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Tanner Horner, a convicted child murderer, has been sentenced to death by a Texas jury and is set to spend his remaining days at one of the state’s most notorious death row facilities.
Horner, who is 34 years old, is now incarcerated at the Polunsky Unit, a prison renowned for its harsh conditions. Located near Houston, this facility is known for housing death row inmates in solitary confinement, where they endure at least 22 hours daily in their 60-square-foot cells.
The former FedEx delivery driver was transferred to this infamous facility on Tuesday, shortly after being sentenced for the horrific murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Horner confessed to strangling the young girl while delivering a Christmas package to her home in November 2022.
Horner will remain at Polunsky Unit until his execution by lethal injection, a process that might take several years or even decades as he navigates the appeals process.
In accordance with Texas capital punishment laws, Horner’s case automatically enters an appeal phase, ensuring he will spend an extended period behind bars before facing his ultimate fate.
But Horner could have decades ahead of him if he chooses to push his appeal and finds grounds to.
The Polunsky Unit has death row inmates who have been sitting there for nearly 50 years, with the longest awaiting their execution since being condemned in 1977.
Most are killed far quicker, however, with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice listing the average stay on death row at just over 11 years.
The shortest stay was under a year, with an inmate serving just 252 days before being put to death in 1996.
Exactly how hard Horner intends to appeal his case is unclear — but he admitted to killing little Athena on the first day of his trial, with disturbing footage of him kidnapping the girl before singing Christmas carols while he murdered her, prompting a jury to send him to death row.
Horner’s cell will be furnished with nothing more than a metal bunk and thin mattress, a metal desk and a metal toilet and sink just feet from the bed.
He’ll spend nearly the entire day in there — he’ll eat his meals in the cell, and he’ll have access to no entertainment beyond reading materials and a pen and paper to write with.
Horner will also be subjected to constant surveillance, with hourly checks that continue through the night that will prevent him from getting continuous sleep, NBC 5 reported.
And he’ll only be let out for an hour of exercise per day — but even then will be kept in a small cage intended to prevent him from having any contact with his fellow inmates.
Any other time spent outside of his cell will be for brief showers or time with visitors.
Visitations are also designed to keep prisoners isolated — Horner will never be able to see somebody from the outside world without a pain of glass between them.
Conditions at the Polunsky Unit are so severe that advocacy groups like SolitaryWatch have called the prison “inhumane,” while family members of those incarcerated have called the unit “a form torture.”
A group of inmates called the prison’s solitary confinement policy a “psychologically and physically damaging practice” in a 2023 lawsuit which alleged their constitutional rights had been violated by the conditions.
Texas’ notoriously strict death row system was imposed in 1999 after seven inmates escaped from another prison — with the consolidation of all condemned inmates on the Polunsky Unit intended to keep them from congregating as a group and to prevent similar dangerous prison breaks.
The Lonestar State has the highest number of executions in the entire United States.
Horner’s inmates for the rest of his days will be like him — the worst of the worst, who committed especially heinous murders of children and other, oftentimes, helpless individuals.