. What I do, I will strap the offender’s left wrist. GREEN: And then we, the team members including myself, go in and unstrap him and then assist in putting him on the funeral home gurney until such time as he’s wheeled out and that’s the end of the process.
And we were to do the very first one. I’ve had guards — lots of guards quit.

: I was twenty-six years old when I witnessed my first execution. I mean, it’s down to a fine art. At that time when he gets in there, all of the straps are undone. . That wail surrounds the room. Some of them are upset.

GRACZYK: The physician will take a stethoscope, look for a heartbeat or a pulse, shine a light in their eyes, and look at his watch and decide what time it is, and pronounce the time of death. The first chemical that’s used is a drug called sodium pentathol, okay, and sodium pentathol is the same chemical that they use on you whenever you are going to have surgery, and it works very quick. LONNIE JOHNSON: Approximately 105, 110 executions. Particularly memorable was the execution of US serial killer Ted Bundy - and the celebratory fireworks which followed news of his death. : I’m Wayne Sorge, news director of KSAM in Huntsville, Texas. At some point there’s a detachment. . I am a former reporter for the Huntsville Item. It’s a small brick building with eight cells and a death chamber.

: Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 115 executions. : I wrestle with myself about the fact that it’s easier now, and was I right to make part of my income from watching people die? real deep breath. GIDEON: I’ve seen family members collapse in there. : After they are strapped down then all the officers will leave. And I walked with and stood by and witnessed the execution of ninety-five inmates, from the first one that was done in 1982 until the end of August, 1995. He was still alive after the power to "Old Sparky" was turned off, according to witnesses.

He now works as a carpenter. Of fear. It is just this horrendous wail.
I started as a guard here twenty-nine years ago and have been warden since May of 1998. And that’s a good way to explain it. After the execution was over, I felt numb. When they’re on the gurney they’re stretched out. It was always something different. Jim Brazzil, a death house chaplain who has witnessed 114 executions, remembers inmates’ last words to him. But I do this voluntarily. It’s definitely something you won’t ever forget. Part of my responsibility is being in the death chamber at the time of execution. BRAZZIL: I’ve had ’em where they wanted to sing. And within probably thirty, forty-five seconds the officers have him completely strapped in. WILLETT: One of my supervisors will get a call at 6:00 from the governor’s office, and one from the attorney general’s office, telling us that it’s okay to go ahead with this execution. I’ve never .

Of fear. And most of them will tell me ’This will be my last line.’ Or some of them just say ’Warden, I’ll tell you,’ and they will literally just turn to me and say ’Warden that’s all.’. WILLETT: At 6:05 the medical team inserts the needles and hooks up the IVs.

Well when we’re brought into the room, the inmate is already strapped to the gurney and the tubes are inserted in each wrist. He’s just sitting there. You can hear the cries, the weeping, the praying. Lay your head on this end, put your feet on this end.’ Simultaneously while he’s laying down the straps are being put across him. I hope that this doesn’t happen to them — the ones that participate, the ones that go through this procedure now. Sound Portraits was the predecessor to StoryCorps and was dedicated to telling stories that brought neglected American voices to a national audience. There are times when I’m standing there, watching those fluids start to flow, and wonder whether what we’re doing here is right. Famous people who’ve witnessed public executions include writers, who recorded accounts of their experiences in letters, diaries, or books.

Some of them are upset. English novelist Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was just 16 years old when he witnessed a hanging, climbing a tree near the gallows to gain a good vantage point.

And when the glasses come off, the lethal injection begins to flow. Thackeray was haunted by the execution; 14 days later, he continued to see “the man’s face continually before [his] eyes.”[7], On November 13, 1849, English novelist Charles Dickens (1812–1870) attended the public execution of Frederick and Maria Manning. And I guess in a way I’m kind of afraid to describe it. Sometimes you find people holding hands, maybe a mother and father of a murder victim or friends of the condemned man.

FITZGERALD: The third chemical actually stops the heart. He turned his head here and there, and looked about him for an instant with a wild imploring look. . The inmate, other than the fact that he’s expired, you don’t know anything has happened to him. Mr Word said: "The most striking thing about Ted Bundy’s execution was the circus atmosphere outside the prison. GREEN: It’s basically a situation where we just make sure he is secure. If I didn’t and I felt that it was morally wrong or ethically wrong, then I wouldn’t participate in it. Capital punishment is part of that, and if you are in the city where more capital punishment occurs than any place else in the civilized world, that’s got to be part of the job.

: You know, it’s something that everybody has to deal with it in their own way. I mean actually lock together. GIDEON: You’ll never hear another sound like a mother wailing whenever she is watching her son be executed. I believe I could say they were more calm than I am with you right now. I can take my mind off things when I go fishing.

That’s all there is to it. And then a few minutes later he’s . On October 13, 1660, he’d attended Major-General Harrison’s execution. And I can close my eyes now and see those eyes. On July 1, 1785, he saw ten more men die at Newgate. We turn around, the guard opens the door, and we file out. You know, there was just so many of ’em. Plus there are five media witnesses. And I’ve had ’em want to do exercises, do calisthenics sitting in there, you know, because it’s such a nervous time. And that’s something we are not required to do — is participate in it.

Plus there are five media witnesses. Blood had poured from his nose, running down a leather strap across his mouth and onto his shirt. : Once the IVs are established, then we bring the witnesses in, and in Texas the inmate is allowed five witnesses plus a spiritual advisor. .

: My name is Leighanne Gideon. His mouth was contracted in to a sort of pitiful smile. The Walls takes up almost two city blocks right in the middle of town. : My name is Jim Brazzil. Everybody has a stopping point. That’s all there is to it.

ALLEN: Just like taking slides in a film projector and having a button and just pushing a button and just watching, over and over: him, him, him. Some of them are crying.

Among a crowd of 12,000 to 14,000 spectators, English diarist Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) watched the 1664 hanging of convicted burglar James Turner.

It never crossed my mind that some of these people are just like the rest of us and are scared to death of a needle. I had one offender tell lawyer jokes. You do thirty-five a year, that’s a lot. : And then we, the team members including myself, go in and unstrap him and then assist in putting him on the funeral home gurney until such time as he’s wheeled out and that’s the end of the process.

You can feel the trembling, the fear that’s there, the anxiety that’s there. And he and I will walk into the chamber. : And then whenever that breath goes, it’s like a snore. And I can close my eyes now and see those eyes.

And she said ’What’s the matter?’ And I said ’I just thought about that execution that I did two days ago, and everybody else’s that I was involved with.’ And what it was was something triggered within and it just – everybody — all of these executions all of a sudden all sprung forward. : A lot of inmates apologize.