Bob Williams spent over half his life on death row at San Quentin after raping and murdering Mary Breck in 1994. Despite his horrific crime, he found personal transformation through spirituality and literature while incarcerated. In 2022, he was relocated to a different facility, returning to a life among fellow inmates after decades of isolation. The state is closing San Quentin's death row to focus on rehabilitation, prompting the transfer of hundreds of condemned inmates like Williams.
Sad as it may sound, he said, getting sent to San Quentin was the best thing that ever happened to me. I went to prison with the idea of No. 1, finding God.
On death row, he built a life amid the dank cells of concrete and iron stacked five stories high. He soaked up books on philosophy and spirituality, finding solace in the poem Invictus.
In the spring of 2022, Williams was uprooted from his solitary world and transferred to a prison in San Diego County. There, for the first time in decades, he would eat with other men.
The state has transferred hundreds of condemned men from San Quentin's death row to other prisons as part of a plan to transform the facility into a model for rehabilitation.
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