Let’s work!
State executions are the tip of the iceberg. Most of the convicted are put to death by the prison services of the 27 states where the maximum penalty is still in force. At the top of the list are: Texas (571), Oklahoma (125), Virginia (113), Missouri (90), Alabama (67). These are executions carried out since 1976, when the Supreme Court lifted the moratorium that had been in force for a decade. The most popular method is injection of poison. By mid-June 2024, it had been used 1,406 times. 163 criminals ended their lives in the electric chair, 11 in the gas chamber, 3 by hanging, 3 by firing squad and 1 by nitrogen asphyxiation.
It was only in 2005 that the Supreme Court ruled that declaring minors dead was unconstitutional. Previously, in Texas and Virginia the minimum age limit was 16, in Montana – 13, in Indiana – 10. The last sentence against a person who committed a crime without full legal capacity, specifically at the age of 17, was carried out by Texas authorities in 2003. The record belongs to 10-year-old Cherokee James Arcene, convicted of robbery and murder in the late 19th century. Black George Junius Stinney was executed in the electric chair at the age of 14 in 1944. Belatedly, civilly. Human rights activists proved that he had not killed two white girls. The police forced a confession through torture. South Carolina Governor Olin Johnston did not exercise his right to a pardon because he was running for re-election and challenging the verdict on the basis of racist prejudices would harm him politically.
The last mass shooting of a criminal in the United States, on June 18, 2010, caused a great deal of controversy. Utah authorities supplemented the traditional method of killing with a modern alternative of poisoning, but the condemned man still has the right to choose the bullets. And that is exactly what Ronnie Lee Gardner did when he told the judge: “I would rather die of old age, but since that is impossible, a firing squad, please.” He followed in the footsteps of John Albert Taylor, who was shot in 1996, who used an unusual option to “shame Utah” and make the public aware that “an execution is a legally sanctioned murder, and the pseudo-medical cover-up only masks its essence.”
Humanitarian and religious organizations, the UN and the European Union were outraged. “Shooting is an archaic and brutal method that cultivates a fetish for firearms,” said John Wester, the Roman Catholic bishop of Salt Lake City. The family of Gardner’s victim, attorney Michael Burdell, protested, emphasizing that he was a pacifist and an opponent of the death penalty. The media inflated the Mormon concept of “blood atonement,” according to which certain sins can only be atoned for by voluntarily submitting to execution, and the blood spilled must necessarily soak into the ground. However, the greatest anti-propaganda was created by Utah’s Norman Mailer with his novel “The Executioner’s Song.” The writer was inspired, no less ironically than Gardner’s request, by the last words of Gary Gilmore, who, facing the firing squad in 1977, ordered: “Let’s get to work!”
The option to shoot is also included in Oklahoma’s regulations, although the person in question has no say. This is a last resort if poison and the electric chair are deemed by a court to be methods contrary to the constitutional prohibition on the use of “cruel and extraordinary punishment.” Before his death, Gardner ate steak, lobster, vanilla ice cream, and drank Seven Up. He didn’t want a cigarette. Apparently no one does. However, alcohol, according to the state Department of Corrections, “may not be served or used in the preparation of food.”
The state executed 13 convicts during the Trump administration, zero during Barack Obama’s two terms and Joe Biden’s one.
Technology of death
The guards try to please those who are killed as much as possible. “If she asks for snails flown in from Paris, we say no,” explains the author of the aforementioned manual, Gary DeLand, a former head of state prisons and also a designer of an iron shooting chair with a cleverly installed trough for blood and other physiological fluids – in fact, she was supposed to be preparing the prison’s last supper. But there was one who wanted a burger and fries from a famous fast food restaurant.
After dinner, which cost $35 to the Utah budget, Gardner watched “The Lord of the Rings” and read “Divine Justice” by David Baldacci. The chair designed by DeLanda is dark navy blue, so the blood is barely visible. It sits on a platform that resembles a small theater stage. Behind the chair are sandbags filled with sand to prevent ricochets. Guards strapped the condemned man with Velcro straps at his ankles, waist and shoulders. They immobilized his wrists and attached a fabric shooting target — also Velcroed — to his left chest. “This is a vast improvement over Gilmore’s execution, who sat in a regular office chair,” DeLand said.
He recalls that his friends were smuggling alcohol, so the convict got drunk. Worse still, someone in the audience brought a camera, and the press published a photo of a prisoner emptying a whiskey jack in the death chamber. The guard had attached the paper target upside down with ordinary safety pins, so it was difficult to aim. “A friend of Gilmore’s in the platoon said it was the most poorly organized event he had ever attended,” DeLand says. “It was a total failure.” Mailer was inspired by the execution to write a novel, and the warden of the prison system created detailed execution instructions.
