The Execution Protocol: Inside America's Capital Punishment Industry 0517511136

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oday there are more than 2,500 people waiting to be exeeuted on America's death

row. The Execution Protocol does not cdncern itself with the debate over whether their

sentences were correct, or constitutional, or ethical.

The Execution Protocol reveals what

happens when the

state

decides to take a

life,

what procedures are followed, what precautions are taken.

When

a court imposes the death sen-

tence, the convicted

man

leaves behind the

glare of courtroom publicity and enters

shadowy world

a secretive,

that

most

people are happy to ignore. Author Stephen

Trombley immersed himself

in this

and was granted unprecedented access

community of

the

tion Protocol

the result.

is

world to the

condemned. The ExecuIt is

based on more

than seven months of interviews with prison

personnel

at

Missouri's Potosi Correctional

Center, the nation's most

modern and secure

prison; with the inventor of the lethal injection

machine, the method of execution

fa-

vored by Missouri; and with the condemned criminals themselves.

These men said remarkable things

to

Stephen Trombley. What emerges from The

E

\c(

ution Protocol

their jobs with a

is

a picture of

men doing

degree of awareness and

hack flap)

#*

5HW

UK

NOV

3 1833 01673 5729

364.66 T75e Trombl ey, Stiffen. The execution protocol

Uct

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DO NOT REMOVE CARDS FROM POCKET

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA 46802

You may return

this

book to any agency, branch,

or bookmobile of the Allen County Public Library.

DEMCO

9

1992

THE

L

INSIDE

AMERICA'S CAPITAL

PUNISHMENT INDUSTRY

Stephen Tr ombley CROWN

PUBLISHERS, INC New York

Allen County Public Library

900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN

Copyright

©

46801-??70

1992 by Stephen Trombley

Photographs copyright

©

1992 by Lukasz Jogalla

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by

New

York,

Crown

Random House,

CROWN

is

Publishers, Inc., 201 East 50th Street,

New York Inc.

10022.

New

a trademark of

Manufactured

in the

Member

of the

Crown

Publishing Group.

York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland

Crown

Publishers, Inc.

United States of America

Book design by James K. Davis Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Trombley, Stephen.

The execution

protocol: inside America's capital punishment industry /by Ste-

phen Trombley. cm. p.

—

—

1. Executions and executioners United States Case punishment United States Case studies. I. Title.

—

HV8699.U5T77

—

studies.

2.

Capital

1992

364.6'6'0973— dc20

92-22805

CIP

ISBN 10

0-517-59113-8

987654321

First Edition

Contents

Preface

PART ONE / LABOR DAY

vii

1

Massachusetts Missouri

95

PART TWO THANKSGIVING

185

/

PART THREE

/

NEW YEAR

3

265

Epilogue

332

Acknowledgments

335

Index

337

Preface

T

J_H HIS IS a story of men and machines: the story of how a team of men,

sanctioned by the highest courts, sets out, deliberately, and according to a well-defined plan, to take a

life.

This book, and the documentary film of the same

title,

are based

unprecedented access to the execution team and condemned inmates Missouri's Potosi Correctional Center.

They

the crimes committed by the seventy-nine

execution there, or of the

The research

for this

tourist in another

ment with death,

My

men who

book was,

offer

on at

no personal judgment of

men and two women

facing

carry out those executions. to say the least, unusual.

I

became a

men wait for their appointand where another group of men wait to execute them.

America, a netherworld where

strange odyssey began in the dusty basement of a tiny house in

Massachusetts, where the machinery of

Midwest, where

I

became

close to

killing is

members of

made;

it

ended

in the

the Missouri execution

team, spending weeks with them as they went about their business, and relaxing with I

them on weekends.

spent hundreds of hours with Missouri's Vll

condemned men,

all

convicted

viii /

Preface

of capital murder.

Some

are

mass murderers, some are contract

killers.

Some had tortured their victims before killing them. Others I met on death row may not be guilty of capital murder, and in another court could have been found

guilty of a lesser charge

— manslaughter,

or second-degree

murder. All the principal real-life characters of this

mon: They have taken human

life.

book have one

thing in

com-

Death

Row U.SA (as of May 31, 1992)

NUMBER OF DEATH PENALTY JURISDICTIONS: 38 (36

states,

U.S. government, U.S. military)

TOTAL NUMBER OF DEATH ROW INMATES: 2,588

NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS SINCE

1977:

174

STATE PERFORMING MOST EXECUTIONS: Texas

(48)

STATE WITH LARGEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE ON DEATH ROW: Texas (349)

NUMBER OF DEATH ROW INMATES

IN MISSOURI:

81

NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS IN MISSOURI SINCE THEY RESUMED IN 1989: 6

NUMBER OF STATES USING VARIOUS METHODS OF EXECUTIONS (SOME STATES HAVE OPTIONS): Lethal injection 20 Electrocution 11

Lethal gas 6 Firing squad 2

Hanging 2 ix

PART ONE/ LABOR DAY

Massachusetts

M

which I

I

Y JOURNEY

was

raised before

arrived for the

the foothills

border,

began

in Ballston

moving

to

Spa,

England

New

at the

York, the town

in

When

age of nineteen.

Labor Day weekend, the small upstate town, located

at

of the Adirondack Mountains, 150 miles south of the Canadian

was enjoying Indian summer. On many of the

Street, faded yellow ribbons continued to

trees that lined

High

welcome home those who had

served in Operation Desert Storm.

was a

It

cued

fine

in the

weekend, a reunion with family and old

about the journey I

We

barbe-

backyard, and caught up on news and gossip. Eventually the

conversation turned to the purpose of

why

friends.

I

was about

would want

to

do

it.

my

to set off on.

My

friends,

trip,

and everyone was curious

My mother couldn't understand some of whom were

strongly

against capital punishment, had misgivings about the whole project. felt

it

was a

television

subject better

networks

I

left

alone.

So had some of

They

the publishers and

had spoken to about the project during the previous

year. Their misgivings only strengthened

my

resolve.

4

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

The day

Labor Day broke cool and pleasant

after

my commuter flight

though by the time the temperature

The day had

was heading

landed at Boston's Logan Airport

and the humidity was

for 100

A

who had

lit

in the eighties.

barely started, and tempers were already short. Outside the

arrivals terminal, executives in business suits jockeyed for

cab rank.

Spa,

in Ballston

advantage

sour-faced Boston Brahmin turned and hissed at a

a cigarette,

The back of my

"Do you have

shirt

was soaked

at the

woman

to?"

inside

my

crumpled summer

and

suit,

sweat rolled off my brow.

The Haitian did know two

routes to Maiden,

Pontiac station wagon.

The

blow on

could hear

was I

a

full

later the taxi

on

roaring

dropped 1

and

was

the parking lot

traffic

old

a couple of days

failed

window and

full

me

99. It

let

the hot,

at

my

motel, situated at a

had a sign saying 'Truckers

of eighteen- wheelers. Checking

in,

and the humid

air

either side of the motel,

my bags

swimming

my room.

left

was

from the highway by a rickety chain

link

across the parking

pool, separated

lot to

Just to the

myself into the room, which was painted hospital green.

fence.

I let

on the

air conditioner. It started

volume, where

down

the

French, but he

The cab was an

of gas and diesel fumes.

carried

filthy

had

down

rolled

I

busy intersection of U.S. Routes

I

destination.

my face.

Twenty minutes Welcome," and

my

air-conditioning

before, the driver apologized. sticky air

my

cabdriver's English wasn't as good as

to call

it

would stay

up with a

rattle

and climbed

for the next four days.

Fred Leuchter, the man who would

I

start

to

I

turned

a deafening

unpacked and

sat

me on my journey

through the world of executions.

"What's your room number?" he I

went outside and took a

watching the

traffic

later,

brand-new Ford.

It

said. "I'll

on the

in

my gut as

I

be over

in

a minute."

plastic chair next to

go by and preparing for

a strange, empty feeling

Half an hour

seat

my week

of interviews.

wondered what

Fred Leuchter pulled up to

my

my front door, I

had

lay ahead.

front door, driving a

looked as though the execution business was booming.

The man who climbed out of the car was small and wore thick glasses. He was dressed in gray trousers and a striped short-sleeved shirt with the monogram fal printed over the pocket, which was stuffed with pens and a pack of Marlboro Lights.

He

blinked shortsightedly as he stuck out his

hand and gave mine a firm shake.

Labor Day

how you

"Hi, raspiest

doing. Nice to

Boston accent

We

was the

ever heard.

I'd

He

me,

told

looked

Alfred E.

like

5

in the hardest,

Neuman,

Mad magazine. He was forty-eight, but didn't that ABC News had dubbed "Dr. Death."

the impish geist of age. This

meet you," he

I

look his

man

climbed into Fred's car, which he explained was on loan from the

garage while his was being fixed. He'd had an accident, he said, looking directly at

me

as he talked. His driving

made me

nervous.

The knot

in

my

gut tightened.

While a

living

I

how

considered

to begin

from inventing the

an interview with someone

lethal injection

who made

machine and supplying other

execution hardware, Fred chatted comfortably about the unseasonably

warm I

me

weather, and told

The town was

familiar with

had been blighted 1980s.

on

built

by

about Maiden.

looked at through Fred's car window was

I

from

my

childhood

and

Maiden had now become

left

The road streets,

to Fred's

that

hard work and civic pride, but

out of the economic

part of greater Boston, a

munity, a relatively cheap place to buy a house and

T train to an office job

towns

— a working-class community

traditional values of

industrial decline

like the mill

boom

of the

bedroom com-

commute on

the

with a bank or insurance company.

house wiggled off the end of one of Maiden's main

over a bridge and up a small dead-end drive. Fred's blacktop

driveway led residence.

right

It's

up

to the front door, almost as

an unusual two-story

affair;

if it

were a garage, not a

a small clapboard rectangle with

a pitched roof perched on top. The entrance was on the side of the house, rather than at the front.

peach the

tree.

It

A few small,

had a porch with a few steps and, alongside

a

hard peaches hung from the limbs, encouraged by

humid end of summer weather; but most of the

ground around

it,

fruit lay rotting

on the

it.

me

room was the kitchen, decorated in light-colored wood-effect paneling. To the left were the refrigerator, oven, and work surfaces. To the right, against the wall, was a round, Fred took

inside.

Off the tiny

living

varnished Colonial reproduction table with four matching chairs. There

a video recorder on the kitchen sion. lator,

The

table

table,

and on top of

was covered with a jumble of

quiz books, ashtrays

full

it

a portable

televi-

videotapes, a calcu-

of butts, cans of diet Coke, and the

Guide. Fred introduced his wife, Caroline,

watching TV.

stuff:

was

who was

TV

sitting at the table

6

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL "You're from Englandl" she Caroline

is

a large lady

said, allowing

who wears

me

to shake her hand.

generously cut trousers, voluminous

tops of man-made fibers, and big, amber-tinted glasses. She

was drinking a

can of diet Coke. "Caroline's diabetic," Fred told me. "I've got to be careful about sugar," she explained. "I drink a lot of diet

Coke."

me

Caroline introduced

to Rex, the family pet.

overweight dog that looked as

a

'.'She's

girl,

despite her

mixed parentage, Rex

if it

Rex

an elderly and

is

could barely walk.

name," Caroline

told

me.

A

black bitch of

raised her head a fraction at the sound of her

name,

then settled into a wheezy snooze at the feet of her mistress. After pouring coffee for everyone, Caroline resumed watching

"The

Fugitive."

Over the next week

I

at the kitchen table, her

learned that Caroline spent most of the day sitting

back to the

living

room, watching

a die-hard fan of old black and white shows Janssen,

"Highway

when he used ing the

to

like

television. She's

"The Fugitive" with David

Patrol," with Broderick Crawford, and

"The

Saint,"

be Roger Moore. Her other passion, which involves us-

modem-equipped computer

in Fred's office, is playing general-

knowledge quiz games through the night with fellow insomniacs. The

computer

is

connected via a telephone

so that Trivial Pursuit-type

line

games can be played simultaneously by people Fred indicated that

I

ceiling

a heavy wooden coffee table with ceramic

Each of the

hung over the

living

room was

suite in

tile

inlays.

brown polyester and

An

oval mirror in a

matching wall lamps on either

side.

wall fittings had three pink candles in fancy glass lamps fixed

to curly brass buttresses.

number of

sofa, with

The

and a brown nylon patterned

There was an overstuffed three-piece

gilded frame

over the United States.

should take a seat on the sofa.

painted white, and had a suspended carpet.

all

From

the top of each of the fittings protruded a

thin branches bearing delicate gilded butterflies; while beneath

each one hung a circular arrangement of artificial pink roses complete with stems and leaves. Other bric-a-brac decorated the wall behind the sofa, including a white plastic fan,

ironwork; and a

fluffy

by an ornate brass

its

pattern reminiscent of Spanish wrought

miniature pink dog on a tiny glass shelf supported

fitting.

