Antedating of "death row" (1895/1903)

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Although "death row" (i.e., that area of a prison housing the condemned)
appears as early as 1895, it seems that the term didn't really take off (in
U.S. newspapers, at least) until a few years later.  (The OED2, by the way,
gives us something from 1950 as an early usage.

-- Bonnie

==================================================

Pierre was assigned to a stone closet in "death row" -- a tier of cells
reserved exclusively for the aristocracy of crime.  He had none but
murderers for neighbors.

(From "Strange Ways of Paris.  The Story of a Typical French Thief and
Murderer -- His Life and Ways," *The Los Angeles Times*; 9 June 1895, Pg.
17; ProQuest Historical.)

-----------------------------------

In the death row of the prison annex near the cells of the Wade boys one of
the most notorious prisoners in Ohio is also awaiting the chair.

(From "State News Condensed," *The Athens [Ohio] Messenger and Herald*, 10
September 1903, Pg. 7; Newspaperarchive.com.)

-----------------------------------

Should the certificate not issue, then Acting Warden Wright will take
Mortensen from his present cell in the death row and confine him in an
isolated one in some other portion of that wing of the prison.  And from
that day on he will be watched day and night by a prison guard, who will sit
in the corridor near the steel door leading into the condemned man's cell.
As the time draws near for the execution, the vigil will be increased by an
additional guard, and will be given the name of "death watch."

(From "Document Sealing Mortensen's Fate in Sheriff's Hands," The Ogden
[Utah] Standard, 6 October 1903, Pg. 8; Newspaperarchive.com.)

-----------------------------------

About fifteen minutes after 10 o'clock . . . Mortensen's two brothers, Dave
and Henry, arrived at the prison and were standing in the main entrance,
when a few moments later the prisoner was brought out and taken back to his
cell on death row.

(From "Mortensen Failed to Convince Governor Wells," *The Ogden [Utah]
Standard*, 20 November 1903, Pg. 8; Newspaperarchive.com.)

-----------------------------------

Railroad Detective Samson kept the curious people on the move in the car and
close watch was maintained lest any one attempt to harm the man who two
hours later was placed in Death Row behind the great gray walls of Auburn
Prison.

("Laughs on Way to Death Cell," The Post-Standard [Syracuse, NY], 5 August
1905, Pg. 6; Newspaperarchive.com.)

-----------------------------------

[Photo title and caption.] WHERE PENALTY FOR MURDER IS PAID.  PHOTO OF
SECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS STATE PRISON, TAKEN FROM RUTHERFORD AV. ARROW
POINTS OT THE EXECUTION CHAMBER.  THE DOTTED LINE INDICATES THE PART OF THE
PRISON KNOWN AS "DEATH ROW."

(From *The Boston Daily Globe*, 1 June 1906, Pg. 1; ProQuest Historical.)

-----------------------------------

Etc.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org