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A former Death Row prison officer has opened up about the experiences that continue to haunt him decades after leaving the job, including one disturbing incident that permanently changed the way he viewed other people.
David Beechy grew up in an Amish community before leaving to build a different life. He eventually trained as a correctional officer and spent 14 months working inside a Tennessee prison housing Death Row inmates.
Although he initially viewed the role as simply a job, the experiences he witnessed had a lasting psychological impact and ultimately convinced him that working in law enforcement wasn't for him.
Speaking to Rise Above with Kevin Lanning, David described the job as "a crazy adrenaline rush that never happened because you're always on guard, you're always watching."
Conditions varied considerably between prisoners. Some were permitted just an hour of recreation and a 15-minute walk, while others could spend up to eight hours outside their cells without handcuffs. Despite their circumstances, David said many inmates behaved themselves.
"A lot of guys had been there 15, 20, 30 years – that's a lot of time to get that young vinegar out of your system and realize you're there for the long haul," he explained.
Officers were also expected to maintain extremely high standards because prisoners' lawyers could potentially challenge their conduct.
"You had to behave well as a CO because their lawyers were looking for a reason to sue you. You were held at a very high standard," David said.
He added that the prison captain carefully selected officers who were unlikely to constantly provoke confrontations with inmates.
"He would try to choose guys who he knew weren't coming in to pick a fight every other day," he said.
Over time, however, David's perception of Death Row inmates changed significantly.
"I've thought a lot more about death row people since I've not worked there," he admitted.
One prisoner was only around two years older than David, prompting him to consider how little separated the two men in age.
"Man, there's not that much difference between you and me," he recalled thinking.
David also believes the public can struggle to understand how dramatically someone can change during decades on Death Row.
"Some of those guys that have been on Death Row for 20 years are not the same person," he said.
While acknowledging that they should still face punishment, David added: "They're no longer that kid chopped up on drugs going around killing people for 60 bucks to get their next hit."
But one event in particular remains firmly lodged in his memory: witnessing an execution.
David said the atmosphere inside the entire prison changed in the weeks surrounding it.
"They executed one inmate during my time there and the whole unit changed. In the few weeks leading up to it and about a week afterward everything was just quiet, just eerily quiet."
He recalled prisoners refusing to attend recreation and described the period as an "extremely high stress situation."
David also remembered conducting a strip search on a prisoner after the man was informed that his execution date had been set and his appeals had been exhausted.
"It was like he had just left. His body was there but he had just checked out," David recalled.
The prisoner began giving away belongings during the following day because he knew he would no longer need them.
"For me now it's so crazy to see someone you know is completely healthy see that date come along," David said.
Another incident was considerably more graphic. David recalled an inmate experiencing a psychotic episode in which he seriously injured himself.
"One of the inmates tried to cut his own penis off. That was probably the craziest and grossest things," he said.
According to David, the prisoner was hearing voices and repeatedly cutting himself.
"This guy was cutting at an angle and cutting back in towards his stomach and cutting several inches deep. He was having a psychotic episode."
The man was subsequently treated and placed on medication.
The experiences have continued to affect David long after leaving the prison. He says he still prefers sitting with his back against a wall and instinctively watches people's body language and behavior.
Now a husband and father, he believes becoming a parent has made him reflect on his former career differently.
"Now looking back and realizing what I was in the middle of – it's just you doing your job and you don't think about it that much," he said.
"I would say it affects me more now more than it ever has, maybe it's because I have kids."
Ultimately, David realized that the environment was not something he wanted to remain in.
"I just realized it wasn't for me," he explained. "At that point I kind of knew law enforcement wasn't for me."
Having grown up Amish before entering such an intense environment, he said the experience changed the way he viewed humanity - something he didn't want to carry with him permanently.
"Growing up Amish and moving into such a high stress environment I just realized I don't want to see people the way that makes you see people."
David said some former colleagues managed to maintain a healthier balance between work and their personal lives, while others became completely consumed by the job.
"They go through four marriages and their kids don't talk to them because they live this crazy not normal life," he said.
"The way you see humans is not the same."
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You would think that, whether you deserve to be in there or not, being a prisoner would leave you with some resentment towards the guards. Knowing that they come in, enforce the law, and then go home to their family and loved ones at the end of their shift while you have to stay in your cell, it must be a little frustrating to witness.
However, it seems that whatever bad feeling there may be, these inmates jumped into action at exactly the right time. Footage has made its way online of this group breaking out of their cell to save a prison guard having a heart attack. In the video, you can see them notice him slumping down in his seat as he fell unconscious.
