Inside ‘torture’ prison where former FedEx driver who killed girl, 7, will spend rest of life
Earlier this week, Tanner Horner was given a death sentence by a jury after a weeks-long court case.
The former FedEx delivery driver pleaded guilty to killing seven-year-old Athena Strand.
Horner was delivering the Texas girl’s Christmas present (a box of Barbie dolls) to her home on 20 November 2022 when he kidnapped her. Athena was then later found dead not far from the property two days later.
Having pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping as his trial began, the 34-year-old will take up residence at the Polunsky Unity, the infamous death row prison outside of Houston.
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This place has previously been referred to as a ‘form of torture’ with the shortest stay being just 252 days before the inmate was put to death in 1996.
Some inmates at the Polunsky Unity have been there for nearly 50 years, with the longest awaiting their execution having been condemned back in 1977.
However, it is usually shorter, with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice putting the average death row stay at just over 11 years.
The place is referred to as an ‘all-solitary’ site where the inmates are held in single, 60-square-foot cells for at least 22 hours a day. In this ‘lockdown’ time, they have no access to phones, TVs or contact visits. Death row inmates at the Polunsky Unit are said to have the letters 'DR' on the back of their white cotton shirts.
The cells are said to be furnished with just a metal bunk with a thin mattress, a metal desk and a metal toilet and sink.
Each day, they have a ‘recreation’ hour where inmates are reportedly segregated in different cages to minimise their possibility of human contact.
Those in the Polunsky Unit are said to be subjected to constant surveillance, and Horner will eat his meals in his cell, with little to do other than read or entertain himself with a pen and paper.
Any other time he spends outside of his cell will be for brief showers or for time with visitors.
But even during visitations at the Polunsky Unit, inmates will sit behind a pane of glass.
Advocacy group SolitaryWatch has called the facility ‘inhumane’ with family members saying it’s a ‘form of torture’.
During a 2023 lawsuit, a group of inmates said the solitary confinement policy was a ‘psychologically and physically damaging practice’.
Jurors hearing Horner’s case had a choice of sentencing him to death or life in prison without parole and ultimately chose a death sentence.
While the date remains yet-to-be-determined, he is set to be executed by lethal injection.
Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, said to Horner in the court: “You destroyed a family. You will feel the wrath of God.
"I want you to know that you are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena's story. Her name will forever be remembered, her name will forever be celebrated, and everyone will forget you."
Jess Battison