovered was the process is unfair.
“The process isn’t fair. Rich people are almost never put on death row, only the poor,” Planque said.
Planque also said when she first started investigating this topic she was only mildly interested, but after her first interview with an inmate she knew her curiosity had grown into something much bigger.
“I went to visit one inmate that I had been writing; when I did, many more of them wanted to talk to me … right there I knew I had my story,” she said.
Ever since that first interview Planque has been working to bring more attention to what she feels is an unjust system.
She began investigating capital punishment in the U.S. in 2005, a year when the number of inmates executed was at its highest. According the U.S. Department of Justice, a total of 60 inmates were executed in 2005, 19 of which were in Texas.
Since her first interview in 2005 Planque has interviewed a variety of people who have been affected by the death penalty in the U.S., including inmates who are currently on death row, attorneys who have both defended and prosecuted death row inmates, family members of inmates who have received the death penalty, wardens who have worked in prisons with inmates on death row and have watched them die and victims of the crimes these inmates have committed.
In these interviews Planque said she has found many people who are both for and against the death penalty in the U.S. One of these people includes Linda White, the mother of Cathy White, who was abducted, raped and murdered in 1986. Linda White visited the man who had killed her daughter 14 and a half years after he was accused and shared with Planque her experience.
“We met (the man who had killed my daughter) … he was very remorseful. Even after almost 15 years he looked more innocent than when he went to prison,” White said.
Planque has put together several accounts similar to Linda White’s, and in her lecture at USU, shared several of them. As with all her lectures on this topic, Planque hopes to change the public’s opinion about capital punishment in the U.S.
One of the points that Planque argues is, while upper-class citizens can afford the best lawyers in the business, those who make a lower income only have access to court-appointed lawyers who rarely do a good job defending their clients.
“Almost all (prisoners on death row) have court-appointed lawyers … often they don’t get very good lawyers,” she said.
Planque also pointed out that while waiting for death row many prisoners, at least those in Texas, are kept in solitary confinement. Their time in confinement can last anywhere from a few months to a couple years. For those who are proven innocent and released from prison, their time in solitary confinement can have crippling effects.
“People who come out of this normally don’t do well. They aren’t mentally well and can’t get a job,” Planque said.
Former death row inmate Martian Draugon gave Planque his own account of his time in prison.
“To most officers, we’re not viewed as people — we’re viewed as, ‘How many cows do we have to feed? How many recs do we have? How many showers do we have?’ … It’s easier to kill something than someone,” Draugon said.
Though Planque admits that many officers as well as family members of the victims don’t view inmates on death row as people, they are still affected. She shares the account of Carroll Pickett, a former chaplin at Walls, the Huntsville prison unit in Texas.
“I think if most people saw an execution they would imminently pass out. I’ve watched big tall men from the radio station collapse while observing the process. I’ve seen families, I’ve seen guards vomit. I’ve seen guards removed because they develop diarrhea. They just couldn’t stand it,” Pickett said.
Planque herself admits to having a hard time processing what happens to the people she interacts with, despite the fact she herself has never witnessed an execution.
“I always think it’s not going to happen, it’s not going to happen, then they strap them down and inject them … it’s really difficult but you have to put it in a place where you can handle it,” Planque said.
As Planque continues to research capital punishment in the U.S. her hopes that the judicial system will stop being an unjust system dwindle, she said.
“The real question is can a fair system exist … I don’t think it can,” she said.
Despite her doubt, Planque continues to investigate and work on multiple projects to help inform the people in both the U.S. and her birth country, France, about capital punishment in the U.S. One day she hopes to release a book that encompasses all her work.
— shaniehoward214@gmail.com