What Life Is REALLY Like for Women on Death Row — The Truth Nobody Talks About

What does it actually feel like to spend years on death row? Death row isn’t a single moment. It’s years, sometimes decades of waiting. Some wait for an execution date that never comes. Others wake up knowing the date is already on the calendar. For others, that wait ended years ago. Linda Carty, Darley Routier, Krista Pike, Carla Faye Tucker.

Their cases are different, yet each became part of the same death penalty system. This is what life on death row really looks like and what it actually feels like. The years behind bars, the uncertainty, and the ordinary mornings lived under the possibility of execution. Unless a court intervenes, Tennessee plans to execute Christa Pike on September 30th, 2026.

If carried out, it would make her the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries. What happens to a person after years on death row? Linda Carty has spent more than two decades on Texas death row. In 2002, she was sentenced to death for the murder of her neighbor, Joanna Rodriguez. For Linda, every day begins the same way.

 Basically, um the first count begins at 3:00, 3:00 in the morning. You’re awakened and you give a verbal response. And then, after that, an hour later, it’s breakfast. Breakfast is served at 4:00. And then you have to go out to work. We’re housed in a building that caters to the worst of the worst. You were basically cut off from your family, from the outside world, and from everything that you considered normal.

 The schedule never changes. Living through it does.  Rough. Um there moments, you know, it’s up and down. And it depends on the um status of your appeal. Because you could be quite euphoric at sometimes and then all of a sudden you could be in that valley. You know, whenever you your cases or your appeal is denied.

 Every time I talk about that I want to cry. Because it’s difficult shouldering. It’s for me in particular, if I had done the crime, I would have accepted my fate. But because I know that I’m not guilty, it’s hard. It’s hard dealing with it and I try not I try to put it on the back burner and not think about it because I don’t want to be another statistic for the mental health um department.

 Prison isn’t the hardest part. The people she can’t be with are.  I have a daughter that I really really love. I truly love. And um it’s this place is enough of a burden for her.  [snorts]  So for me to try to commit suicide or to give up or anything, I feel as though I would fail my child.  She has two boys. I have two grandsons.

I’ve met one. You know, because we’re not allowed to have visits with our kids cuz the state says that if you have a um a crime against a child that you’re not allowed to have the visits with even your own family. Your family members who are kids. So no, I don’t get to see them other than pictures and talking to them on the phone every 90 days.

 On death row, you don’t live only with your own sentence. Sometimes you watch someone else’s come to an end.  Unfortunately, yes. Um and one of them I was close to. It was the coldest, saddest, scariest, loneliest feeling ever, knowing that the moment they leave the building where we’re housed, that you’ll never see them again.

You happen to listen on the radio and because you’re hoping to hear that she was given a reprieve and then you hear she was killed at such and such a time and you go, wow. And then you sit in your bed and you just cry and you cry because then the sense of loss and despair comes over you. And you realize that it could happen to any one of us here.

And not because of guilt, but because of circumstances or because the system itself failed you. That was hard for me and I still remember it till today. And I still remember the look on her face. You know, when she was let out of here and the last words she said to me was, “Don’t stop fighting.”  After a loss like that, giving up can feel easier.

For Linda, the fight goes on.  I try my best. I’m sorry to ask the Lord not to let me be bitter and not to become hateful and not to distrust the system. But if I’m innocent, then you treat me as innocent and you find out where you have gone wrong. And Texas wasn’t willing to do that.  Giving up has never been an option.

 I’ll fight to the end. And if I lose my life, I know I have people behind who will  not stop until they clear my name. I won’t be lying if I tell you that living in this environment I don’t think about it. But I don’t let it consume my thoughts.  Linda has spent decades living under a death sentence.

Ask her what she thinks of the death penalty itself and the answer comes without hesitation.  It’s so deeply flawed.  She sees justice differently.  I don’t think they deserve the death penalty cuz I would like to see him sit in prison for the rest of his life knowing that just like you took that person’s life, you’ll never be able to to get out and have that kind of freedom.

That’s the punishment I would like to give to him.   Linda isn’t speaking as an observer. She’s speaking as someone living under a death sentence.  I’m not scared of dying. I just don’t want to die because I’m going to be a pawn for somebody else. Or I fell between the cracks. I don’t want to die like that.

 You need to pay attention and you need to come and have more interaction here with me. You need to do more. I still matter.  The waiting continues. Linda Carty remains on Texas death row while her appeals are still pending. Linda Carty is not the only woman who has spent decades inside Texas’ Mountain View Unit. Just a few cells away is another woman whose case once made headlines across America.