Labor Day Fred told

me

that Caroline

7

I

Hummel figurines, Germany. Oak and glass

was an avid

collector of

some of which she had purchased on a trip to cabinets on either side of the room were crammed with a huge assortment of the gnomelike Teutonic ceramics. Above the electric light switch, a small

Mary was recessed little window protecting

a glass-covered niche in the wall.

statue of the Virgin

in

In front of the

the Virgin

bunch of artificial purple

glass lamp, with a

lilies.

was a votive candle

in

a

At one end of the room,

a grandfather clock chimed out the hour. Hanging next to the grandfather clock was a "Bless This

We

House and

All

Who

Enter Here" sampler.

drank our coffee and then Fred took

me

had a

into his study. It

paper-strewn desk at one end and a computer workstation at the other. Against one wall was a bookcase, on top of which was a telephone an-

swering machine.

It

was switched

on, even though Fred

was

at

home.

He

explained that, in his business, he received threats regularly, so he screened all

of his

calls

before picking up the phone.

Opposite the bookcase was a of architectural plans.

I

camp

what other objects were

cabinet,

on which was spread out a

table,

looked more closely and saw that

of the Nazi concentration to see

little

at

in

Auschwitz.

it.

Next

from which a number of thick manila

files

that they

nature.

was

the layout

desk was a low

room filing

had been removed and

looked at the labels and

were autopsy reports from the coroner's

Florida. Alongside

some

I

it

looked around the

to Fred's

then replaced at an angle on top of the cabinet.

saw

I

set

office in Gainesville,

them were color photographs of an unspeakably grue-

They showed

the heads of

men whose

brains had been

removed, and the two halves of the head sutured messily together.

Odd

of hardware were strewn about. In a small cardboard box was

bits

a weird object, a metal cap

like

a yarmulke with a wire grid inside, onto

which was sewn, with very thick thread, a sponge.

It

had a metal

fixture

protruding from the top of it. "Is that a head electrode?"

"Yes," pretty I

said Fred. "It's

much

the

same as

I

asked, hesitantly.

from South Carolina's old

the ones I've

made

for

electric chair. It's

Tennessee and Indiana."

looked on Fred's desk. There was a Mystic Valley

Gun Club

paper-

weight.

"Are you a marksman?" could

make

that possible.

I

asked, wondering

how

Fred's severe myopia

8

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL "Yes," Fred

told

me. "I used to be president of my

local

gun

club.

I'm

an instructor for target and combat shooting."

my

There was a jumble of papers on Fred's desk, but

document

a grubby, dog-eared copy of the

in particular:

Defense Fund's bimonthly report, Death Row, U.S.A.

eye

on one

fell

NAACP

Legal

was opened

It

to

the page headed "South Carolina (Electrocution)." There were forty-six

names

A

— the names of men who are scheduled

to die in the electric chair.

check mark had been placed alongside the name of inmate number nine

Donald Gaskins.

On the front of the report,

on the

list,

of the

number of executions

There was a long

line

Fred had kept score

carried out in the United States since 1973.

of crossed-out numbers, ending with the current

tally: 152.

Fred went to the kitchen to get more coffee, then began to

He

he had got into the execution business.

had been employed as a driver

senior,

—

ment

accompany

including, on one occasion, the

me how

for the Massachusetts prison sys-

tem, eventually becoming transport supervisor. the school vacations, Fred would

tell

explained that his father, Fred

his

On weekends and

dad while he drove equip-

state's electric chair

between the various Massachusetts

prisons.

world of prisons fascinating, and he

told

me

during

As a

— and inmates

Fred found the

child,

an anecdote about

his early

experience of them.

"When

I

was a

kid," he told me, "I used to go with

was another

prisons here in Massachusetts. There son,

who

same that

sat in the electric chair.

chair.

if

you

He was

involved in a murder.

didn't get electrocuted in

He

for Tennessee.

It

also his children.

Tennessee

it

in

later. I sat in

Well,

I

a prison worker's

he was

later,

Anyway,

it.

killed in the

came about

the legend

sat in that chair.

the electric chair, and

was

in

me

And

I

now I make

a photograph of the electric chair he designed

an album of family snaps, as

One showed Fred chair.

Beneath

it,

in his like

if

his

machines were

backyard, standing proudly next

a footnote to

his story

about the

own

sitting in

the chair,

Massachusetts chair, was a photo of Fred's smiling for the

kid,

father to the

laughed, his eyes sparking with delight.

Fred offered to show

to the

you'd die

sat in the chair,

electric chairs."

Eleven years

my

son

camera on a sunny day.

Fred has no formal training

in engineering.

interested in carpentry than electronics,

At school, he was more

and when he went to

college, he

Labor Day studied history. His

I

9

job after graduation was with North East Aerial

first

Photos, where he learned to assemble aerial photographic systems from

World War

II

vintage equipment. Fred learned quickly and

to technical director.

The job

taught

and he developed a kind of genius

—

him good albeit

was promoted

practical engineering skills,

more

the genius of combination

than the genius of invention.

As an

inventor, Fred holds

former employers or inventions.

device, the

mapping system.

It is

more

the rights to his

way

a quick

used by the U.S. Air Force

in

first

and

major companies infringe on

my

maps and was

Vietnam.

use today. But

It is still in

number of

patents," he told me, half-bitter, halfis

only a license to sue, and

if

you

can't sue."

In the early 1980s, Fred

came

to the conclusion that he

successful working for himself than for other people. practical

on a

of producing accurate

resigned. "In the United States, a patent

money, you

built,

low-level, color stereo helicopter

patents are something of a sore point with Fred. "I've had a

ain't got the

lucrative

one which could be considered a lifesaving

is

electronic sextant. Fred also designed

subcontract for General Electric, the

first

patents, though he complains that

own

their clients

Among them first

numerous

knowledge of prisons he had gained as a child with

experience and became America's

first

would be more

He combined

the

his engineering

and foremost supplier of execution

hardware. His products include electric chairs, gas chambers, gallows, and lethal injection

training,

machines.

He

offers design, construction, installation, staff

and maintenance.

The execution business

got off to a slow

start.

There were no executions

in the

United States between 1972, when the Supreme Court declared

capital

punishment unconstitutional, and 1976, when

first

American

to death

by

to be executed after 1976

firing

squad

did not take place until

in

Utah on January

two and a

the

same

year,

Nevada put

May

25, 1979.

reinstated.

The

The next execution when Florida sent John

Then, on October 22 of

Jesse Bishop to death.

After the Gilmore execution, there was not, as

avalanche of state-directed

was

17, 1977.

half years later,

Spenkelink to the electric chair on

it

was Gary Gilmore, who was put

some had expected, an

killings. It started slowly.

No

one was put to

death in 1980. There was one execution in 1981; there were two in 1982

and

five in 1983.

(None of

this

compared with the numbers of executions

10

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

America had witnessed

in the 1930s

and 1940s. In 1935 alone, there were

number of executions between 1930 and 1949 was 2,951 number jumped to twenty-one. Executions became a business opportunity for someone with 195;

and the

total

—an average of

148 per year.) In 1984, however, the

the right knowledge and the stomach for the job.

Fred did what any small businessman does when venture. capital

He

up the market. There were

sized

punishment

thirty-eight jurisdictions with

U.S. military and the U.S.

(thirty-six states plus the

federal government). There

on a new

starting out

were more than two thousand people on death

row. Thirteen of his potential clients used electrocution as a method of

some of

execution. During the 1980s, lethal injection. ing,

Seven

and two sent

states

their

the thirteen

would change over

to

had the gas chamber, three prescribed hang-

condemned

Fred researched

to the firing squad.

each method to discover what happened to the condemned and what

equipment and procedures were necessary to carry out the execution successfully.

As we in

sat in his living

room

sipping coffee, Fred gave

me

a crash course

execution technology.

Death by

squad, he said,

firing

is

caused by massive damage to the

heart, central nervous system, or other vital organs, or

of these effects with hemorrhage.

way

human

to execute a

He

told

being with a gun

pistol at point-blank range into the head.

and

it

me is

by a combination

that probably the quickest

to fire a single bullet

That

is

from a

the procedure in China,

usually guarantees instantaneous death. In Idaho and Utah, the law

specifies

a five-man

rifle

squad.

Execution by shooting has a long history execution by this means was in 1608,

in

when George

original councillors for the colony of Virginia, turies, the military

America. The

first

recorded

Kendall, one of the

was put

to death.

For cen-

was

also the

favored execution by shooting, and

it

choice of many Native American tribes, once they had obtained guns from

European

settlers.

the 1950s; Utah's

Idaho had carried out one execution by

last,

firing

squad

in

before Gary Gilmore, had been in the 1960s.

A first glance at the market told Fred there wasn't a fortune to be made in the

way of

blindfold, a chair,

some sandbags

to stop

condemned man's

chest,

out of firing squad executions, since they don't require

equipment

—apart from guns, a

the bullets, a target to pin to the to conceal the

gunmen.

much

and a

slit

screen

Labor Day

11

I

Looking at the information he'd gathered on execution by shooting, Fred concluded that

it

And I

was a

way

'There's no

way

painful

to die.

of knowing for sure

then he pointed his hand at me, as

shoot you,

know you

I

if

someone

if it

hurts," Fred told me.

"But

held a pistol, and said:

if

hurt."

Fred also concluded that

was a messy procedure, both

it

physically and

ethically. I

asked Fred

He

sense.

why he found firing squad executions messy in an

explained that the tradition in

round to one of the gunmen. The idea not

kill

firing

is that,

squads

is

"And

for the death of another

that's ridiculous,"

ever fired a gun knows

if

Fred

a blank

since one of the rounds did

the victim, no one of the five-man squad need ever

was responsible

"ethical"

to issue

human

know

that

he

being.

practically screamed.

"Anyone who's

he's firing a blank, because he won't get

any

recoil!"

The problem aim away from shot. This Elisio

that

the

some members of firing squads have been known

condemned

happened

Mares,

execution,

is

in

Utah on September

who had been

all five

heart and shot

man's heart, leaving others to 10, 1951, in the

a popular inmate with prison

marksmen aimed away from

him on the right-hand

in

Utah

During his

the target over Mares's

side of his chest.

The

firing

squad and

When Gary

in 1977, all four bullets pierced his heart.

However, heart death was not immediate. The doctor had before pronouncing him dead, two minutes after the its

the fatal

execution of

staff.

witnesses watched in horror as Mares bled slowly to death.

Gilmore was shot to death

fire

to

firing

to

check twice

squad had

let

go

lethal volley.

Fred explored hanging, and he

is

one of the few experts on the subject.

Prior to British refinements of hanging procedure in the nineteenth century,

the punishment consisted of looping a rope around the

neck and dropping him from a height so slow death tion.

—cases of up

to ten minutes

condemned man's

that the rope tightened, causing

have been reported

a

— by asphyxia-

Before unconsciousness intervenes, the strangled hanging victim's

face turns purple as he struggles for

air.

His eyes bulge his tongue hangs ?

out,

and he loses control of

ment report of 1888 which

his sphincter.

detailed a

Fred studied a British govern-

method of hanging designed

instant death through dislocation of the vertebrae;

quent inquiries and autopsies

in

which the

ratio of

to cause

and he studied subserope length to victim

1

2

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

weight had been miscalculated, resulting

Fred

in decapitation.

is

the author

of the most modern hanging manual, prepared for the state of Delaware,

which

specifies precise rope length to

body weight

ratios to

ensure instant

death without decapitation.