Some move forward to check if he's okay while the others attract the attention of other guards. As soon as help arrives they are locked back up in their cell.
This incident occurred on June 23 2016 at Parker County District Courthouse, but now is the first time that Gary Grimm, the guard in question, has spoken about what happened. While he doesn't remember much of what happened, but told WHAS11 News about the event.
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"They thought I was kidding," Grimm said, referring to the first reactions of the prisoners. "I wasn't."
"I just slumped and went out. Next thing I remember is looking up at the ceiling in the ER.
"Instead of overtaking me and taking my gun, and killing me or taking a hostage and escaping, they looked at me as a human being
"I get emotional. If they wished harm for me, all they had to do was sit there and do nothing."
However, he never got a chance to thank the inmates, as they were transported elsewhere while he recovered.
After twenty years working in security at Texas jails, he said that he treats inmates the way he would like to be treated.
"I don't care if they're a drug user, hot check writer, or child molester. They're still a human being. I don't have to like what they did, but it's not my position to be the judge and jury."
The 52-year-old retired in December because of his ongoing heart concerns, and is set for open heart surgery this week to get an LVAD (Left Ventricle Assistance Device) installed, after which will give him some temporary help. "I need that for at least six months, and then maybe we can have a transplant," he said.
A Go Fund Me page has been created by one of his close friends to help raise money for his treatment. The money would go towards extra expenses while he waits for the transplant to be approved. To date, the effort has raised $14,000 of its $75,000 goal, so there is some way still to go.
Hopefully, Gary pulls through and gets the transplant he has been hoping for.
An American inmate has opened up about some of the thoughts he's had on his own life after being arrested and convicted.
Texas native Jeremy Busby was sentenced to 75 years in prison after being convicted of murder in 1999.
Just 19 at the time of the shooting, he was with a woman when they were approached by two men in a motel parking lot, who became hostile as they believed he was there to buy drugs.
They were mistaken, Jeremy says, and after he was threatened with physical violence and tried to stop the situation from escalating, he fatally shot the man because he feared for his life.
With no previous arrests for violence, Jeremy was held for four months in Dallas County Jail, as his website JoinJeremy adds that he "was represented at trial by a defense attorney who conducted no pretrial investigation and called no witnesses."
An all-white jury would find him guilty, and Jeremy remains incarcerated, almost 20 years after the “Stand Your Ground law” was codified in Texas back in 2007, which supporters argue would have strengthened his self-defense claim.
The Texas-based prisoner spoke exclusively to VT about his experiences both before prison and after spending over 25 years behind bars.
Jeremy opened up about losing his single mother at age three, while also growing up in the foster care system, surrounded by drugs, guns, and violence.
"I grew up in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. My mom was kidnapped and murdered when I was three years old, and that set off a bunch of negative consequences in my life," he said.
Jeremy explained: “Most of those negative consequences prohibited me and stagnated my growth, and prohibited me from understanding what humanity or life was really all about."
“It was only after I came to prison that I realized that the world is a lot bigger than the crime-ridden neighborhood that I grew up in, for example, that average people don't carry guns and don't settle disputes with violence,” the inmate admitted.
Jeremy has since become an academic and a journalist while in prison, taking time to attend college and work on his craft.
Reflecting on his life in the outside world, he admitted: "I was surrounded with crime, a bunch of poverty and poor education - my world was very, very small and I didn't have an outlet to see the bigger picture of people who were going to work and developing their skills, going off to college..."
He admitted that these concepts were first introduced to him in prison, adding: "Those are the only things I can actually say that I wish I had done differently; it wasn't very much that I could have done differently."
Jeremy spoke about some of the issues in society and how people with challenging socioeconomic backgrounds can struggle to be successful, stating: "I wish that there were more resources for people like me."
The journalist, who previously became the first black staff writer at Texas prison newspaper, The ECHO, added: "Because all the resources and all the things we're taught are very limited, there wasn't very much that I could do with the information that I had."
He said his life was transformed after going to prison because he gained greater access to information.
"That's pretty much the nutshell about my youth, because I committed this crime at the age of 19, and I've been in prison ever since."
Speaking about the failed structure of society, Jeremy said: "I think we are still faced with the same situations here in prison.
"I see young guys come in all the time, that reminds me of my 19-year-old self; they have a single-parent household, sometimes they grow up as an orphan as I did, and they don't have any positive role models."