Darley Routier. In 1997, she was sentenced to death after being convicted in one of Texas’ most widely publicized murder cases. She has always maintained her innocence. Nearly 30 years later, she is still waiting on death row. Life on death row rarely changes. Morning comes long before sunrise.  About 4:30 a.m.

 Usually do my devotions, getting everything ready to go into work.  Small routines give shape to the day.  We have a garden.  And I absolutely love to do the work in the garden. It’s wonderful to see the things that you plant grow. Uh to nurture something.  But Darley still remembers the day she first walked onto death row.

 I’m thinking death row. I’m petrified thinking, “Okay, I’m coming in this place with these people that have done committed these crazy heinous acts. How am I going to defend myself?” But every woman in there came up and hugged me. I was blown away. I was blown away.  It wasn’t the welcome she expected. Before she arrived, Darley thought she knew what the women on death row would be like.

Then she got to know them.  It’s horrible because you get to know these women. You see the other sides of them. Their families, their    just everything did not fit what I thought in my head of somebody being on death row.  One woman in particular would leave the deepest impression. Her name was Karla Faye Tucker.

We’ll come back to her story later.  Carla was just amazing. Just tried to encourage me. Took me under her wing. I was so young.  She didn’t know then that Carla’s story would become part of her own. Inside the prison, life moves at a different pace.  You really have to take it one day at a time. You can’t be thinking about years down the road.

 Because no one on death row can completely forget why they’re there.  I never forget this is one of the states that have the most executions. The reality is is there is a very real possibility that I could be executed.   Some moments are impossible to experience through letters or prison visits.

 When her son Drake is diagnosed with cancer,  Darlie can’t be there as he goes through treatment.  You know what? I have not seen him lately because we went through um had cancer. And um that was very hard time because I couldn’t be there for him like a mom should be there. And seeing him go through the treatment it’s horrible. Horrible.

Um but he’s healthy now and he’s cancer-free.  For parents in prison, distance isn’t measured in miles. It’s measured in moments they’ll never get back.  Well, I really would prefer to wait, God willing,    that I’m exonerated so I can share that with, you know, all my friends and families and the people that have held me up through this fight.

   It’s a big moment in my life.  Her conviction remains in place. Her legal team continues to pursue additional appeals and forensic review. Whether those efforts will change anything remains uncertain.  I can’t say what the future is going to hold. I can tell you that I’m very hopeful. I’m very positive with the investigation and testing that’s happening right now that I will be exonerated.

 Today, Darlie Routier remains inside the Mountain View Unit. Prayer. Work. The garden. Time measured one day at a time. Years on death row have changed many things. Fear is no longer what defines her.  I’m less frightened. I’m at peace with myself. I didn’t do this. If they choose to kill me, they’ll have to answer to that.

That’s my innocent blood that will be on their hands.  Earlier, Darlie Routier mentioned one woman who helped her through her first days on death row. Her name was Karla Faye Tucker. On June 13th, 1983, Karla Faye Tucker takes part in the murders of Jerry Dean and Deborah Thornton during a robbery in Houston, Texas.

She is convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.  You’re not the same person you were when you came in here.  No. Not even near the same person.  14 years separate the woman who arrives on death row from the woman giving this interview.  For about 8 years it was like this humongous feast of joy and then all of a sudden God put me in a situation where I had to to grow up into This is going to sound really weird, but grow up into tribulations.

 Mhm.  Does that sound kind of like taking me from my comfort zone  Mhm.  and putting me in a lion’s den and telling me it’s time to um go deeper.  As the years pass, Karla talks less about herself. Instead, she talks about the women living beside her. She wants visitors to see them the way she does.  You don’t see inmates.

 No.  You see people. That makes a big difference  in a life. That makes a big difference in someone’s life like mine is who is in here. Well, when you walk through these fences, that’s what you brought to us, that same thing. Not coming into inmates, but coming into people.  Years on death row create relationships few people outside prison ever see.

The women share birthdays, appeals, losses, hope. Over time, many become each other’s family.  I mean, you are my family. You guys are my family. We’ve been through a lot and you’ve loved me and you’ve uh carried me through a lot and you’ve accepted me. And it goes so much I it goes so much deeper than just saying you’re my friend and my family.

 I don’t I don’t know how to put words on it. It is so much deeper. We are knit together in a special way. There’s a bond there that’s  so special.  The years continue to pass. Appeals come to an end. An execution date is set. February 3rd, 1998.  Actually, I’ve never wrestled with God about February 3rd.    Um I’ve always put that in God’s hands.

And have a great peace about it. I want  those who are left behind if February 3rd happens, I want them to to have peace with that, too. And to know, I mean, even through the prayers, when we pray and we believe God is going to do it. If when he chooses to do it his way, and if that way is to call me home, we have to accept that.

