Would you want to be an execution witness?

Maybe if it was Earl Williams?

 

I've been in a rotation in Virginia and traded off (to Richmond, I think it was) because the convicted murderer was from their area. I would take no pleasure in reporting on such a thing, but I'll take no pleasure from reporting from the Mississippi State-Gardner Webb football game this fall, either. Just another kind of death sentence, it seems to me.

Part of the job, if that's your job.

 

Mrs. Wretch, a newsie, has witnessed two over the years.

Her attitude was "I want to do it because it's my job." But watching them happened turned her from a pro-death penalty stance to questioning whether the state should be in the business of killing people.

 

Definitely.

 

I'm not a fan of the death penalty.
But if I had covered a case, I'd definitely want to be there.
And in the case of a couple of cases I covered as a news reporter (one woman starved her daughter to death, and a guy went on a multi-county racially motivated killing spree), I could be induced to pull the switch myself.

 

Maybe my committment to journalism isn't as strong as that of many here, but there's no way I'd witness that shit. I don't care if I covered the story or if the guy killed my wife and son. Too much dark shit gets in our worlds without invitation for me to subject myself to that on purpose. The last moment's of a condemned man are between him and his deity. I sure as hell don't need to be a part of it.

And, BTW, I'm in favor of the death penalty. Think it would be a great idea for anybody convicted of snatching a kid and killing them ... on the first offense. I just don't wanna see it.

 

"He goes to deep short . . . backhands it . . . turns . . . throws . . . out!"

A deep bow and a tip of the hat to you, sir.

You get it.

 

That's a great story, thanks for sharing. Like many others, I would do it for my job, but not out of any particular desire. I would be interested to see how it happens, but I think that the memories might stay with me for way too long, especially if things didn't go as planned, the prisoner screamed and yelled and made a scene, the families made a scene, etc.

 

I guess there are some people I wouldn't mind watch dying, depending on what they did. For example, if someone killed a family member or close friend, I would want to be there.

And if it was something for work, like a case i was covering (not that i do), i would want to be there.

 

I wouldn't want to, personally, but I wonder something else:

If everyone was forced to watch an execution -- if we televised them and broke into all programming, for instance, would support for the death penalty go up or down?

 

This is exactly why I agreed to cover an execution at my first job, about eight years ago. My experience was pretty similar to bp's, minus the crying family and any sound once the fluids started flowing. All I saw was a couple heavy breaths and it was over.

He made a statement saying he was sorry for killing a trooper and his own girlfriend before trying to off himself - he failed at the suicide but shot his own eye out. Not a great loss.

Did it change my stance on the death penalty? Nah. You definitely feel that a life has been taken but there's nothing disturbing about it. Plus, I've always been sort of on the fence about it - mostly because I don't think it's done right. Like Zeke said, if we're going to make this a part of our society I think it should be out in the open, not treat the condemned like the shark-bit surfer from the move, "The Beach" ... like it didn't happen.

The neatest part of the experience was the pr flak taking us on a tour of the facilities and answering all our questions about the last meal and why they bother to sanitize the needle. I filled my notebook and wrote a kick-ass weekender about how the death penalty was done in our state as a follow up to my original execution story.

 

So, if I may ask ... why do they sanitize the needle? I've often wondered this myself.