While hanging may be viewed as an anachronism, an uncivilized hangover from the days of the Wild West, four execution

when Fred

used

it

as a

method of

market research: Delaware, Montana,

started his

Oklahoma, and Washington. Since have converted to

states

Oklahoma and Washington Montana, the condemned are given a

that time,

lethal injection. In

choice of lethal injection or hanging. In Delaware, inmates convicted prior to

June

13, 1986, are

hanged; lethal injection

is

the

method of execution

those convicted after that date. Fred pushed hard in

and he secured a gallows and

When

Fred

lethal injection

all

machine

for

four hanging states,

sale to

set out to research the execution market,

Delaware.

seven states exe-

cuted capital offenders in the gas chamber: Arizona, California, Colorado,

Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, and North Carolina. Three of them looked

like real

business opportunities. California had executed 292 people

between the introduction of the gas chamber

in

1933 and 1969; North

Carolina ran a close second with 263; followed by Mississippi with 156.

The gas chamber was invented U.S.

Army

in 1924

by D. A. Turner, a major

in the

Medical Corps. Turner began by studying the effects of gas

warfare during World

War

I.

The

lethal gas in those shells

went under a

variety of names, including prussic acid, cyanide gas, hydrogen cyanide,

or hydrocyanic gas, but the effect was always the same. Breathing in

cyanide gas paralyzes the heart and lungs. The victim becomes giddy. Panic gives

way

to severe headache, followed

becomes impossible, so

by chest

pains. Respiration

that the victim struggles vainly for breath, eyes

popping, tongue hanging thick and swollen from a drooling mouth. His face turns purple. Turner's idea, in creating the gas chamber,

was

to find a

more

civilized alternative to the electric chair.

Most gas chambers

are octagonal in shape and are

glass panels held in place

by

airtight seals. All

made of

steel,

with

except Missouri's, which

was constructed by inmates, were manufactured by Eaton Metal Products of Salt Lake City. The condemned

a perforated

seat.

A

man

long stethoscope

is

strapped into a metal chair with

is

taped to his chest and passed

through the chamber so that a physician on the other side can pronounce

Labor Day

A

death.

bowl

is

placed under the chair, and over

I

13

suspended on a

this,

hook which the executioner controls by means of a lever, is a gauze bag containing one pound of cyanide, or a number of cyanide tablets. The executioner also controls a tube through which sulfuric acid

Once

into the bowl. it,

the bowl

is filled

with acid, the cyanide

is

introduced

dropped into

is

causing a chemical reaction which slowly releases the poisonous gas.

Before the much-publicized execution of Robert Harris 1992, the last

American gas execution had taken place

in California in

Missouri in 1989,

in

when Leo Edwards was put to death. In 1987, Mississippi also executed Edward Earl Johnson and Connie Ray Evans. After Mississippi's 1983 execution of Jimmy Lee Gray, several witnesses reported that he had convulsions for eight minutes; that he gasped eleven times during that period; and that he repeatedly struck his head struggling in the gas chamber. finally

Anxious prison

on a pole behind him while

Parchman Farm

officials at

As

ordered the witnesses to leave the observation area.

Gray was

still

banging his head against the pole.

One

they

left,

of the witnesses

demanded to know if Gray was dead. Warden Eddie Lucas dently: 'No question."

replied confi-

'

A

similar scene occurred during a 1976 gas execution in California.

Howard present

who had

Brodie, a journalist

when

He

chamber.

witnessed three executions, was

Aaron Mitchell

California put

to death in

its

two-seater gas

reported that Mitchell was dragged struggling and screaming

into the death

chamber, where Warden Lawrence Wilson read the death

warrant and gave the signal to release the deadly gas. Brodie told

how

when "the gas hit him his head immediately fell to his chest. Then his head came up and he looked directly into the window I was standing next to. For nearly seven minutes, he bubbling between his his

head

fell

down

sat

He

lips.

again."

up

that

way, with

his chest heaving, saliva

tucked his thumbs into his

The

prison records

show

fist

that

it

and, finally,

took twelve

minutes for Mitchell's heart to stop beating. Incidents like these

make Fred Leuchter uncomfortable with

gas cham-

bers.

'They're dangerous," he told me. "They're dangerous to the people

who have

to use them,

ought to take of them."

all

and they're dangerous for the witnesses. They

of them and cut them

in half

with a chain saw and get rid

14

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL was

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, lethal injection

But when Fred began

in the

execution industry,

anyone could make money with

the

was

coming method.

difficult to

supply of lethal drugs, syringes, and an IV (intravenous)

on the other hand, was

tion,

regularly going

wrong

—

still

And because

popular.

how

see

was apparently required was a

All that

it.

it

gruesomely wrong

— they

line.

Electrocu-

electrocutions

business opportunity. Fred believed he could step in and put things

Since the 1980s, botched electrocutions have

were

represented a prime

made

right.

sensational head-

In Virginia's execution of Albert Clozza by electrocution on July 24,

lines.

and improperly applied voltage led

1991, faulty electrodes

to a slow

and

agonizing death. Steam pressure in Clozza's head caused his eyeballs to

pop so

that blood ran

down

fewer than four jolts of

on

May

4, 1990,

was

his chest

electricity

He

from the sockets.

died after no

had been applied. Florida State Prison,

the setting for what

was perhaps

the

most gruesome

execution in American history. Flames, smoke, and sparks shot six inches out of the head of Jessie Tafero as three 2,000-volt shocks were adminis-

Because the amperage was

tered.

bones before he

died. Indiana,

incorrect, Tafero's flesh

October

1985:

16,

The

cooked on

his

state's seventy-

two-year-old electric chair required five jolts of electricity and seventeen

minutes to execute William Vandiver. Georgia, December

12, 1984:

Alpha

Otis Stephens received a two-minute jolt of electricity and appeared to

slump

body

in the electric chair. In the six

minutes that doctors waited for his

to cool so they could check his heartbeat, Stephens took twenty-

three breaths, according to eyewitness reports.

phens and found he was Lethal injection,

was

still

meant

alive.

Two

doctors checked Ste-

He died after a second jolt was

to be the neat

also plagued with problems, or "execution glitches," as they are re-

ferred to in the business.

Most of

the problems have occurred in Texas,

which has executed more people than any other U.S. 1976

applied.

and modern execution method,

—

tions

forty-eight at time of going to press

were not resumed

there until 1982. In

—

a former drug user. White actually vein. lethal

It

1992,

it

took forty-seven

line into Billy

Wayne

White,

tried to help the executioners locate

took nine minutes for him to

drugs caused Stephen

despite the fact that execu-

May

minutes for the execution team to insert an IV

jurisdiction since

die. In

McCoy

to

May

1989, an incorrect

choke and heave throughout

execution. That terrible death chamber scene was preceded

in

a

mix of his

December

1988 by another, in which the IV line carrying a lethal injection into the

Labor Day

I

15

arm of Raymond Landry sprang a leak, spraying technicians and witnesses with the fatal drugs. The tube had to be reinserted while Landry was halfdead. It took twenty-four minutes for him to die. Three years before that, in March 1985, Stephen Morin lay on a gurney for more than forty minutes while technicians in the Texas prison failed repeatedly to insert the IV needle into his veins.

What gave Fred the belief that

all

subject to glitches.

ous

the conviction to start up in the execution business

He

believed that, through

training, executions

would become

modern hardware and

glitch-free

ized that the technology required to

kill

another

human

legally, already existed and only needed updating. it

was

people. Killing another

one of the more

was

difficult

especially difficult

when

things

happened,

it

things a state

when

difficult for

cution in which the state

real-

being deliberately,

real

problem wasn't

being, Fred realized,

employee had

went wrong, the condemned man

was

The

He

to do;

suffered.

was

and

went wrong. Fred reasoned

things

And when

it

that,

that

the execution team, difficult for the wit-

who had

nesses, and difficult for the politicians

its

human

rigor-

and professional.

Fred Leuchter's approach to the execution industry was simple.

hardware,

was

of the execution methods used in the United States were

was seen

to

to defend a

have blood on

its

botched exe-

hands and egg on

face.

By

new

the time executions resumed in the late 1970s, a

generation of

prison wardens had inherited a collection of electric chairs, gas chambers, like museum pieces than instruments of Few wardens knew how they worked, or even if they

and gallows which looked more

modern

justice.

worked. Most of the

electric chairs

had been

the turn of the century and were based

built

by inmates around

on designs dating back

gas chambers were old and leaky and posed as

much

to 1890.

The

of a threat to the

executioner and witnesses as they did to the condemned. Fred Leuchter

came along and

said,

thinking, before they like you.'

T can make

this

work

for you.'

The wardens were

even knew Fred's name, 'We need you, or someone

Understanding the customer's needs was going to be the key to

Fred's success in the execution industry.

The next

task

was

to develop a thorough understanding of

methodology

16

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

and equipment. Fred decided to study the history of

He went

to the library

his

new

profession.

and dug up scholarly papers, discovering through

his research that the story of the electric chair

had been one of chance,

personal rivalry, and commercial greed, and was a little-known but fasci-

Thomas Edison and George Westing-

nating footnote in the careers of

house.

The ing,

electric chair

was invented because hanging had had

on the authority

common

feature of

its

day. Hang-

mob, had been a during the westward expansion. The

either of the sheriff or the lynch

American

life

noose came to symbolize the outrage of the community violent crime. In the days of the

Wild West, no one seriously argued that

hanging was a deterrent to crime.

It

simply ensured that the

hanged would no longer commit crimes.

community took vengeance, and

response to

in

It

was

the

man who was

means by which the

provided a feeling of comfort and reas-

it

surance during violent times that something was being done.

By

New York

the end of the nineteenth century,

to believe that hanging

was a method of

capital

State authorities

punishment

at

came

odds with

the modern, sophisticated, and civilized society they judged themselves to be.

Faced with a number of impending executions, they

method more

in

David

up a commission

Hill set

cast about for a

keeping with their view of themselves. In 1886, Governor to find a

form of execution "more humane

than hanging."

Combing through back numbers of obscure

technical publications like

Medical Instrumentation and IEEE Spectrum, Fred came across

by Professor Theodore Bernstein which Hill's

three-man commission included a

who had Buffalo,

told the story of

dentist, Dr. Alfred P.

Southwick,

heard about the accidental death by electrocution of a

New

York,

in 1881.

The

victim,

articles

how Governor man

in

Samuel Smith, while under the

influence of drink, put his hands across the terminals of a direct current

generator that had recently been installed by the said he apparently died instantaneously

leagues on the

and

guillotine

and

were as unsatisfactory as hanging. While the it

public.

mutilated the body in a

The

painlessly. Southwick's col-

New York commission were busy studying European meth-

ods of execution, including the

sure,

Eyewitness reports

city.

way

that

Both these methods

garotte. guillotine

might be quick and

was unacceptable

to the

garotte simply guaranteed the worst that could

American

happen with

Labor Day

I

17

hanging: slow strangulation rather than sudden death. Southwick reasoned

do the job neatly and

that electricity could

and so began electro-

cleanly,

cution experiments on animals. Electricity for.

The

was

modern

sentially

ered the electric

just the thing

Governor

Hill's

commission was looking

and imperfectly understood form of energy was quintes-

invisible

was then so new

(electricity

bulb a few years

light

that

Edison had only discov-

earlier, in 1879). It

had the advantage

of being clean, and was relatively cheap. Southwick's experiments on

animals convinced Governor Hill that hanging should be abolished as the

means of execution law a

in

New York State,

and on June

which prescribed death by electrocution for

bill

mitted after January

1,

he signed into

4, 1888,

capital crimes

com-

1889.

During the 1880s, a controversy of epic proportions was raging between

Edison and

power

electrical

George Westinghouse, each of

his rival

in different

whom

had harnessed

forms and was competing to make his system

the standard. Edison argued for direct current; Westinghouse

champion of the battle

would reap the

On March of Buffalo,

was

the

was

set for

richest

York, murdered

man

in the history

of science.

his lover Tillie Ziegler with

New

at

urgent decisions to make.

would be required

a hatchet.

He

York's Auburn State Prison. The state

Would

it

use Edison's direct cur-

rent system, or Westinghouse's alternating current?

industry

whoever won

be sentenced to death by electrocution, and the date

to

June 24, 1889,

now had two

payday

that

the

29 of that year, William Kemmler, by coincidence a resident

New

first

Each man reckoned

alternating current.

was

to carry out the death sentence?

was born on

And what hardware

The modern execution

the horns of this dilemma.

Kemmler' s impending execution

also gave birth to

one of the

classic

The flamboyant lawyer and former congressman Bourke Cockran took on Kemmler' s case and immediately appeals in capital punishment law.

lodged an appeal against the sentence as a cruel and unusual punishment in violation

tution.

