I Saw Them Take My Father’s Life on Death Row

The longest seven minutes of my existence

Photo: Erik S.Lesser/Getty

I was two years old when they took my father away.

Once a month, without missing a date, my mother would take me to see him in prison for an hour-long visit. Fifteen years later, the only father I could get to know was a man in a white jumpsuit behind a bulletproof screen. I spent 180 hours…