On death row, tormented by watching friends march to their executions

Henry McCollum has made many friends since he entered death row in 1984. The worst has been watching his friends being led to execution: North Carolina has executed 42 inmates since McCollum was sentenced in 1984.

“I lost my first friend, John Rook,” McCollum said in a recent interview. “I didn’t look at him like a killer. People do change in prison. That man was like a brother to me.”

Here is a glimpse at McCollum’s life on death row in the words of Central Prison psychologists and psychiatrists who treated him:

This story was originally published August 30, 2014 at 8:00 PM with the headline "On death row, tormented by watching friends march to their executions."