The

of the Eighth and Fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constistate

was caught

off guard

and had no alternative but to issue a

stay of execution.

Undeterred by Kemmler's appeal, electric chairs,

Clinton.

which were

The $8,000

New York

installed in prisons at

decided to build three

Auburn, Sing Sing, and

contract went to an "electrician" by the

name of

18

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Harold Brown,

who

Thomas Edison, an

favored alternating current.

ponent of capital punishment, believed that

his rival

op-

George Westing-

house's alternating current would do the job more satisfactorily than his

own

and snidely promoted the idea

direct current

was more "dangerous." Westinghouse fumed.

that alternating current

If his alternating

were used for executions, the Westinghouse image could be

current

and

tainted,

public opinion might take against alternating current.

Meanwhile, Kemmler's lawyer was time

at the

state

—

calling in

cast of expert witnesses to try

found doctors

who

a

now familiar

and save

— but novel The

his client's neck.

argued that electrocution was instantaneous and

who said no one could be sure. Brown by showing that he lacked

painless, while the defense called doctors

Kemmler's lawyer any formal

also tried to discredit

scientific

education and alleging that he was an agent of Edi-

by the

son's, paid not only

by

state to build the electric chair but also

Edison solely to besmirch the name of Westinghouse.

However, Brown eventually got

his contract to supply

three Westinghouse generators capable of producing

New York

more than 2,000

with

volts,

along with exciters, rheostats, Cardew voltmeters, ammeters, Wheatstone bridges, switches, electrodes, bell signals, waterproof insulating wire, insulators.

tained

two

The

electric chairs

and

he fashioned were made of oak and con-

one for the head, and one for the lower back.

electrodes:

But when Brown tried to buy the generators from Westinghouse, the company refused to supply them. Undeterred, he obtained them from a

secondhand dealer

On peal.

October

in

Boston, increasing his profit margin substantially.

9, 1889, the

Cockran made

Cayuga County Court denied Kemmler's

further desperate attempts

on Kemmler's

ap-

behalf, but

no avail. The execution was set for the morning of August 6, 1890. The electric chair used in Kemmler's execution was, in most ways, fairly similar to those in use today. The event excited a great deal of medical interest, and of the twenty-five witnesses who watched Kemmler killed by to

electricity,

Later, the

the official

fourteen were doctors.

man who

actually threw the switch,

New York

in 1914,

electricians.

Edwin Davis, was named

State executioner. Davis

people before his retirement

Robert G.

The executioners were

when he was

went on

to execute 240

replaced by his assistant,

Elliott.

Two New York

State physicians

were

officially in

charge of the execu-

—

Labor Day tion,

both of them specialists

in

mental

Carlos F. MacDonald, chairman of the sion. 4

Dr. E. C. Spitzka and Dr.

illness:

New York

State

Lunacy Commis-

MacDonald later described what happened on the fateful day. Kemmler was brought into the room the warden asked

the

'Before

physicians

how

19

I

long the contact should be maintained.

[I]

Twenty

replied,

seconds,' but subsequently assented to ten seconds in deference to the

opinion of another that a considerably less period of time would suffice

an opinion which doubtlessly would have sustained had the electro-motive pressure [voltage] been sufficiently great.

"Unfortunately, in this instance, the voltmeter, ammeter, switchboard, etc.,

were not located

in the

execution room; hence, none of the

know precisely how much the

witnesses could

official

electro-motive pressure and

current strength were at the time of making and during the continuance of

Nor has

amperage

in this instance, to the

writer s knowledge, ever been officially determined.

But reasoning from the

the

first

contact.

the voltage or

known lethal effect of an electro-motive pressure of 1600 volts and upward, as shown by subsequent executions and by deaths which have occurred from accidental contact with for the conclusion that his

body of an

live electric

wires

.

.

.

solid

ground

afforded

is

no human being can survive the passage through

alternating current of

more than 1500

volts for a period of

even twenty seconds, the contact being perfect."

Kemmler' s execution

in the electric chair being the first,

thought to establish the protocols that tocols that ritualize every

exist

—the death sentence pro-

moment of the death watch and execution process

from the time the governor

removed from

now

no one had

signs a death warrant to the time a

the death chamber.

The execution protocol arose

body

is

as a nec-

essary device to keep order in the prison around the time of an execution, to

keep the execution party's mind off the

grisliness

period as long as ten days, and to control the

making him believe he was a part of a

of their task over a

condemned man's

ritual that

fear

was being conducted

by

in

a

competent way by trained people, including doctors and clergymen.

Because there was no protocol for Kemmler's execution, the event was an oddly casual ber,

affair.

After the witnesses had gathered in the death cham-

and were seated on chairs

Warden Charles Durston

led

in

a semicircle around the electric chair,

Kemmler

into the death

chamber, where the

curious doctors, reporters, and law enforcement officers were waiting.

20

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Kemmler's entrance was

theatrical.

A

short

man

with an attractive face

and a neatly trimmed black beard, Kemmler was dressed

and he appeared

best,

to enjoy being the center of so

the absence of any protocol,

Warden Durston,

Sunday

in his

much

attention. In

uncertain as to what he

should do next (and apparently reluctant to dispatch

Kemmler to his death man a seat in

without some form of ceremony), offered the condemned front of the electric chair.

William Kemmler," he announced.

''Gentlemen, this

is

Kemmler nodded

at the

been saying a

warden, as

of things about

lot

luck in this world.

I

believe

I

The warden nodded back William. Let

me

warden to

told

was him

accommodate

he had been introduced to give an

me which were not so.

am going to at

I

wish you

all

good

a good place."

Kemmler and

"Now

said,

we'll get ready,

take your coat."

Kemmler declined any the chair he

if

and made a short statement. "The newspapers have

after-dinner speech,

assistance and placed his coat across the back of

sitting on.

that

He

started to

remove

would be unnecessary, as

the spine electrode.

it

his waistcoat, but the

had been

slit

However, Kemmler's

up the back

was then

shirt

cut at the back, baring the flesh at the base of his spine.

A deputy sheriff, Joe Veiling, guided Kemmler to the chair to strap him in.

Kemmler had built up a rapport during the days before the The condemned man's only sign of fear had been a comment to

Veiling and

execution.

Veiling earlier that morning: "Joe, thing.

Don't

let

I

want you

to stick

by

me

them experiment on me more than they ought

through

this

to."

As the reluctant deputy sheriff started to strap him into the electric chair, Kemmler quipped, "Don't get excited, Joe. I want you to make a good job of this."

away and Warden Durston came forward to place the on Kemmler. The witnesses could see that while Kemmler

Veiling stepped

head electrode

was

neatly dressed and groomed, the hair at the

been shaved haphazardly to electrode had been applied,

and

said, "I

his

head had

After the head

Kemmler moved his head from side to side make that a little tighter, Mr. Durston."

guess you'd better

The warden complied, and then attached black

crown of

facilitate the electrical contact.

mask over Kemmler's

"Good-bye," Kemmler

the spine electrode.

He

face and said, "Good-bye, William."

replied.

placed a

Labor Day

I

21

Durston knocked twice on the door of the room adjacent to the death chamber, and Edwin Davis threw the switch.

A

reporter from the

New

York World described what followed.

''Sud-

denly the breast heaved. There was a straining at the straps which bound

The man was

him.

.

wits.

There was a

.

.

Warden, physicians, everybody,

alive.

startled cry for the current to

room

only half understood, were given to those in the next board.

When

they knew what happened, they were prompt

switch-handle could be heard as

it

was

lost their

be turned on again. Signals, at the switch-

and the

to act,

pulled back and forth, breaking the

deadly current into jets."

The

first

Dr. Southwick reported .

.

.

many others which followed, was botched. that "When the electrical contact was broken

electrocution, like

superficial discolorations

.

.

.

were observed on the exposed portions

of the face. The body remained limp and motionless for approximately half a minute, when there occurred a series of slightly spasmodic movements of the chest.

.

.

.

There were no evidences of a return of consciousness or

of sensory function, but in view of the possibility that extinct,

beyond

resuscitation,

and

in

life

was not wholly

order to take no risk of such a contin-

gency, the current was ordered to be reapplied, which was done within

about two minutes from the time the

second closure of the enty seconds,

was seen

when a

to issue

circuit

small

was

first

contact

was broken.

.

.

.

The

inadvertently maintained for about sev-

volume of vapor, and subsequently of smoke,

from the point of application of the

spinal electrode

due

... to scorching of the edge of the sponge with which the electrode was faced, and from which the moisture had been evaporated.

"A

careful examination of the

body was now made.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The

pulse and heart's action had ceased. ... In other words, William

was dead, and

radial

Kemmler

the intent and purpose of the law to effect sudden

and

painless death in the execution of criminals had been successfully carried

out."

who

Dr. Southwick, the deadly dentist

books as the father of electrocution,

has gone

called

down

in the history

Kemmler's execution "the

MacDonald and Warden Durston after all, Kemmler had been put to

grandest success of the age." While Dr.

were well pleased with the pants thought the

first

— — some witnesses and

results

death, and fairly rapidly at that

at least

two

partici-

execution by electricity to have been bungled. Dr.

22

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

MacDonald's colleague, Dr. Spitzka, was disgusted by the

He

told reporters,

"The execution was not a

But," he added, "today's performance has

system of execution can

The

in

failure, for the

satisfied

me

is

man

is

dead.

that the electrical

no way be regarded as a step

guillotine is better than the gallows, the gallows

execution."

historic event.

in civilization.

better than electrical

s

ITTING IN Fred

view with him,

I

Leuchter's living

room on

the

first

day of

my

the history of executions, and his loathing for execution glitches.

me

his

motto

is

inter-

could hear commuter trains rumbling past as he explained

''Capital punishment, not capital torture."

He

And he

told said:

"As someone who

believes in capital punishment but does not believe in

torture, I sleep well

knowing

that as a result of

tortured. I'm very uncomfortable

when

what

I

do, fewer people are

the state does something that

causes pain or traumatic damage to the individual being executed." The

purpose of

his business,

he

said, is to

ensure "a dignified and professional

execution."

Fred

lit

a cigarette and explained: "It's not up to

whether or not the person gets executed. person gets executed properly

be more than happy to

set

—

if

It's

I'm asked.

up

to

And

me

me

only to see that the

that's all

any other

somebody would

citizen's

I

do.

And

I'll

up the execution and do everything but throw

the switch for them. I'm a proponent of executions. But

disgrace that

to determine

torture

name." 23

somebody

to death in

I

think

my

it's

a

name, or

24

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

New'York Times

In October 1990, the

and

his lethal injection

published an editorial on Fred

machine under the headline "Dr. Death and His

Wonderful Machine." "With

capital

punishment

argued, "Fred Leuchter should be the

man

in

vogue,"

of the hour. He's a readily

available source of technical support for states seeking

execution machinery.

When

pointedly

it

new

or improved

Missouri needed a lethal injection machine,

he was not only the low bidder, but the only bidder. Mr. Leuchter, all,

after

only designs death machines: others create their market."

Once Fred had forays into

a partner.

it,

identified the

market and made some

he decided he would be better off

He found

a

man

called Norbert

someone whose business included

setting

initial,

up

successful

business with

in

Lynch, an unfortunate name for

the design and installation of gallows.

Fred's choice of partner was to prove

ill-fated.

Norbie Lynch describes

himself as a "self-employed business entrepreneur." Before he teamed up

with Fred, forty-eight-year-old Lynch had previously ship,

from which he sold car insurance on the

side.

owned a

He

car dealer-

lost that

job

when

questions were raised about the financing of insurance policies he arranged for

two

girlfriends. After the car business,

Trading Company, a Boston commodities

he got involved with Peabody

outfit.

In 1983, the Commodities

Futures Trading Commission raided Peabody and closed

took away Lynch' s license and barred him from

selling

it

down. They

commodities for

life.

That first

life

sentence

made Lynch

available to

become a partner

in

Fred's

execution hardware company, American Engineering, Inc. American

Engineering used an office address at 265 Main Street in Boston, but most of its activities were based in the "engineering Street, in

that

a drafty basement

Fred perfected the

chine.

To come were

in

facilities" at 108

a run-down part of Charlestown.

electric chair

and invented

Bunker Hill It

was here

his lethal injection

ma-

the headiest days of the execution industry for Fred

and Norbie. In

some ways, Fred and Norbie were

chain-smoking, ebullient

were a Mutt and If

Fred

is

Alfred E.