And we have to have peace with that.  As February 3rd approaches, Karla’s case reaches far beyond Texas. Religious leaders, politicians, journalists, supporters and opponents of the death penalty. The whole country is watching. Reporters keep asking the same question. What does she fear most?  So, I don’t I have no fear of that and I don’t worry about myself, but I certainly am concerned for those who are going to be left behind.

For my family and friends, my husband. I’m going to be thankful for all of the love.  Um probably wishing there was a way I could give everybody a hug.  She is 38 years old. She spends 14 years on death row. She becomes the first woman executed in Texas since 1863. Karla Faye Tucker’s execution becomes one of the most closely followed death penalty cases in modern American history.

But her story is the exception. Most women sentenced to death never reach that day. One of them is Krista Pike. Krista Pike is 18 years old when she takes part in the killing of fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer near Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1996, a jury convicts her of first-degree murder and sentences her to death.

 At 20, she becomes the youngest woman on death row in the United States. When this interview is filmed, Krista Pike has been on death row only a short time. She believes she will never be executed.  I think when I saw it on TV, they called it Sparky. Um I don’t really think about that because I don’t think I’m ever going to see it.

Personally.  She says hope is all she has left.  I still have a lot of hope and I know that I don’t deserve to be where I’m at. And I know that somewhere along the line somebody’s going to see that and everything’s going to change for me. And I’m not being arrogant, I’m just being hopeful. That’s all I have left is hope.

 Krista believes it will help her survive prison and that one day her death sentence will be overturned.  When I was on the street, I really just didn’t have religion, period, one way or the other. I was just going around looking into everything. Um now, I do believe in God. I know he’s up there and I know he’s the only one that’s going to pull me through this.

Cuz I can’t help myself. Nobody else can help me now and I know he can. I pray every night, read my Bible and I know that’s the only thing that’s really going to help me.  She believes she still has time.  It don’t matter to me because me and God both know where my heart is. I have hope that I’m going to get the death penalty taken off me, but I don’t know as I would say going as far as I’ll be out of here one day or I mean that I’m just going to have to wait and cross that bridge when I come to it.

 Krista Pike has spent nearly 3 years on death row. She knows every part of its daily routine. For the first time, she shows the tiny prison cell where she spends almost every day.  I’m 22 years old and this is it for me. There’s just so much more that I wanted to do with my life than me sitting in a room by myself 23 hours a day.

 I should be out going to school or working and having fun with my friends. That’s my mom and my stepdad. My cat Tiger, I just love him. I love my dog Ed. These are the only kind of stuffed animals we can have because we can’t have the ones that are stuffed with things in them. They think we might hide something in there.

 Well, breakfast is at about 6:30 then I get up when it’s time to go outside and exercise. Come back in and go to the shower. Come back and I’m in here for the rest of the day until I go outside tomorrow morning.  Nearly a decade passes. By now, Christa Pike has spent almost 12 years on Tennessee’s death row.  I think I deserve to be in here for the rest of my life. I do. I know I do.

 I know I don’t deserve to be out walking around with everybody else in normal society. I did something horrible that is unacceptable and I realize that, but I don’t deserve to die for the actions of three individuals when I’m only one person.  She says, “It isn’t only the sentence that changes a person.

 It is spending years almost entirely alone.”  I live in one room 23 hours a day. And for going on almost 12 years, that’s a long time. I’m only out of my room 1 hour a day and that’s just in another cage, like a dog cage, a kennel. So, I’m either in a box or in a kennel and you know, that’s pretty much it.  In 2001, Christa Pike is convicted of attempting to murder another prisoner.

Soon afterward, she asks to end her appeals and volunteers for execution.  I was just ready, willing and able to do anything I had to do to not have to live like this anymore. I got tired.  Years on death row change even her memories.  I don’t even remember what it feels like to be free. I’m done.

 I’ve lived in here longer than I’ve ever lived in any one place in my life. I don’t remember what it feels like to not have somebody chain me up when I walk out a door or tell me when I can use the bathroom or eat a meal.  Looking back, Christa says she still thinks about the life that was lost and the people affected by it.  I took somebody’s life.

 Took somebody’s child away. And some you know, somebody’s friend, somebody’s sister. Hurt so many people with this. And even though it’s not me and I can’t take full responsibility for this anymore and I won’t because if I’m going to die in here, I’m going to die for my truth, not for my lie. You know, accept me for who I am, good, bad, and ugly.

But I’m not going to die for a lie anymore. I’ll die for my truth.  Christa Pike remains the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. Her execution is scheduled for September 30th, 2026, unless further court action changes that schedule. If it goes forward, she will become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries.