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North Carolina
Wake County Affidavit
I, Eddie Hatcher, declare under penalty of perjury that:
On Thursday night 9/23/99 at about 10:35 p.m. they locked us down in our cells. I laid down and read some of the newspaper and when they turned out the lights around 11 p.m. I messed with my radio and talked through the wall to the convict in the cell next to me. Because there was a scheduled execution at 2 o'clock a.m. there was a guard assigned to stay in the block. When I got up about 11:45 p.m. to use the toilet I looked out the window of my cell door and the guard was standing in front of my cell door about six feet away and talking to the convicts, Darly Johnson and Kenny Boles. I was laughing and talking to my cell neighbor about 11:45 p.m. when my cell door opened and Sgt. Conoly and two officers came storming into my cell ordering me to get up. The officer working the block, J. Williams, asked what was the problem and Sgt. Conoly stated that I had been yelling out of my cell window. Officer Williams stated that I had not been yelling out of my window but talking to this guy in the cell next to me. Sgt. Conoly and the other officers ignored him and they took me out of the block. They took me to the office where Lieutenant Raynor asked me why I had been yelling out of the window and I told him I had not yelled out of the window. He ordered Sgt. Conoly to take me to Unit One, the maximum lockup unit, and I was met by eight to ten guards who escorted me to the cages, made out of chain-link fence, on the recreation yard. The Sgt. from that unit unlocked one of the cages and took me inside. He then told an officer to put me in full restraints. They wrapped a chain around my upper waist extremely tight, then placed my wrists in handcuffs behind my back so tight they ached. They attached the cuffs to the chain behind my back with a black box and placed a padlock on this this so there could be no movement. They then chained my legs together with ankle cuffs. They were so tight that I could feel my skin becoming raw. Then they forced me to the cement, laying me flat on my stomach pushing the side of my head onto the cement. The radio had said that the temperature was 48 degrees and the cement was damp and freezing and all I had on was a thin tee-shirt. After they had me on the cement the Sgt. told me that if I moved they would spray me with mace. I tried to tell them that I couldn't lay in that position because of my dislocated elbow and the cold, damp cement would make me sick as I have AIDS. But the Sgt. told me to shut-up or he would spray me and I better not move. They exited the cage and locked the gate. After I had been laying there about 40 minutes they brought a guy out from death row and put him in full restraints and literally picked him up and threw him to the cement face down as he looked like he weighed only about 140 pounds. He asked why he had to lay like that and the Sgt. shouted, telling him he better shut-up and not move or he would be sprayed. They exited the cage and locked it. The Sgt. and at least eight officers stood and laughed and made jokes about how we were laying, six of us. After about 30 minutes longer the black guy from death row raised only a few inches over and the Sgt. and an officer quickly unlocked the gate, went in and the Sgt. pulled the convict's head back and both the Sgt. and guard held a can of mace two inches from his face and began spraying. After at least 45 seconds of spraying the man directly in his eyes, nose and mouth the Sgt. stopped and shook his can, and they then sprayed some more. Their cans emptied and they then snatched him up and headed for the door into the building yelling, telling the convict to walk. As soon as they entered the building I heard him falling down the steps and then I heard the sound of blows. I then heard this convict, who's name I learned is [name omitted for legal reasons], yelling and screaming and it sounded like real pain. I kept thinking I would be next. About an hour or maybe 45 minutes later they brought [the inmate] back on the yard and when they brought him by my cage his whole face looked like it was swelled so tight that it would pop but I didn't know if it was from the mace or being beat. The only way I know that the execution must have been happening was one of the guards laughed and said, "I wonder if old Harvey is crying about now?" My left arm and wrists were hurting so bad I could hardly take it. I kept trying to look up at the moon to keep from moving. Finally, they opened my cage and took me out. When I got inside the clock said 2:40 a.m. They took me to Captain Peele and he told me I better not be yelling through the wall anymore before an execution. He also said they were fixing to have a lot of executions and if I made noise again I would stay outside chained down all night. They then took me to the nurse's station to be checked before going to lockup. The nurse looked at my wrists and then looked up at the guard. The nurse wrote something about my wrists but I don't know what. They took me and locked me in my cell. The next evening Sgt. Conoly came to my cell and told me I had been written up for calling Associate Warden McCabe a "sorry SOB." I told him I had not even seen McCabe and had been locked in my cell. I have not been able to use my left arm since then and it is severely swollen. I am running a fever, coughing and believe that I have a sinus infection. On Saturday 9/25/99 an officer came to my cell and whispered to me could I help that guy they beat real bad. I didn't know who he was talking about. He then said, "Didn't they beat [the inmate] out on the yard when they had you out there?" That's how I found out what the death row convict's name was. He said the guy was hurt pretty bad and somebody needed to do something about the way they had done us.
Signed this the 27th day of September, 1999
Eddie Hatcher
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