The basement

men

Jeff duo,

in

well matched. Both are garrulous,

able to talk the hind leg off a donkey.

They

a pattern from which lesser stereotypes are

Neuman, Big Norbie is Archie Bunker. Charlestown was a buzzing hive of frantic

Letters were dispatched to prison wardens, designs were

cut.

activity.

worked out and

Labor Day refined,

and equipment was assembled on the

spot.

I

25

There was a boyish

enthusiasm for the business, and a sense of fun. Tacked to the wall over a giant spool of electrical cable

was a

pistol target

with a photograph of

Colonel Qaddafi pinned over the bull's-eye. Norbie got into the

spirit

of

Fred's ''Capital punishment, not capital torture" slogan and would explain

American Engineering's repeated to

Texas by bawling

at

was

Union goes

anti-capital

machine

lethal injection

a Boston Globe reporter, "In Texas, people could

beat the person to death with a shovel Civil Liberties

a

failure to sell

after

and no one would

care.

I

hope the

them." Norbie always maintained that he

punishment but

justified his

involvement in American

Engineering by insisting that "Our society has determined that

it

the

is

man can place on another man. These deaths are going occur anyway. And I think it's wrong to carry out executions under

ultimate penalty a to

antiquated methods."

While Fred's commitment

to

American Engineering was never be

bie's restless entrepreneurial spirit could

one

fingers in just explicit lesbian

pie.

He became

When

satisfied

a not-so-silent partner

Nor-

by having in

his

a sexually

magazine called Eidos, whose answering machine would

where we

chirp, "Hello, thanks for calling Eidos,

stay'!"

fiill-time,

say, 'Sex

here to

is

Eidos started printing poetry, Norbie's enthusiasm for the

project waned. "It

was supposed

to

be erotica for

dejectedly, "but the articles have gotten a

In 1987, Norbie

sum of money

left

little

American Engineering

women," he

all

said

spacey."

after

Fred discovered a large

missing from the company's bank account. With Norbie

gone, the business continued as Fred A. Leuchter Associates, Inc.

American Engineering had always been a low-tech,

The

no-frills

pitches that Fred sent out to prospective clients were form letters that

had been prepared on a word processor. They had a sans and

operation.

justified margins,

head; but the date, the address of the potential

were typed on an old typewriter,

A

serif

typeface

and were printed on American Engineering

typical sales letter

is

in

client,

and the salutation

a different typeface.

one addressed

to Superintendent

Glen Parks of

the Virginia Department of Corrections, dated August 20, 1985.

Glen,"

it

begins,

"American Engineering,

and hardware fabricating firm located past,

it

letter-

in

Inc.

is

"Dear

a consulting engineering

Boston, Massachusetts. In the

has been engaged in the design and fabrication of execution devices

26

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

for state

governments enforcing

capital punishment.

was determined by a requirement

to standardize

Entry into the market

hardware and procedures,

reduce costs and eliminate problems and complications inherent tion.

Most of the equipment

older, atical

use today

in

and although operating,

is

is

assistance in the

field.

execu-

hardware and personal

to offer

phases of the problem, not limited

all

in

a quarter of a century old, or

either sub-standard, imprecise or problem-

from a medical standpoint. Our aim

support in

is

to,

but including, technical

We are prepared to address any problems you might

pose, and research any problems you might have, not only via letter or

telephone but by actual physical inspection, certification, repair, mainte-

nance and set-up of your hardware and systems for use prior during,

any execution.

and are prepared 4

We

to discuss

we can

'Specifically,

to,

and

are familiar with most systems and procedures

any problems or reservations you might have.

supply any hardware, design, modifications or

complete systems needed, and further, back-up said systems and hardware with support. its

We

can

test

and

use and be present during

your system and equipment prior to

certify

its

use to ensure proper function.

We have

a

successful track record in the field and a complete, computerized lethal injection

system

"Enclosed

is

in place in the

New Jersey

State Prison in Trenton.

a description of our Modular Electrocution System, the

only state of the art system available today. This system will minimize your

problems and ensure trouble free electrocutions. lizing the best

to minimize error

human

and guarantee ease

factors, legal

ing the

uti-

certifying the

and public standpoint

in operation.

"Further, after installation of the system,

and

has been designed

medical and engineering expertise available and has been

thoroughly considered from a

testing

It

we can

supply support by

system as operational prior to each use, eliminat-

human apprehension caused by

infrequent use of the system. In

your people need only connect the subject to the system and the

this case,

executioners perform their mechanical function. "I will be in touch with you in the near future in the hope that assist

you

in

Fred signed the

letter,

"Fred A. Leuchter,

Fred does not claim that original.

He

we may

your needs."

is

generous

Jr.,

Chief Engineer."

his design for the electric chair is 100 percent

in his

acknowledgment of the achievements of

others and says that his design "goes back to the good electrocution sys-

Labor Day terns

developed on the East Coast of the United States

New

this century:

York,

New

I

at the beginning

Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts.

27

of

Some

of the other chairs you get, out in the Midwest, for instance, were put

work properly." He

together by inmates and an electrician, and they don't

"Most of the good

said with a shake of his head, sitting

unused

in

electrocution systems are

museums." was

In the early days of electrocution, there

working as an engineer

in the

execution industry. Fred recalled

Electric and Westinghouse were both involved

eral

stigma attached to

little

how Gen-

in supplying

compo-

nents to prisons. "But they would stop at the point where you connect the

components deliver

it

to the system," said Fred.

"They'd supply a transformer and

to the floor in front of the chair."

many

quality, but in

limited experience,

ensuring that

Looking

all

The components were high

cases they were assembled by a prison electrician of

whose

chief role

was everyday maintenance, such

as

the light bulbs worked.

at old

chairs spread out

photographs of

on

New

Fred

his desk,

York and Massachusetts

said:

"This

where

is

it

electric

started."

all

Pointing at the electrodes, he observed: "They're probably just pieces of

copper that have been bent and molded, form-fitted to the

chair, with

a

wire soldered on. They're not capable of carrying the sustained current that ours are because

works

we've used naval bronze. But

well. It's just that in 1900 they didn't

ity that I

have now.

I

also

it's

the right design,

have the opportunity of standing back and

looking at a hundred years of screwups, which doesn't necessarily

me

a genius.

It

just

means

it

have the technological capabil-

that

I

have a very

distinct

make

advantage."

me some stories of botched electrocutions he had read about He said that learning from the errors of the past had him perfect the electric chair. He began with the abortive electro-

Fred told

in his researches.

helped

cution in 1946 of Willie Francis, a seventeen-year-old black youth. Louisiana's traveling executioner threw the switch, and the transformer blew up.

Francis went momentarily unconscious, but lived. his

mouth

tasted like cold peanut butter, and

He

how

later

described

he had seen

little

how blue

and pink speckles. What had happened, Fred explained, was that the voltage had dropped low enough to cause unconsciousness, but not to

Fred told

me

that maintaining the correct voltage

successful electrocution.

was fundamental

kill.

to a

28

/

I

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL asked what had happened to Francis

Fred

told

me

after the failed execution,

he had appealed against

that

his

and

death sentence on the

grounds that he'd already been "executed" once.

"Then what happened?" I asked. "Well, the Supreme Court determined the job. Only the second time they did it

it

he hadn't been executed.

that

Execution means death. So they strapped him with

in

a year

later

and finished

new equipment, and

they did

New York

in 1893.

right."

Fred then told

When

me

about a botched electrocution

the executioner threw the switch

away

ened, tearing

the front of the chair.

in

on William Taylor,

A guard placed

his legs stiff-

a box under the

unfortunate man's feet, and a second jolt of electricity was applied. This time, the generator burned out.

An

hour passed while the chair was con-

nected to the city power supply. The two terrible third-degree

jolts

of electricity had caused

burns to Taylor's head and spine, and he died before

a third jolt could be applied.

"There have been some very uncomfortable and painful things," Fred observed, "and these people were crying and screaming while going on. So

it's

was

this

unfortunate, but that does happen."

Fred explained that the problems executioners faced

in the past

were

not simply mechanical, they were also human. "In the old days, being an

executioner was an

of them didn't

ing these things right stretching the throat.

"They

But

art.

know what "a"

and

don't

I

left.

But

in his rasping

didn't

tell

know what

their art

was, because most

they were doing anyway, and they were botchit

was an

art," he said contemptuously,

Boston accent

until the

word died

anybody who they were. They'd come

in his

in

and

they'd put a hood on them and they'd spit out instructions to everybody,

and everybody followed wouldn't

about

if

their instructions to the letter.

they realized the

in the first place.

And

damn they

They probably

know what he was talking conducted the execution. Some twenty fool didn't

percent of them were humane, and probably sixty percent of them were

inhumane and nobody knew

The

terrible history

it."

of the electric chair bothers Fred.

When

he talks

about botched executions, his face screws up, the pitch of his voice

and the veins stand out on

his neck. It's that exasperation verging

rises,

on anger

that gives impetus to Fred's "Capital punishment, not capital torture"

Labor Day

When

slogan.

his

anger

is

"Look,

sense.

until

became

I

in

an appeal to mercy and

involved,

in

a low

common

didn't realize that there

I

29

were so

problems. The average person doesn't. The average person thinks

many

death house in his state

the equipment

in the

knew some of

the things that went on,

stories

if

they

state-of-the-art. If

is

knew some of

they

the horror

..."

Fred's

was

down and speaks

vented, Fred calms

voice, his palms extended upward

I

commission, even before American Engineering was formed,

first

to repair

an

electric chair

which had been damaged

a

in

riot.

The next

from a prison warden who needed a device to hold

job came via a

call

electric chair's

head electrode

in place.

The

his

vast majority of botched elec-

trocutions Fred had studied were due to defective electrodes. If the electrical circuit attached to the

condemned man

is

imperfect, his body's natural

resistance combines with poor conduction to lower the voltage of the

current passing through his body, thereby causing pain. for the executioner to increase the current sary, giving appalling results. "If

current," Fred told me, his

body.

It's like

the flesh will It

six

amps

—

individual's

you'll

meat on an overcooked chicken.

fall right

simply means that

state will return the

off in your hands. That doesn't it's

then necessary

beyond what should be neces-

you overload an

"more than

It is

If

body with

cook the meat on

you grab the arm,

mean he felt anything.

cosmetically not the thing to do. Presumably the

remains to the person's family for burial. Returning

someone who had been cooked would be successful electrocution, he determined, tinuity at the electrode contacts to help

is

in

poor taste." The key to

to establish

"good

circuit

con-

reduce flesh burning."

Fred's second commission resulted in a head electrode assembly that, at

a cost of $1,400, ensures "good

circuit continuity."

yarmulke-like object I'd noticed earlier, leather. in

my

"This

hands.

"It's

a used helmet," he

is

It felt

used?"

I

said,

is

The helmet,

made of

handing

it

to

soft,

me.

I

the strange

dark brown turned

it

over

strange to be holding the thing.

asked.

"Yup."

"How many

times?"

It felt silly

asking the question.

What

difference

could the answer make? "I don't know. Dozens."

Dozens of times, the

thing in

my

hands had been strapped onto the head

30

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL pumped through

of a condemned man, and 2,000 volts had been his brain, searing the flesh of his

shaved head

like

it,

frying

a piece of meat on a hot

grill.

"I wish

could take credit for the design," Fred offered with genuine

I

modesty, unaware of the discomfort the medical research that century.'

'

He

took

it

from

I

was done

was

"but

feeling,

this

was based on

in the latter part of the nineteenth

me and held

it

up

in

one hand as though

a delicate, living organism, while he pointed out the other. Typical of Fred, he described

it

its

were

principal features with

from the

functional parts inside to the outer shell that holds consists of an inner helmet of copper screening

it

inside out, it

all

from the

together. "It

and sponge, and an outer

helmet of leather," he explained.

The copper screening was a mesh made of ordinary copper wire, such The sponge was actually a number of pieces of ordinary sea sponge, but their irregular shape and

as one might use in a household electrical repair.

dirty color were made ominous by the use to which they had been put. The cotton thread that held the patchwork of sponge to the screen acquired

a

sinister quality

from

its

ularity of the stitching

very naturalness, and from the unavoidable

which held the sponge

to the

irreg-

mesh. The random

patterns of sponge and stitching had an oddly messy, perversely natural

which was unsettling. "The screening is connected

quality

pointing to a

little

to the electrode,"

Fred demonstrated,

bronze spike on top of the helmet. "The electrode

unscrewed, the wire

is

put through, and then

it's

tightened

is

up again." As

simple as that, and a vast improvement on the cobbled-together devices of the past, such as old football helmets converted to the deadly purpose.

