A nearly half-century-old crucifix modeled from the body of a pardoned death-row inmate is safely in storage after crews salvaged it from a prison chapel in Fairfax County.
The 15-by-8-foot crucifix was pulled last week from the former Lorton Prison chapel and hauled to a climate-controlled facility in Forestville, Md.
Officials are now considering a permanent home for the crucifix after its eventual restoration. The artifact, now flaking from years of neglect in the derelict chapel, has a peculiar history behind it dating back to 1961.
“I think it’s in good hands right now to stabilize it and start the restoration,” said Irma Clifton, president of the Lorton Heritage Society and editor of the South County Chronicle.
The plastic likeness of Christ’s body was modeled on a man sentenced to the electric chair for the 1948 shooting of a government engineer, said Clifton, who referenced archived newspaper records.
The man, whose name could not be traced on Tuesday, was granted a reprieve after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his death sentence, Clifton said. On the crucifix, she said, the traditional wound on Christ’s side was omitted to show the prisoner model was still alive.
Both the sculptor, serving a 10-year sentence for robbery, and the painter were inmates at Lorton. Inmates also carved out the two oak logs that make up the cross.
“Not only is it a religious icon, it’s also a work of art,” Clifton said. “We have to decide how this crucifix will be displayed, eventually.”
One possible home is a planned museum dedicated to Lorton on the site of the shuttered prison, part of a massive revitalization effort on the more than 2,000-acre site.
While the body caste is in “pretty good shape,” it is missing fingers and is splattered with dried ceiling tile debris, said Chris Caperton, coordinator for the county’s project to reuse the former prison.