Jeremy believes that this is an issue that needs to be resolved to stop this vicious cycle, also citing a lack of positive role models.
He then made a powerful revelation about many in similar situations to him: "The first time they left their neighborhood, the crime-ridden ghetto they grew up in, is when they got in the back seat of the police car.
"The first time that they left the city where they grew up is when they were transported to the prison system, so it's hard to expect people who wake up surrounded by gang violence, drugs, and poverty, as well as people who are suffering from drug addiction and mental illness."
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He also opened up about strain theory, which Jeremy says explains how society functions across the world, as "people have to work with the resources that they have available to them."
"When you don't have the proper resources available, then you have to utilize abnormal methods," the inmate said.
Jeremy explained: "There are solutions to fix that. And sadly, in the 28 years, this is my 28th year in prison, I have seen little to no change in any of it."
Looking back at his sentencing, Jeremy candidly admitted: "I remember minutes afterwards they locked me into this jail cell. I was all by myself, and I stayed there for, like, about an hour, and I was constantly thinking about what that meant for me."
"What it really means is that I'm going to have to spend at least the next 30 calendar years inside of prison before I become eligible for release back into society, and that hit me pretty hard."
Former prisoners have taken to social media to share what shocked them most about the world when they got out - and the answers may surprise you.
A recent Reddit thread asked users: "People who did a long time in prison, what was your biggest shock of the outside world?"
The question clearly struck a chord when it was posted on the social media website, and it wasn't long before prisoners and their loved ones alike began to share their stories about the most surprising things they realized about society when they finally regained their freedom.
One of the most upvoted responses was from the son of a former prisoner who wrote: "My father was incarcerated from 2003 to 2016 and the biggest shock for him was technology and how much McDonald's has raised prices."
A second user, mycatsnameisgregory, wrote: "A friend of mine was very surprised by the new Coke Freestyle machines!"
A third user, Rapunzel6506, revealed: "One of the hardest things for me once I got out was making choices. Let me explain: In prison, you might have two choices for shampoo if you're lucky. The first time I went shopping for hygiene essentials was at Target.
"I remember being so overwhelmed by the amount of choices for shampoo and having no idea which one to get. I stood in that aisle and cried for a few minutes before I just left without getting anything."
"Just money in general...You have no idea how to handle money. That takes a little time to get used to," added tinkinoutsidedabox.
However, sometimes the things that can surprise former prisoners are a lot more bizarre. Case in point.
"My old boss spent seven years behind bars," shared GOAT1915. "He said the morning he got out, his grandmother picked him up and they went to Target. He said his eyes were hurting because he hadn't seen the color red in years."
"My bro only did a year, but he was let out with a guy who did 30+ years," added ImsoAmerican. "He tells the story of him having to explain a smartphone to the other guy. 'Imagine anything you want. Whatever you want, and whatever you want to know...it's on your phone now.'"
This wasn't the first prisoner to be shocked at the development of technology while they were behind bars. Another shared how much it disturbed them.
"I went in around the first iPhone," wrote DRACOSAPIEN. "Came out around 2014 and what disturbed me the most wasn't so much smartphones but how everyone everywhere had one in their hand staring at it. It felt very Black Mirror/Twilight Zone-ish."
"Just got out," wrote vexterion1. "Weirdest thing was seeing all these damn scooters laying everywhere."
However, as this prisoner shared, while there are the obvious changes that can take place while a person is behind bars, sometimes it really is the simple things that can shock you.
"I had a TA in college who was an ex-felon due to a dumb situation he got involved in when he was a teenager. He was tried as an adult and did 10 years," wrote maxxamillion04. "When he got out, he said the strongest immediate impression he got was from trees. He said they were so huge and looming, and he always felt like they were leaning toward him, like they were about to fall over."
And sometimes you appreciate the simple things more than ever before.
"My brother just recently got out after four years!" shared dessertneutral. "The first thing he did was take a shower, then run his feet along the carpet in the house. He said he 'just had to.'"
But sometimes the outside world and its advances can seem brilliant to prisoners. Like these former inmates who couldn't get over the power of Spotify.
"I have two family members who did a very decent amount of time...and of all the things that could've blown their mind, Spotify was the biggest," wrote malemartian. "Even the obscure house artists they were buddies with back in '89 were on there. Not having to burn any CDs or buy records. They still can't get over it."
A former death row inmate who spent more than two decades behind bars has revealed what it was like sharing prison with serial killer Ted Bundy, and says another notorious murderer left him with an even darker impression.