While he design, Fred

"I to

made

making

is

pleased with the results executioners have had with the

is

constantly revising the helmet in small ways.

several improvements it

larger, I

on

use a piece of

this,"

he said proudly. "In addition

artificial

sponge which

I

can get as a

one-piece sponge. Using real sea sponge, you can never get a piece big

enough, and you end up with a patchwork."

Perhaps the most thoughtful

detail

of his latest helmet design

is

the four

snap fastenings to which may be attached a removable denim "face curtain."

(A feature

that

Warden Mike Dutton of

the River

Bend Maximum

Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, particularly likes

is

the fact

Labor Day that the helmet has "it's

no back or

impossible to put

it

front.

helmet on, you've

still

31

"In an execution," Fred told me,

on the wrong way. And you see this?" he

holding up the denim face curtain.

I

"No

matter which

way you

said,

put the

got the three fasteners right there to attach the face

curtain.") This small detail

makes

the helmet foolproof and reduces ner-

vousness and awkwardness for everyone.

F.RED'S GRANDFATHER was born

in

Maine, but he came

Massachusetts to work as a machinist. Fred's design methods

owe

down to as much

to the art of skilled engineering such as his grandfather did, as they

fancy theories. Fred freely admits that most of his work

is

do

to

done with

schoolboy math and science, supplemented by good research and the use of skilled consultants to help with various aspects of design and construction.

Fred's ability to design efficient execution hardware extraordinary engineering ability per se.

isn't

quired to build Fred's state-of-the-art electric chair

is fairly

What makes Fred

the

successful at what he does

problem; the essence of his

asked himself, and Fred's method

and see how

it

is

to turn

is

electric chair design lies in

how he asked

based on any

The engineering knowledge

re-

commonplace.

way he poses

the

what questions he

them.

a problem or a received assumption on

its

head

looks from that angle. For instance, the problem in redesign-

ing the electric chair

was

to think of the 32

"comfort and dignity of the

Labor Day

33

I

executee and the executioner" as well as to consider the engineering and medical aspects; and, where the

was concerned, Fred came up

latter

"The problem

against a problem: doctors.

Fred complained. "They don't

really

is

want

they're afraid of the issue,"

They

to get involved.

freeze

up." In explaining the problem to me, Fred shouted: "Doctors save lives."

He

fixed after

is,

me

with a look that said, Figure that one out. The electric chair

the progeny of a medical mind.

all,

have been involved

From

the very start, doctors

in electrocutions, despite the fact that the

oath (and American Medical Association proscriptions) pation in executions at any level a dubious business.

Hippocratic

make their partici"Even when they

have to participate," Fred mused, "even when they have to supervise, they're not operating at

full

capacity, because they have to think back-

wards. They have to think about destroying a

They're trained to think the opposite way.

an engineer and a repairman.

An

rather than saving

life

It's like

the difference

fixed

it.

how

it

works. He'll

fix

it

two hours

But the TV repairman don't know how

he checks the voltages

And

till

The engineer

after the

he finds the problem.

To

Two

same

thing here.

in one direction, to save

lives,

you're doing the other."

Most of the design work goes on on paper, he makes draftsman his

who

TV

repairman

works. All he knows

it

that's the

thinking.

between

engineer can't repair a television as fast

as the repairman because the engineer thinks backwards.

thinks about

it.

different

is,

ways of

execute, you've got to think

in Fred's head.

When

scale drawings with a ruler,

it's

time to put

it

which he gives to a

turns out the production drawings. Fred acknowledges that

draftsman and his machinist are important members of the design team.

Both have made

ways

significant contributions in suggesting

to build particular

The

more economical

components of his execution systems.

introduction to the specification manual for Fred A. Leuchter As-

sociates'

Modular Electrocution System puts the

electric chair

problem

in

a nutshell: "The design of an electrocution system involves the consideration of a few, but very significant, requirements. Voltage, current, connections, duration

and number of current applications

(jolts)."

At the heart of

Fred's electric chair are three electrodes: one for the head, two for the ankles. "If

you use one

most of the

states do,

leg electrode,"

you only

Fred cautioned, "and

half electrocute the body.

that's

what

You

don't

34

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

guarantee death.

And that's why

half the states

have to electrocute the guy

two jolts."

five times instead of using

Fred's electric chair manual

is

an unusual document

discusses the use of the apparatus in the abstract;

page, that a

human

being

operating the controls.

strapped

with a tightly

moistened sponge.

fitting

It is

[2]) will

never

that another

human

being

is

(3) electrodes.

The head should be

this electrode that the current is intro-

tightly fitted

with an electrode, caus-

and guaranteeing passage through the complete

trunk of the subject's body.

Use of one

(1)

ankle electrode (instead of two

almost always ensure a longer and more

These two

it

cap containing an electrode with a saline

through

duced. Second, each ankle should be ing the current to divide

and

in,

in that

assumes, on every

the heading "Requirements," Fred writes:

system should contain three

"First, the fitted

is

Under

it

difficult electrocution.

ankle electrodes are the return path of the current. Contact

(2)

should be enhanced by using saline salve or a sponge moistened with a saline solution at

each of the ankle connections.

It is

of the utmost impor-

minimum amount of resistance, Further, a minimum of 2000 volts

tance that good circuit continuity, with a

be maintained

at the electrode contacts.

ac must be maintained, after voltage drop, to guarantee permanent disruption of the

autonomic nervous system. Voltages lower than 2000 volts ac,

at saturation,

cannot guarantee heart death and are, thus, not adequate for

electrocution, in that they

may

cause unnecessary trauma to the subject

prior to death. Failure to adhere to these basic requirements could result in

pain to the subject and failure to achieve heart death, leaving a brain dead subject in the chair."

Fred's reading of the medical literature on electrocution and his historical research led him to conclude that, "During electrocution there two factors that

(2)

must be considered: the conscious and the autonomic nervous

systems. Voltages in excess of 1500 volts ac are generally sufficient to destroy the conscious nervous system, that which controls pain and understanding. Generally, unconsciousness occurs in 4.16 milliseconds, !/24o

part of a second. This

ject's conscious

vous system

is

a

is

which

is

twenty-four (24) times as fast as the sub-

nervous system can record pain. The autonomic nerlittle

more

difficult,

however, and generally requires

in

excess of 2000 volts ac to seize the pacemaker in the subject's heart. Generally,

we compute

the voltage at 2000 volts ac plus 20%. After the

Labor Day voltage

body

applied and the subject's

is

dropped about 10%

35

I

saturates, the voltage has

(depending upon the resistance of the electrode

contacts and that of the subject body) and this should be taken into consideration, as well. Current should be kept under six (6) amperes to

minimize body damage (cooking)."

Fred has calculated that the correct voltage for electrocuting human beings

is

average

2,640 volts AC.

man

He

to seize the heart.

Fred increases

modate subjects with greater ac.

He

drop

that

an

ac

that voltage

by 20 percent to accom-

resistance, giving a subtotal of 2,400 volts

then adds a further 10 percent to compensate for the voltage

at saturation. This total of 2,600 volts at five

believes, because

prior to death."

it

will

The

Fred

trains the prison

amperes

is ideal,

Fred told me,

let

the voltage

do

its

is

that "I

thing."

wardens who carry out executions to administer

2,600-volt jolts of one-minute duration, with a ten-second interval

between them. In most cases where Fred's equipment

condemned

will

be dead

ommends a second jolt spasm spasm

after the first jolt of electricity.

is

due

is

used, the

But Fred

rec-

because, "on occasion, the subject's heart will

instead of seizing, during the

thin) at the

first

application of current. This

to excessive chemical buildup (acetylcholine

nerve junctions and the ten

for dissipation of the chemicals. this

Fred

not cause "unsatisfactory trauma to the subject

secret of his success,

control the current and

two

by assuming

kilos) requires 2,000 volts

arrived at this figure

weighing 154 pounds (or 70

(10)

and sympa-

second wait generally allows

The second jolt

will generally eliminate

problem."

"What

basically happens,"

an adrenaline

riot."

While

Fred told me,

this

should

"is that the first jolt causes

make

the victim go into shock,

the adrenaline keeps the heart beating. Allowing ten seconds for the

adrenaline to dissipate ensures that the second jolt stops the heart. "Basically," said Fred, "it's

a matter of speed.

If all

goes well,

it

should

take just 4.16 milliseconds to lose consciousness in an electric chair."

Fred Leuchter's modular electric chair

—

—the most advanced ever

built

made of oak. It doesn't have four legs. Instead, the back is a stout wooden frame which sits flush against the floor; the arms and seat extend from this frame, and at the front, a wooden support descends from the seat to the floor, giving it a three-legged appearance. The chair is

36

is

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

much

larger than traditional. ones

because today's inmates

was

still

in use;

Fred designed

on average, much

are,

it

that

way

larger than those the

accommodate at the end of the last The back and arms are adjustable, and Fred thoughtfully proa padded backrest to make the condemned man's final moments

electric chair

originally built to

century.

vides

more comfortable. Fred didn't have an example of but

I later

went

to see

one

at

his latest electric chair to

show me,

Tennessee's death row in Nashville. The

warden there had sent the old one up to Boston for Fred to rebuild. Apart from the fear of it being unreliable, the warden pointed out that it

was too small to accommodate most of the men on death row. Fred used some of the original oak from Tennessee's "Old Sparky" (which was made from the state's old gallows. The rest of the oak is stacked in a corner of Fred's basement). The chair I saw in Tennessee was fixed in the center of the floor of the death chamber and was cordoned off on all four sides by blue velvet ropes fixed to brass posts, as if it were an object in a museum. On the back of the Tennessee chair is a discreet brass plaque with Fred's name and address on it. The seat is made of Plexiglas, and it is perforated so that when the victim loses control of his bowels and bladder, liquid waste will pass

through the chair.

under the

seat.

It is

by a removable

collected

drip

pan positioned

This feature makes the execution team's task of remov-

ing the dead inmate

from the chair

less unpleasant

and presents a more

hygienic image to witnesses. All electric chairs in the United States, apart

execution party to fasten, particularly

They

also cause pain

who have

from Fred's, have heavy

These can be awkward for the

leather straps to restrain the inmate.

if

the inmate offers resistance.

and discomfort to the inmate (autopsies of those

died in the electric chair regularly

even laceration from the

straps).

When

show

facial bruising

the execution

cution team's job of unstrapping the dead

man from

is

over, the exe-

the chair

repugnant, as they have to tug and push at the body. There

suppuration from the third-degree burns on the head and

some cases

the "cooked" flesh

touched, Fred told me.

handle the body

in

He

such a

added

way

comes away from in

a low voice,

that they don't

is

leg,

is

often

always

and

in

body when teach them to

the

"We

and

make a mess."

Labor Day Fred's solution to restraint

system"

—

basically,

a seat belt made of

aircraft

clasped at the inmate's chest.

is

man

easy for the executioners to position the

Once he

prior to the execution.

in

is

body

after

in the chair

the harness, they have only to

makes

it

an execution. "Since everything

is

secure the nylon restraints at the wrists and ankles. easier to dispose of the

nylon with a

The harness comes down across both

shoulders and up across both thighs and it

also

It

quick release," said Fred, "you don't have to fool with the body. particularly distasteful to fool with the head.

just

37

problem was to introduce a "nonincremental

this

single, quick-release fastening.

This makes

I

one strap you loosen, and you

was

The head, of course, has

the helmet

lift

It

With the quick

off.

release, you don't have to play with a strap that's got blood and materials

able.

on

it.

The

chair has been designed with a backrest,

The minute you

forward and hangs out, put

him

in

hit

the release and

in the straps,

We

it,

It's

is

adjust-

the individual slumps

much easier to

it

a body bag, and get him to the gurney.

process as palatable as possible. operation.

open

which makes

which

I

take

him

can make the

always going to be a distasteful

have to worry about the humanity of the people

who

have to deal with the execution."

