Andrea Jackson in the prison visitors room.
Fighting Demons
on Death Row
Photographs by Ashkan SahiniBy KATHY DOBIE
Andrea Hicks Jackson has become engrossed by demons. She reads any book about them she can get her hands on, notes their every appearance in the Bible. She has an eye for the cracks where disease and despair slither in. The more Andrea knows, the deeper her prayers become. Kneeling in her jail cell, the air around her clatters, a passageway for the spirits: an ill wind, then a reassuring warmth.
Andrea's in solitary confinement, where she asked to be put so she could pray in peace. In the cells around her in the Jacksonville, Florida jail are women stripped down to their underwear, under suicide watch. Down the hall, a woman shouts in her sleep, "Get off me! Get off! Don't hurt me!" Over and over the same plea until Andrea yells, "Don't make me come down there and cast you out!" Quiet follows, like an astonished pause...there's a Christian on the suicide block!
For over twelve years now, Andrea Jackson has lived in places where the air's thick with grief. For almost as long as that she's been engaged in battle. She murdered a man and then she was saved by Jesus. As soon as she was saved, as soon as she allowed herself hope, Andrea committed herself to battle against despair.
She wears her hair in a short Afro, "natural as God intended it," and has an impish gap between her two front teeth. Her sneakers are covered with scripture. She's written the names of God there, dozens of them in silver and purple ink. "Anchor of our Souls," "Rose of Sharon," "El Shaddai," "Most Ancient of Days." There's a passage in the Bible that explains the sneakers. "Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. Stand therefore...having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace."
In 1983, when Andrea was 25, she shot and killed a black Jacksonville police officer, and was sentenced to die. She was sent to Broward Correctional Institute which currently houses Forida's death row for women. Twice, the Supreme Court of Florida lifted Andrea's sentence, and each time she was returned to Jacksonville to be re-sentenced. In November, at her second resentencing hearing, a jury again recommended that Andrea get the death penalty. Any day now she'll be shipped south to death row.
Next page: Despair and regeneration
