The Associated Press

CLEVELAND - The only woman on Ohio's death row said she lives a miserable existence in a windowless closet-sized cell and has to bang on its door "like an animal" to get food or medical attention.

Donna Roberts, 59, convicted of murder in a conspiracy to kill her ex-husband, complained in an Oct. 13 letter to Ohio S.O.R.T., a prisoner advocacy organization in the Cleveland suburb of Berea.

Warden Deborah Timmerman-Cooper of the Ohio Reformatory for Women said some of Roberts' complaints were justified, but that most had been addressed.

Ohio's death row at Mansfield Correctional Institution has no facilities for women, so Roberts, from Howland Township near Warren, is in the segregation wing at the women's prison in Marysville.

"Because I am back in this corner, I must bang on my door like an animal to get my tray, turn in trash and even for the nurse to bring me meds," Roberts wrote.

Cindy Mollick, director of the 300-member group, said on Saturday she respects that Roberts must be punished for her crime, but that she shouldn't be treated differently from men.

"Certain hygiene products, she's not allowed, but the men on death row are," Mollick said. "Why are women treated worse than men?"