Another unique feature of the Leuchter electrodes.

are designed for simple connection to a

The

#6

feet high

and two

enamel, with a sloping control panel

Across the front of the panel

is

leg stock, they is

the helmet.

a metal box standing

is

feet across. Finished in blue

at the front,

it

looks like a cartoon

printed, in large, white lettering,

ELECTRIC CHAIR CONTROL. The this

conductor, as

control console of the Leuchter chair

around four and a half

object:

electric chair is integral ankle

Turned of solid brass and fabricated onto the

executioners stand in front of

blue box, inside of which are the timing circuitry, computer-

controlled switching circuitry, and controls. circuit control (one for

It

has two key switches for

each executioner) and a key-controlled

fail-safe

switch for high-voltage output. Fred's Electric Chair Catalogue also

lists

an option that

states

can

purchase for testing their equipment: the Fred A. Leuchter Associates, Inc.,

Modular Power Supply Test Unit. "Essentially,"

a bank of resistors that thinks there's a person

said Fred, "it's

in the chair."

unit "replaces the electric chair in the system during testing

The

test

and simu-

38

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

lates the load of the chair is

replicated

by "an

occupied by an executee."

especially

twenty-component, high- wattage

human "load"

harmonically balanced,

fabricated,

resistor

A

package which

is

cooled by a

quadrafan assembly having an area of some 255 square inches and an aggregate airflow of

some 2320 cfm

[cubic feet per minute]."

In addition to the hardware he designs, Fred offers various customer services, including

"equipment

certification," "certified training,"

and

"execution support." In his catalogue, Fred states that execution team training "consists of a facility

one day combination lecture/seminar

your

at

with actual hands-on training with your equipment. This training

to include

all

mode

aspects of your

limited to, the medical, technical

and

of execution, including, but not

practical

problems and procedures

required for a competent execution. Additionally, there will be a discussion of the theory, design, maintenance and operation of your equip-

ment. Resultant to

this training

program, Certificates

will

be issued to

mode

those attending Certifying them as Execution Technicians in your

of execution. Training and Certification

is

available in

all

any of the follow-

ing disciplines: Lethal Injection Technician, Electrocution Technician,

Lethal Gas Technician, Hanging Technician. Training and Certification

minimizes Further,

it

legal

problems

in the

event of a problem during an execution.

guarantees the Executee a dignified and professional execu-

tion."

The most personalized service Fred offers is an "execution support" contract. "Under the terms of this contract Fred A. Leuchter Associates, Inc. will

assume the

full

responsibility for the technical aspects of

your execution. The State need only supply the executioner and,

in the

event of Lethal Injection, an I.V. Technician. Fred A. Leuchter Associates, Inc. will

Test and Certify

equipment, supply electricity)

all

all

equipment as Ready,

set

up

all

consumables needed for the execution (except

and ensure a competent execution which

will

maintain the

dignity of the executee, as well as, the dignity of those responsible for

the execution. This requires one engineer and one technician.

An

Exe-

cution Support contract guarantees a smooth and competent execution for the executee

and minimizes

legal

problems

in the

event of a failure

during the execution."

Despite this guarantee, and the others Fred offers, his catalogue con-

Labor Day tains

a disclaimer

assumes no

at the

liability

end of

it:

"Fred A. Leuchter Associates,

for the actual or intended use of

its

I

39

Inc.

devices or

services." I

asked Fred about the cost of

cheapest

is

his various execution systems.

The

the modular lethal injection system at $30,000. His preferred

method of execution, the electric chair, sells for $35,000. A gallows, because it is an unusual and infrequently requested product, sells for $85,000.

The most expensive execution product

is

a Fred Leuchter gas

chamber, costing more than $200,000. Fred had created another product designed for states which either have no execution prisons or have not carried out an execution for

facilities in their

many

years.

new

The Leu-

chter "Execution Trailer" provides a mobile execution facility including

a

lethal injection

machine, a

steel holding cell for the inmate,

rate areas for the witnesses, chaplain, prison workers,

and sepa-

and medical per-

sonnel, at a cost of $100,000.

Of all

Fred's execution products, the electric chair presents the state

with the cheapest consumables

one cents' worth of Leuchter

chair.

bill

at the

end of the day. Only

electricity is required to electrocute

The chemicals

for lethal injection cost

$700, while the cyanide required for a gas

thirty-

someone

in

a

between $600 and

chamber execution costs

around $250.

was anxious to know how profitable Fred's business had been. He told me, "The state shouldn't be over a barrel to bring in somebody that's going to haul them over the coals and charge them a small fortune I

for executing

somebody. Executions are not something people should

be making money hand over

on. I don't make any bones about it. I make a decent living. I have a twenty percent markup on my equipment, and I think that's more than fair. And I think anybody that would try to price the equipment would come back and think I was making less. I have people who when they find

don't get rich with what

out what

my prices

I

fist

do.

I

are they say, 'That's

" all?'

E

ACH DAY

and Caroline

"Have

I

at

my

during

a local

post-Labor Day

visit, I

lunched with Fred

Italian restaurant.

seen you on

TV?"

the waitress shrieked at Fred

on our

first

visit.

Fred nodded modestly. She had,

in

Live," demonstrating the gallows he'd

a report on ABC's "Prime Time built for

Delaware. The program

shows Fred putting the noose around a bag of sand of the same weight as a man, and pulling the trapdoor with a stern look on

The

waitress put

down

the

menus and

his face.

glasses of ice water,

and hurried

off.

"I think she's

new

here," Fred told me.

Caroline squeezed into the booth. "I

know what I'm going

to

have

without looking at the menu," she declared. "I have the same thing every time," she confided to I

just love

it.

me

in

a low voice. "It's not very adventurous, but

I'm having the veal parm with angel hair pasta."

Despite being tempted by Caroline's recommendation, sages and angel hair pasta. 40

I

went

for sau-

Labor Day

"Can

I

have steak

I

41

haven't been marinated?" Fred asked the

tips that

waitress.

"Sure."

"You're sure they won't be marinated?" Fred asked. "Sure." "I've got an ulcer," Fred explained to me. "I can't eat things that are

marinated."

Fred and Caroline both drank coffee with

their lunch.

I

ordered a glass

of wine.

Over lunch, Fred made ness.

he

small talk and offered anecdotes about his busi-

"Do you remember when we

He

told

me

the story.

"We

drove

U-Haul van. Anyway, we stopped way, and there was a sign parking I

down

took the chair

to

Tennessee?"

said, looking at Caroline.

in,

and

a

down.

I

had

it

in the

Ramada Inn somewhere

back of a along the

no trucks or vans could park

that said

we checked

So,

lot.

at

it

I

said to the lady behind the

needed to keep an eye on the van, and

I'd like to

in the

desk that

park just under the

window of our room so I could see it. She said it wasn't allowed. So I told her what was in the van. She looked at me and said that her daughter had been raped a few weeks ago, and so she made an exception, and let me

my window."

park the van under

me more

Fred told

their original gallows. After they took the gallows first electric

wood goes back to down, they made their

about the Tennessee chair. "The

chair with the oak. Then, they sent

used some of the wood

one

in the

I

made

me

for them.

the old chair, and

The problem

is,

I

we

new oak with the old oak. The other oak had darkened we had to end up putting epoxy paint on it. Of course, it'll

couldn't match the

so

much

that

last forever,

but

it's

not quite as sexy looking as natural wood. But they're

keeping their tradition alive and well in Tennessee."

While

we were

eating,

I

asked Fred whether he thought any of the

execution methods, as carried out using his equipment, were painful to the

person being executed. "There's no

way

for sure of

knowing whether anything hurts," he

said,

suggesting, Here's the bottom line.

He went know

on:

"We certainly

try to

indicates that electrocution

is

be human beings. painless

if

you do

And it

everything

right.

we

Everything

42

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

we know

indicates that hanging

painful, but

has a tendency to be

it

to hold his breath.

We

know

also

one

painful for

is

difficult,

brief instant.

Gas

is

not

because the individual tends

that lethal injection

is

not painful.

We

can pretty much determine what's painful emotionally or painful physi-

There are probably two areas of

cally.

on a gurney waiting

stretched out

pain.

Looking

for a lethal injection

at the ceiling while is

painful emotion-

ally."

"Do you

think about what goes through a person's

taken in to be executed?"

Fred there

lit

is

mind when they're

asked.

I

a cigarette and ordered more coffee. "Tradition shows us that

very

little

Most of

objection.

these people go like lambs to the

The bottom line is, if you're going to be executed in an hour, or ten minutes, you know you're going to be executed. And if you think you've got a shot, you're going to fight. The problem is, most people know slaughter.

they haven't got a shot.

would be

sick to

my

I

would think most people would be

stomach.

I

don't

know about

you, but

waiting to be executed, I'd want an Alka-Seltzer."

despair and bellowed:

"So

give the guy

He

I

sick. I think I

think

if I

was

raised his hands in

an Alka-Seltzer! But they don't."

He

thought again. "I'd probably want a shot of something. But they don't

do

that.

give

You're not supposed to have alcohol

to the guy.

it

Come on

"What about you?"

I

.

.

."

Fred groaned

they can't

rhetorically.

asked Fred. "If you were going to be executed,

and you had a choice of method, which would Fred didn't

in the prison, so

would prefer

hesitate. "I

to

it

be?"

be electrocuted as opposed to

lethal injection."

"Why?" "Because

I'd rather deal with three minutes than deal with five.

the firing squad, the

man

is

over his heart. The problem States

is

Even it's

that the average police officer in the

alternative, don't let

the best

way

to

do

it, it's

officers are

United

a step below them. So,

them shoot you. And shooting

is

going to hurt. With electrocution,

if

you

painful. I

think

just a cessation of feeling."

The

waitress brought the coffee.

we were I

is

a poor shot. Corrections

have another

With

strapped into a chair and he's wearing a target

Her eyes widened

at the

having, and she scurried away.

asked Fred whether he had ever witnessed an execution.

conversation

Labor Day

"No. .

.

.

it's

It's

not necessary for what

not something I'm

distasteful. It

may go

sitting

I

do. If

I

43

do see one as part of my job

on the edge of my chair waiting

with the territory, but

I

it's still

for. It's

distasteful."

"How do you think you'd react?" "There's going to be a loss of the

forward

to.

been lucky.

clinical

detachment. That

I

don't look

My resolution would grow even more if I had to witness I

didn't

have to watch them burn Tafero to death."

it.

I've

J

ESSIE TAFERO's execution was probably the most gruesome in U.S. a move to stop executions in Florida when Fred became

history. It led to

involved sion

as

an

which was

expert to

witness

against

the

state.

It

was a

deci-

have disastrous consequences for Fred A. Leuchter

Associates, Inc.

Tafero was convicted of the 1976 shooting deaths of Florida highway patrol trooper Phillip Black

friend of Black's

on

State Prison

who was

May

and Donald Irwin, an Ontario police visiting Florida.

4, 1990, the

officer

and

Tafero was executed at Florida

219th person to die in the Florida chair

since capital punishment began there in 1924.

The Florida press

is

no stranger

which appeared the day "Florida Execution

Becomes Gruesome Display"

"Tafero Meets Grisly Fate

Flames Erupt as to

Execute

Killer

Killer:

man's Slayer

to sensationalism, but the headlines

after Tafero's execution

is

in

were no exaggeration: (St.

Petersburg Times)',

Chair" (the Gainesville Sun); "Smoke,

Executed"

(the

Orlando

Sentinel)',

"3

Jolts

Used

Flames and Smoke Spew from Face Mask as Police-

Sits in the

Chair" (the Miami Herald). 44

Labor Day Tafero's execution

was

the third that staff writer Bruce Ritchie had

He

covered for the Florida Times-Union. to

45

I

wrote, "I don't

know

if I

want

watch another."

body did not

Ritchie reported: 'Tafero's

was applied

electricity

at 7:06 a.m.,

rose from the inmate's head, not his

seemed

it

leg.

when the backward. Smoke

just stiffen upright

to reel

Within seconds, small sparks or

The

flames appeared from the right side of the shroud that hid his face. electrical current

ended quickly

—

quicker than usual,

it

flame disappeared. 'Had one minute passed already?'

seemed

I

looked at the clock, but

I

looked to [prison superintendent

it

Barton did nothing except stare

be glaring

at Tafero,

had applied the skullcap to Tafero's head. Then

who had remained on

what he would do.

to see

then past him.

He

appeared to

Ronald Thornton, prison

Thornton was wearing rubber

chief.

— and the

had elapsed.

that less than 30 seconds

Tom] Barton

in consternation in the direction of

maintenance

seemed

thought to myself.