Nick Yarris was sentenced to death in 1982 and spent 23 years in prison before DNA evidence proved his innocence, leading to his release in 2005.
Speaking about his time behind bars exclusively to VT, Yarris explained that he was initially housed in a harsh disciplinary unit at Pennsylvania's Huntingdon State Correctional Institution before later being transferred to death row, where he crossed paths with some of America's most infamous killers, including Ted Bundy and convicted murderer Gary Heidnik.
Recalling his encounters with Bundy, Yarris said the serial killer's reputation didn't match the man he saw inside prison.
"He was a little b****," Yarris said. "He was a braggadocious idiot."
According to Yarris, Bundy largely kept quiet while incarcerated because of how inmates viewed men who targeted women and children.
"He wasn't allowed to speak to anyone," Yarris recalled. "See, out on the street men who prey on children and women are monsters. Put them in prison around real men? They shut right the f**k up and know their place."
Yarris also claimed he unintentionally caused Bundy to be assaulted by other inmates during his time in prison.
He went on to describe Bundy as deeply self-absorbed, saying: "Everything had to be about him. Bundy was insane. He had something snide to say about everything. He was on this glorification mission.
"He was a megalomaniac, he made everything grandiose. He bragged about making judges stutter. He was just a self-absorbed a**hole."
Despite Bundy's notoriety, Yarris believes another death row inmate was even more unsettling.
When asked whether anyone he'd encountered was comparable to Bundy, Yarris pointed to Gary Heidnik, who was convicted of kidnapping, torturing, and murdering women in Philadelphia before being executed in 1999.
"When they walked Gary Heidnik past my cell to execute him, I physically felt evil," Yarris said.
"It was like cold blackness."
He added: "When he walked two feet from my cell I actually stepped backwards. The energy pushed me back."
Yarris also recalled what he described as a dramatic change in Heidnik's demeanor in his final moments.
"When they got him into the death chamber they showed him the daughter he'd fathered through rape. All that bravado disappeared. God broke him at the end."
After being officially exonerated in 2005, Yarris has dedicated much of his life to campaigning against capital punishment.
He has since written a play, developed a screenplay and television series based on his experiences, and spoken before the Geneva Convention, where he has argued for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States.
In April 1985, police officer Julius Schulte was shot and killed. The police account stated that Schulte was responding to a domestic disturbance call at the time. He asked the culprit, Vernon Madison, to leave the property as he looked after the woman he was living with, Cheryl Ann Greene, and her 11-year-old daughter. Madison pretended to leave, but instead retrieved a pistol, crept behind Schulte's car and shot him in the back of the head. After this, he shot Greene as she fled from the scene.
Madison, now 67 years old, has been on death row for decades now - with his execution planned for last Thursday. The lethal injection procedure was set to happen at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore last week, but a temporary stay of execution was granted by the US Supreme Court only 30 minutes before.
His ultimate fate is undecided, but the defence argued that it would be unconstitutional to follow through on this "cruel and unusual punishment", given the fact that Madison has no memory of the crimes he committed.
Madison's first two convictions were thrown out due to racial discrimination in the jury selection, in addition to other misconduct by prosecutors. However, in his third trial in 1994, he was sentenced to death. In the decades he has spent on death row, he has suffered several strokes, which have now left him blind, unable to walk without aid, with speaking problems, and dementia.
His lawyers at the Equal Justice Initiative have argued that he has been left unable to remember his crimes or understand the punishment given. According to AL.com, the EJI request stated:
"It is undisputed that Mr. Madison suffers from vascular dementia as a result of multiple serious strokes in the last two years and no longer has a memory of the commission of the crime for which he is to be executed.
"[He] does not rationally understand why the State of Alabama is attempting to execute him"
The law dictates that executing those with severe mental illnesses or other cognitive impairments would violate their rules on "cruel and unusual punishment", but it is still to be decided whether this case matches up with these definitions.
In 2016, the Alabama-based Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that his memory loss made him ineligible for execution. However, the Supreme Court overturned this last November. At the time they stated that there is no precedent for the idea that "a prisoner is incompetent to be executed because of a failure to remember his commission of the crime".
It seems that these recent health developments may change their view on the matter. "It is disappointing that justice is again delayed for the victim's family," Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Friday morning. "The State opposes Madison's delay tactics and will continue to pursue the execution of his death sentence."
Madison's attorneys are currently awaiting clarifications from the court to see whether this temporary stay becomes a permanent one.
