THE meeting was a momentous one for young law student LaToya Morgan, so there was an understandable tension in the air.

Sitting opposite her, behind a plastic screen, in a brightly lit, windowless room was a man in shackles.

Bald and wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, the man had shuffled uncomfortably to a plastic stool and now politely waited for her to begin their conversation.

It started hesitantly, but soon flowed, despite the inhibiting surroundings.

For the meeting took place on Death Row at the Arizona State Prison recently.

His guards had seen fit to shackle the prisoner’s feet because he was considered particularly dangerous. If so, he gave no hint of that during the meeting.

Poll result: Should the UK bring back the death penalty?
Yes 48 percent
No 52 percent

Ahead of him, unless he wins a reprieve through an appeal, lies the death chamber in which he will be executed by lethal injection.

It may not happen soon or for a good many years, but that is his future.

The killer – or client as LaToya, aged 21, refers to him and all those she met – cannot be named at the moment, nor the detail of their conversation.

But what she can say is that he and all the others she had dealings with were surprisingly, even shockingly, normal.

In fact, LaToya actually found all of them “likeable” and eager to talk.

“I didn’t feel any fear at all, I saw him as a person, not a murderer,” said LaToya, who is aiming to be a criminal defence lawyer after she graduates.

“I hadn’t known what to expect. But all the clients I met were just like normal people and they were just talking normally.

“They are surrounded by concrete walls and are in solitary confinement so they really like to talk.

“And they were all likeable people, although with a couple you could see they had real mental health issues.”

Her meeting was one was just one of many extraordinary sessions experienced by LaToya during a seven week summer internship in America working on Death Row cases.

It has clearly made a big impact on her life.

Two years ago, before LaToya began her legal studies, she was a supporter of the death penalty.

“I agreed with it because I wasn’t educated enough about it,” she says. “I just thought that if you killed someone you deserved to die.

“But I didn’t realise how unfair it actually was. Now I know that people’s race, social background and mental capacity can all affect the outcome of the trial and sentence I realise it isn’t fair.