Dan Walker On Death Row: I can't stop thinking about being inside an execution room

He also thought it must be strange to be on death row and not have a single clue about what will happen to you, especially if you are innocent.

It’s why Walker, best-known for presenting shows such as Classic FM and Football Focus, wanted to explore America’s death penalty system first-hand, and interview people from all sides of the debate, including convicted prisoners, executioners, families of victims and inmates who have been exonerated, in a one-off 5 documentary, Dead Man Walking: Dan Walker On Death Row.

In the 90-minute series from ITN Productions, the current 5 News journalist also learns about the emotional toll death row has on those who carry out executions, and whether his findings challenged his Christian beliefs and views on capital punishment.

“I tried not to go into my research with any pre-judgment,” says the 48-year-old, who lives in Sheffield.

“Whenever I do a subject like this, I want to meet the people and try and understand where they’re coming from, and why they tick the way they do.

"It’s easy to judge from this side of the pond until you get there and you see how ingrained in the system it is.

“I hadn’t fully understood the impact that being involved in the industry of death has on all the people who work in it. They’ll never be the same people because of what they’ve seen.

"And I hadn’t thought of that angle of it, of how hard it is to be involved and to be employed in that industry where, essentially, you are taking someone’s life away, and the toll that it takes.

“The men I spoke to in the documentary shared how much you are changed by being in a room when someone has their life removed, and what it’s like to see that when you go to sleep, and to have those memories in your mind all the time.

"Even though America is a very civilised country, there’s a real brutality to the death penalty, which you can’t get away from.”

In the show, Walker also looks at whether Britain could ever follow America’s example and talks about the most surprising misconceptions he came across.

“Whenever people talk about death row, they always ask what your last meal would be. And I think the biggest surprise is that there is no last meal. They don’t do it anymore. That’s definitely one factor they will take away,” he says.

“I think the other thing is that it’s a far more nuanced debate. We haven’t put anyone to death in this country for many decades.

"But if you asked what people think of the death penalty, various polls will tell you that somewhere between 30 and 35 per cent of people will agree with it, if you mention a specific crime or criminal.

“It’s certainly a relevant debate to have here. And I know many people would say they want to bring it back for certain crimes, but I don’t think we ever will because of the finality of it, which really strikes me.

“My 15-year-old daughter sort of summarised it when I told her I was doing this documentary. She said, ‘Who’s got the right to decide whether someone lives or dies?

"Because I wouldn’t want to make that decision. And even if a murderer has taken away someone else’s life, is it right to murder them and commit the crime that they’re going to spend the rest of their life in jail for? It’s still a death.’

"That’s a really interesting way of looking at it. When is it ever right to murder in response to a murder?”

Walker reflects on how faith and forgiveness contribute to the debate, having spent time talking to people, including on the gurney team, about the matter of religion.

“For me as a Christian, maybe I’ll focus on forgiveness and that message, but they are far more focused on the justice side of things.

"We believe in the same God, and yet we sit on a different side of that debate. And I greatly respect their opinion, but I spent a lot of time mulling that over.

“We all have our opinions, I’m pretty safe and secure in that. I’m not a particularly opinionated broadcaster.

"I never want you to watch my programmes or anything I present, and think I want you to think the same. I’ve never done that.

"But I hope viewers can take something away from this really complicated debate.

"You might come at it with one idea or one point of view, but it broadens your view of the people involved in it, the impact it has, but also just how ingrained death row is in American life, and how fundamentally different our justice system is from theirs.”

Walker says he has thought about the inside of an execution room every day since he entered one.

“There’s a weird silence in there. I think about certain aspects of it all the time, like the fact that they positioned it specifically in the middle of the jail, so that when the door slammed and the noise was so loud, every inmate could hear it.

"They wanted to remind people that they put people to death in that room, to get justice in America. It’s just the brutality of it.”

Dead Man Walking: Dan Walker On Death Row comes to 5 on Wednesday, May 7.

It is part of a mini-season of shows on the channel dedicated to the theme of law and order, including a documentary on Wandsworth Prison, a drama set in a future where parents are criminally responsible for the actions of their children, and a social experiment tackling the subject of sentencing.