US3 min(s) read
Published 15:28 08 May 2026 GMT
Convicted child killer Tanner Horner will spend the remainder of his life on death row at one of Texas’ most notorious prisons after a jury sentenced him to death this week.
The 34-year-old former FedEx driver has been transferred to the Polunsky Unit, a maximum-security prison near Houston known for its harsh death row conditions.
Inmates there are held in near-total isolation, spending at least 22 hours each day alone inside 60-square-foot cells.
The murderer arrived at the prison on Tuesday, only hours after receiving the death sentence for the murder of a seven-year-old girl, Athena Strand.
He admitted to strangling the child while delivering a Christmas package to her family home four years ago.
Under Texas law, his conviction automatically triggers an appeal, meaning his execution is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Depending on how aggressively he challenges the verdict, Horner could remain on death row for several years, or even decades.
Some inmates at the Polunsky Unit have spent nearly 50 years awaiting execution, with the longest-serving prisoners dating back to 1977.
However, that said, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice says the average stay on death row is just over 11 years, with one inmate being executed after only 252 days in 1996.
It remains unclear whether Horner plans to pursue lengthy appeals, having admitted to killing Athena.
Jurors were also shown disturbing footage reportedly capturing him abducting the child and singing Christmas songs while carrying out the murder, evidence that ultimately helped secure the death sentence.
Inside the Polunsky Unit, Horner’s cell will reportedly contain only the bare essentials: a metal bedframe with a thin mattress, a metal desk, and a combined sink and toilet.
Horner will be permitted out of his cell for just one hour of exercise per day, though even then he will reportedly remain inside an enclosed cage designed to prevent contact with other prisoners.
Outside time will otherwise be limited to brief showers or monitored visits. Any meetings with visitors take place behind glass, meaning inmates are never physically allowed to interact with people from outside the prison.
The conditions at the Polunsky Unit have faced heavy criticism over the years. Advocacy organisation Solitary Watch has described the prison as “inhumane,” while relatives of inmates have referred to the conditions as “a form torture.”
In a 2023 lawsuit, prisoners challenged the facility’s long-term solitary confinement policy, describing it as a “psychologically and physically damaging practice” that they argued violated constitutional protections.
Texas introduced its strict death row policies in 1999 following the escape of seven inmates from another prison. State officials then centralized condemned prisoners at the Polunsky Unit in an effort to stop inmates from organizing together and to reduce the risk of future escapes.
