Louisiana State Penitentiary to get new, expanded death row

A planned $6 million overhaul of Louisiana's death row and execution house will add 59 cells and expand the area where witnesses view executions, corrections officials said.

Richard Stalder, state corrections secretary, said the expanded witness area could be necessary in a serial killing case. State law requires that 2 relatives of each victim be allowed to witness an execution, but the current witness area holds only about 10 people.

Derrick Todd Lee, accused in the killing of 6 south Louisiana women, has yet to face trial and has been indicted in 1 death. He could face the death penalty.

"The concept of a serial killer ... makes us realize that we need an enhanced capacity," Stalder said.

State law says at least 1 member of the news media also must witness an execution, and other witnesses typically include a coroner and the condemned's lawyer and spiritual adviser.

Death row, with 101 solitary cells, is now in a concrete building near the prison's front gate in Angola, in rural West Feliciana Parish. After the expansion, expected to be complete in 18 months, death row would have 160 cells and sit farther away from the gate.

"We just want to be prepared," said Cathy Fontenot, an assitant warden at Angola.

The execution house is now about 5 miles from death row. The new facility, where condemned inmates are put to death by lethal injection, will be built near the new death row, Stalder said.

The last person put to death at Angola was Leslie Dale Martin, executed last year for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old McNeese State University coed.