by Darcia Helle
When I publicly state my opinion about the death penalty, it almost always sparks a heated, emotional debate. (For the record, I am against it.) But my point today is not to discuss the pros and cons of the death penalty; rather, I want to talk about the people whose job it is to carry out this government-ordered murder: The executioners. These are people that the majority of us never think about. The trial is over, the killer sentenced. The media moves on and so do we. Years, often decades, later, the sentence is carried out by a nameless, faceless person. We get a blip on the news. We might remember who that killer is, though chances are high that many of us will not. That person is put to death, as if by the wave of a governmental magic wand.
You might be surprised to learn that many whose job it is to execute death row inmates do not support the death penalty.
Jerry Givens
What would it feel like to be forced to kill another person as part of your job? In essence, you are a paid assassin. As you read this, your first instinct might be to say that you’re doing the country a service, and that the inmate deserves to die. If that’s your stance, perhaps you are the right person for the job. But before you move on, secure in your position, you should really think about it. You’re killing another human being, a person who might have committed one rash act two decades ago. A person whose guilt you might not be convinced of. Are you positive that would not negatively affect you?
The perspective of these people tasked with carrying out the death penalty is important to consider. We need to think about what we are asking these people to do, what we are asking them to live with.
Jerry Givens is a 59-year-old man, whose job for 17 years was to execute death row inmates in Virginia. During that time, Givens put 62 men to death. In all 62 of those cases, the official death certificate reads ‘HOMICIDE’.
Givens states that, “I had to transform myself into a person who would take a life.”
That’s a profound position to find yourself in. He also states, “The person that carries out the execution itself is stuck with it the rest of his life. He has to wear that burden. Who would want that on them?”
Indeed.
Jeanne Woodford
Jeanne Woodford spent much of her career as warden of San Quentin prison in California. In 2004, shortly after her appointment as director of all California prisons, she resigned. Her reason? “I knew I couldn’t carry out another execution,” she said. “I knew I just couldn’t do it.”
From the start of her career, Woodford opposed the death penalty. Her words struck me deep:
“…it never made sense to me that we would believe killing a human being would make up for killing a human being.”
Her position against the death penalty was not only personal. As a prison warden, Woodford concluded that capital punishment made no fiscal sense. She calculated that her state spent $4 billion to execute 13 inmates between 1992 and 2006. That is roughly $308 million per execution.
Studies – and numbers – prove that keeping a prisoner on death row, and eventually executing that prisoner, is far more expensive than keeping that same person in prison for life. As of 2009, the cost of prosecuting death penalty cases cost an average of $184 million more each year than it would cost to give these same prisoners life without parole. Woodford believes that extra money would be better spent on hiring more cops. In California alone, half of all murders go unsolved. We simply do not have enough manpower to do the job.
Jeanne Woodford, a career employee within our prison system, a warden, and, at times an executioner, believes that, “The death penalty shouldn’t exist at all.”
Dr. Allen Ault was the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections from 1992 until 1995. During those few short years, Ault oversaw five executions. His experiences forever changed him. Before taking the position, Ault had no significant feelings about the death penalty one way or the other. He now works tirelessly campaigning against it.
Here are just a few of Ault’s statements:
Dr. Allen Ault
“Having witnessed executions firsthand, I have no doubts; capital punishment is a very scripted and rehearsed murder. It’s the most premeditated murder possible.”
“The United States should be like every other civilized country in the Western world and abolish the death penalty.”
“You realize when the person is dead that you just murdered another human being, and you were the one that gave the order. You feel totally responsible. And you feel tremendous guilt.”
Ault remembers every detail of all the executions he was responsible for. In fact, no matter how hard he tries, he cannot forget. But the case that haunts him most seems to be that of Christopher Burger, a young, mentally impaired man convicted of rape and murder. At the time Burger committed the crime, he was a 17-year-old troubled kid. During his ensuing 17 years on death row, Dr. Ault witnessed tremendous change in Burger. The young man pursued his education and matured. He was certainly guilty but, according to Ault, he was also a remorseful and different man than that boy he’d once been. His last words to Ault were, “Please forgive me.”
Dr. Ault had this to say about witnessing that execution:
“I could see the jolt of electricity running through his body. It snapped his head back and then there was just total silence… and I knew I had killed another human being.”
After leaving his job following the brief three year stint that probably felt like decades, Ault needed counseling in order to deal with the overwhelming guilt he’d been left with. His feelings on the job of executioner are this:
“No one has the right to ask a public servant to take on a life-long sentence of nagging doubt, shame and guilt.”
The death penalty remains legal in 32 U.S. states. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, between 1973 and 2010, 138 death row inmates were exonerated. That is 138 innocent people who, without intervention from an independent organization, would have been put to death. How many innocent people did not receive intervention?
Even on the best days, no method of government-sanctioned death is painless. This year alone, we’ve already had four botched executions, all using the so-called painless lethal injection. What would it feel like to know you’ve just tortured someone to death? Sure, perhaps the person’s crime was heinous enough that you’ll feel justified. Or maybe you just think you’ll be okay with it. Killing someone, much less torturing him, isn’t something you can predict your response to, nor is it something you can take back.
How would you feel about killing a man who committed one singular act of violence as a teenager? Or the mentally disturbed person who was responding to voices in his head, and who the state forced mediation on so that he’d be lucid enough to know he was being killed?
As I said, my point is not to argue the merits of the death penalty itself. We have to remember that we have no robots that ultimately kill these inmates. The death sentences are carried out by men and women not much different from you and me. Are we asking too much from them?
Please click to below to view Darcia’s Helle’s many excellent posts:
‘Trial by Media’ Is Not a New Phenomenon: The Kangaroo Hanging of Alvin Edwin Batson
“Met Her on the Mountain”: Cold Case Social Worker Hog-Tied, Raped and Killed in Appalachia
Jovial Private Bartender Snaps; Assaults and Drags Obnoxious 84-Year-Old Club Patron
Frank Lloyd Wright and the Great Gasoline Mass Murder
“The Wrong Carlos”: Non-Violent Manchild Executed for Murder He Did Not Commit
The Electric Chair Nightmare: An Infamous and Agonizing History
Autopsies: Truth, Fiction and Maura Isles and Her 5-Inch-Heels
Don’t Crucify Me, Dude! Just Shoot Me Instead! Spartacus and Death by Crucifixion
To Burn or Not to Burn? Auto-Da-Fé Is Not Good for Women or Children!
The Disgraceful Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass: Keep the Narcs Out of Our Schools
Why Should I Believe You? The History of the Polygraph
“Don’t Behead Me, Dude!”: The Story of Beheading and the Invention of the Guillotine
Aileen Wuornos, America’s First High-Profile Female Serial Killer, Never Had a Chance
The Terror of ISO: A Descent into Madness
Al Capone Could Not Bribe the Rock: Alcatraz, Fortress of Doom
Cyberspace, Darknet, Murder-for-Hire and the Invisible Black Machine
Darcia Helle lives in a fictional world with a husband who is sometimes real. Their house is ruled by spoiled dogs and cats and the occasional dust bunny.
Suspense, random blood splatter and mismatched socks consume Darcia’s days. She writes because the characters trespassing through her mind leave her no alternative. Only then are the voices free to haunt someone else’s mind.
Join Darcia in her fictional world: www.QuietFuryBooks.com