This week, prison officials relocated Bruce Webster, a former drug dealer found guilty of killing a 16-year-old girl, in Texas. He was moved from federal death row to another prison to serve a life sentence. Many people criticized the officials for not moving him earlier, as a judge had already ruled that he had an intellectual disability and had vacated his death sentence.
Bruce Webster has been transferred from solitary confinement on death row at a U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. This comes two weeks after The Associated Press brought attention to his case, revealing that he was stuck in solitary confinement due to bureaucratic and jurisdictional issues following a judge’s ruling in 2019.
According to his lawyers, Webster, who hails from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, spent 23 hours a day in a small cell measuring 12 by 7 feet while on death row. However, authorities moved Bruce Webster to a U.S. prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, which is less restrictive. The lawyers were informed of the transfer on Tuesday, and they say that it happened overnight.
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Bruce Webster Case Update
Bruce Webster was put to death in 1996 for taking Lisa Rene hostage, raping her, and killing her. He and three other people took the sister of a rival drug dealer. They kicked their way into an Arlington, Texas, apartment while Rene was calling 911 in a panic. They raped her for two days, then stripped her, beat her with a shovel, and buried her alive.
Chron said Monica Foster, another of Webster’s lawyers, said she was confused and angry that the Justice Department and its junior agency, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, hadn’t moved her client even though a judge had thrown out his death sentence.
She also said that the Biden administration should have seen moving Webster as a small, uncontroversial step toward President Joe Biden’s promise during his campaign to end government killings for good.