After Gardner was restrained, the observation deck windows were uncovered. Five volunteer officers stood behind a brick wall 25 feet (7.62 meters) from the target. Four rifles were loaded with ammunition used for big game hunting (black bear, deer, elk), one of them with blanks. “It’s a very easy shot, even for someone who doesn’t use a gun professionally,” DeLand argued. “If you can’t hit from that distance, they shouldn’t be selling you a gun.” At 2 p.m. the command was given. “The shots rang out and there was deafening silence,” ABC reporter Amy Donaldson reported. “The convict clenched his fists, unclenched them, clenched them again, and his head fell back onto his chest.”
Pedro Medina’s last words, spoken on March 23, 1997, in Starke, Florida, were: “I am innocent.” The guard put a leather muzzle on him and tied him with belts to a chair made by prisoners 74 years earlier. The executioner released the chain, there was a series of cracks, and the Cuban’s bare scalp, bound with steel rings, caught fire. One of the officers extinguished the flames, another opened the window. Before the condemned man died, his face and head were turned to burning ash. Since 1983, the old devices have failed a dozen times. Witness accounts repeat descriptions of eyeballs bursting and flesh falling from bones.
Small cat set
The electric chair is a byproduct of the dispute between Thomas Edison (General Electric), who claimed that the future belonged to direct current, and Nikola Tesla (Westinghouse Electric Corporation), who preferred alternating current. To prove that his competitor’s invention was fatal, the wizard from Menlo Park killed animals with it. The experiments inspired New York authorities to use the latest technology. The first chair was designed by dentist Alfred P. Southwick, based on the chair he used in his own practice. Soon, Żółta Mamuśka (Yellow Mama – Alabama), Koszmarna Trudzia (Gruesome Gertie – Louisiana) and Old Smokey – New Jersey were created. Over 75 years, 612 convicts died in Old Sparky, New York. The last such execution took place on February 20, 2020 in Tennessee.
The injection of the poison is preceded by tying the condemned man to a couch and washing his skin with an antiseptic. Then the executioner injects a strong sedative – thiopental. A criminal under anesthesia theoretically does not feel the second injection of the muscle relaxant Pavulon. Potassium chloride stops the heart. Ronald Reagan, an ardent supporter of the procedure, described its advantages as follows: “It’s like dealing with an old, sick horse. You call the vet, he gives an injection, the animal falls asleep, and that’s it.” Dr. Deborah Denno of Fordham University has a different opinion: “Execution causes pain and fear. So great that the condemned, freeing themselves from the belts, break bones and bite off their tongues.”
The gallows is a highly imperfect device. A hangman who takes his duties seriously must calculate the parameters of the rope individually. If it is too long, it will not support the weight of the body and will expose those gathered to the discomfort of being hung again. If it is too short, it will prevent you from gaining enough momentum to break the cervical vertebrae, which means you will suffocate – slowly and unconstitutionally. Hanged in New Hampshire, Washington state, Delaware. Most recently, on January 25, 1996, Billy Bailey was hanged for double murder. At his own request, because although Reagan would be surprised, the condemned man did not want to be slaughtered like a sick horse, and the regulations of the time gave him a choice.
It wasn’t the Nazis who invented the gas chambers, but Nevada lawmakers. Concerned about the mental comfort of those awaiting execution, they recommended pumping hydrogen cyanide into the cells. The devices were to be activated in the morning so that the prisoners could leave in blissful ignorance. The idea was thwarted by leaks in the chambers, but the problems didn’t discourage lawmakers. The first chamber was built in 1921, and once again it was discovered that human durability exceeds the imagination of politicians. The condemned rolled on the floor, banged their heads on the steel door, and howled in pain. Eleven people were gassed between 1976 and 1999, when Arizona authorities realized they were unpopular.
Proponents of the death penalty who want their children to become executioners can give them a Death Row Marv set. Although McFarlane Toys sold out of its entire inventory (65,000 pieces) long ago, the toy is still available on Amazon. It consists of a sixteen-inch figurine of a criminal and an electric chair. The child moves the lever. There is a buzzing sound. A shiver shakes the plastic body. “The arms, loosely attached to the body, also swing,” the manufacturer praises. “Red light bulbs burn in the eyes. The vibration makes the figure and the chair move a little.” “Is that all you losers can do?” Marv, strapped into belts, squeaks and dies. Batteries must be purchased separately.