I

I

He Don Davis,

electrician's gloves.

looked to Lt.

hear. again.

was

the telephone to the Governor's Office. Davis

speaking into the receiver. Then he said something to Barton that

I

couldn't

There was the humming again, and Tafero's body reeled backward

The clock on

shot from the

left

the wall

showed

7:08 a.m. This time, 3-inch flames

side of the facial shroud,

and there was more smoke.

Quickly, the current ended, perhaps in about 20 seconds this time. Again

body slowly came

the

again.

exhale. Tafero's

which was the

to rest. After the pause, there

left

straight.

hand was clenched

saw a face

that

had

into

the heartbeat

a fist except for the

But the hand had the same ashen color

two inmates whose executions

tion

was

Another deep inhale and then an exhale. Another inhale and an

I

lost its tightness

seemed replaced by pain and

had witnessed. and seemed to

I

I

little

finger,

had seen

in

looked to Barton and

sag.

Duty and

frustra-

uncertainty, but he gazed straight ahead.

Barton said something to Thornton, and Thornton spoke back. Then Barton paused, and he swallowed. Davis spoke again into the telephone,

lis-

tened, and then turned to Barton and said something. Barton turned and

nodded again, left

hum

and the body reeled again. Five-inch flames quickly burned from the

side of the shroud,

a.m. The

and smaller ones burned to the

hum was gone

not relax this time. fist.

There was the

to the executioner in the booth behind him.

The

again, perhaps in 30 seconds. little

finger

There was no breathing or

on the

left

right. It

was 7:10

But the body did

hand was now part of the

visible heartbeat. After

a pause, one prison

46

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

doctor, then another, checked for the inmate's pulse and heartbeat. At 7:13

a.m., Frank Kilgo, the prison's chief health officer, spoke in Barton's

Then Davis walked across the room, lifted a microphone which was wired to the witness booth, and said, The sentence of Jessie Tafero direction.

has been carried out at 7:13 a.m.'

"

The Department of Corrections nominated Bob McMaster to act as spokesman in the aftermath of the Tafero execution. He told reporters, 'The execution was carried out. That's what is the important priority." In response to Gainesville Sun reporter Cynthia Barnett's question as to why Tafero continued to breathe after the

McMaster

said,

first

and second

of electricity,

jolts

"In the doctor's opinion, Mr. Tafero was dead within a

second or two. In

his opinion, there

nett reported that

"McMaster would not say afterward why Tafero had

be jolted with

can be involuntary respiration." Bar-

electricity three times if doctors believed

to

he had died within

seconds." She also reported that "Superintendent Barton said he did not believe an investigation

was necessary, and he would not say whether he

thought what took place in the death chamber Tuesday morning was unusual. said.

T won't

'We

discuss

got the

manual, that's "

it

my feelings

with you under any circumstances,' he

wrong type sponge

—

in the

we went

headpiece and

we'll just try to get the right, proper

into

equipment next

time.'

In the aftermath of the Tafero execution, the secretary of the Florida

Department of Corrections, Richard Dugger, sent David Brierton, a former superintendent of Florida State Prison, to "review the circumstances of the

execution." In his report to Secretary Dugger on

wrote that 1)

May

"Two problems emerged as central to this

What could have caused

the flame and

smoke?

2)

8,

1990, Brierton

set of circumstances:

What effect did it have

on the inmate being executed?"

The

report infuriated Fred Leuchter,

who

told

Corrections committed incest by investigating that Jessie Tafero didn't hurt.

about

all

how

Brierton's report

think that

make a determination

is

by Superintendent

lipped

I

itself

and then determined

Dugger has no concept

at

the equipment works except for pushing the button. He's

not even qualified to

led

And

me: "The Department of

Tom

Barton.

of whether or not

it

hurt."

affidavits

from the execution team

Most of the

affidavits are brief, tight-

based on sworn

statements which are short on information and long on

self-

Labor Day congratulation.

The

affidavit

I

47

of Rankin L. Brown, a regional director for

the Department of Corrections,

less than

is

two hundred words long and

concludes with the information: "It should be noted that during these unusual circumstances, Superintendent Barton and his staff remained calm

and exhibited the highest degree of professionalism. All are to be com-

mended

for their performance during this highly stressful period." C. G.

Strickland, superintendent of facilities in Region II of the

and

Corrections, stated that "Superintendent Barton

Department of

his staff should

be

commended."

A significant feature of the affidavits May

on

7

is

sworn by prison

staff

and

officials

the variation in accounts given of the nature of the flames

which erupted from Tafero's head. Superintendent Tom Barton saw flames "approximately two and one-half to three and one-half inches high," and so did other prison personnel. But Gary McLain, the deputy inspector

saw twelve-inch

general of the Florida Department of Corrections,

He be

saw Tafero breathing

also

jolts

of

And he

electricity.

after the application of the first

in

"As

the electric current

twelve inches on both sides.

after

I

was flowing,"

a terse and carefully worded statement, "a blue-orange

flame appeared from both sides of the mask.

peared.

and second

noticed that the head electrode appeared not to

tightly fastened to Tafero's head.

McLain swore

flames.

When

the

extended approximately

It

power stopped, the flames

disap-

observed what appeared to be deep breaths taken by Tafero and,

a few seconds, another charge was given.

started again, the flames reappeared.

I

When

the

power was

observed movement by the right

index finger of Tafero and, after the power stopped, the flames disap-

Once

peared.

again,

breaths from Tafero.

I

observed what appeared to be a couple of deep

The power was administered

again, the appearance of the flames.

flames.

power

When

the

the third time and, once

power ended, so did the

A cloud of smoke filled the upper space of the chamber after each surge.

inmate's

left.

The head attachment appeared The two medical staff checked

Tafero was pronounced dead.

We

to be leaning slightly to the for pulse

and

at 7:13 a.m.,

were ordered to depart the Execution

Witness Room."

The

affidavit of

Al Martin, the assistant maintenance superintendent,

gives an unusual firsthand account of conducting an execution as a routine part of prison

life.

"On May

4,

1990 at approximately 7:02 a.m. while

48

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

working the Death Chamber, proceeding with the execution as scheduled, I

received an indication from Mr. Barton to close

my

electric breaker. I

then told the executioner to close his electric breaker. tioner completed the circuit,

I

noticed unusual

fire

the inmate's headpiece. After several seconds,

open the the

electrical

body move

as

I

to be gasping for

air.

this time, I

After several seconds,

the indication to close the breaker the second time, which

noticed the unusual several seconds,

fire

the execu-

received an indication to

breaker to stop the electrical flow. At if

When

and smoke coming from

I

I

noticed

received

did. Again, I

and smoke coming from the headpiece. After

received an indication to stop the electricity. After sev-

I

eral seconds, I received the third indication to close the breaker and, again,

the

fire

and smoke came from the headpiece. After several seconds,

received the indication to stop the electrical flow.

nounced dead and,

new sponge

the

installed in the headpiece

I

electricity as the old

ones had

in the past.

because the older ones were breaking deteriorating.

The inmate was

after the visitors left the area, I realized

and

This

it

we were

I

pro-

using

was not conducting

new sponge was

at the lead joint

and the

The sponge was purchased from one of

installed

string

was

the local stores

because of its size to be able to cover the wire mesh." It

would appear

since Martin to wire

up a

that prison officials

(who had once asked

his

had decided to blame the sponge, former assistant, Robin Adair,

110-volt light in his house)

while the witnesses were leaving, he noticed that the

conducting

how

swore that after the execution,

new sponge wasn't

electricity.

The sponge was nominated

as the cause of the malfunction. But what of

the second question that Brierton's inquiry set

itself:

"What

effect did

have on the inmate being executed?" Dr. Frank Kilgo, Florida State on's medical executive director,

was a veteran of

six

it

Pris-

executions and doz-

ens of death warrants that received last-minute stays. His affidavit offers a rare insight into execution protocol in Florida, a state that secretive about

its

has entered the

notoriously

capital-punishment procedures. "With each warrant that

final

week," Kilgo

walkthrough within twenty-four

Such walkthroughs are by

is

critical attention to

says, "there has

(24)

been a preparatory

hours of the scheduled execution.

serious and decorously directed exercises attended

every detail encompassed. Each exercise

critiqued at conclusion

and repeated, as may be necessary,

is

routinely

until

optimum

Labor Day performance by electrocutioner

On May

involved

is

effected. In the

Death Chamber, only the

the current and the actual

condemned

in preparation for the following

inception to completion, not one flaw

are missing.

that the procedure

sounds were

respiratory sounds

Jessie Tafero, Kilgo noticed

had gone wrong from the

different.

were

The

audible.

current

A

morning's proceedings.

was recognized."

However, when the switch was thrown on

first

49

1990 at 3:30 p.m., as scheduled, a step-by-step walkthrough

3,

was conducted

From

all

[sic],

I

was

start.

"The accompanying

interrupted

and spasmodic

second application of current was

di-

rected and again produced unfamiliar sounds. Electrical arc light issued

from the headplate region and smoke was produced. The current was interrupted gurgling.

and spasmodic respiratory sounds produced

A

oral

and smoke. Upon current cessation, the chamber was offers

no reasons

It is

all

sensate appreciation

who

my

considered

is

is

interdicted instanta-

a cannily worded statement, for Dr. Kilgo does not say that

Tafero lost consciousness and people

phenomena Though he

surge of the electrical energy applied, conscious

initial

mental awareness and

fluid

silent."

for his conclusion, Kilgo says, "It

opinion that with the

neously."

and nasal

third current application followed with further arc

felt

no

pain; he

is

stating that, in general,

are executed by electrocution lose consciousness rapidly.

Dr. Kilgo concludes his medical opinion with a paean to the execution

team which is

further

is

my

faintly reminiscent

opinion that a persevering group of Correctional public ser-

vants attended publically professional

of The Charge of the Light Brigade: "It

demeanor

[sic]

delegated responsibility with

in the face

uncommon

of unexpected and unexperienced

cir-

cumstances of adversity. There was understandable human consternation,

human perplexity, What was intended

but there was no collapse. There was understandable but there was no panic.

What was

was accomplished." In a

brief

necessary was done.

acknowledgment of the

execution was unusual, Kilgo concludes his

cumstances that surfaced, the tive. it

is

results

But with rare serene exceptions,

"Under given

affidavit:

were far less than

fact that Tafero's cir-

aesthetically attrac-

after forty-odd years of experience,

held that most deaths are without aesthetic attractiveness, regardless

of causation." Brierton wrote in his report to Dugger that

"The next

step

was

to review

those variables which were present at the actual execution but not intrinsic

50

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

to the circuitry

execution."

The most obvious was

itself.

The

finger

"Upon

supervisor. Brierton writes: that the

newly acquired sponge

ear' variety that has

the sponges used during the

pointed at Al Martin, the assistant maintenance

is

been

is

examination,

synthetic

historically used.

becomes

it

quite clear

and not the natural 'elephant

Mr. Martin

freely admits in the

interview that at the time he (Martin) elected to change the sponge after a

conversation with his supervisor but no thought was given to acquiring

a natural sponge. Mr. Martin went to a local store in Starke and purchased a sponge which proved to be of synthetic composition."

Having deduced esis

that the

sponge was

at fault, Brierton tested the

by subjecting a piece of the sponge used

the Tafero execution to a

test. "It

in the

was important

the newly acquired sponge would produce the

present on

May

4,

hypoth-

head electrode during

to demonstrate

amount of smoke

whether that

which had been used during the execution. This piece was subjected volts of heat [sic] five

was

so a piece of sponge was cut from the headpiece insert

by placing

it

in

a

common household toaster.

It

to 120

took only

seconds to begin smoking and produced a noxious odor which became

more

intense as the sponge burned. Although the sponge

toaster for ten seconds, in size

by approximately

problem was due synthetic

As

it

sponge"

to

was only

in the

produced a large amount of smoke and reduced

two-thirds. It

human

is

reasonable to conclude that

[sic]

error by replacing the natural sponge with a

(Brierton' s italics).

for the effect of the bungled execution

concludes that "Dr. Kilgo has given an

affidavit

on

Jessie Tafero, Brierton

which indicates

that, in his

professional opinion, 'what appeared to be spasmodic respiratory activity

leaves

On

no connotation

that

life

existed.'

"

the day that Brierton's report arrived, Dugger wrote to Governor

Bob Martinez

that, "Essentially, this

execution was procedurally and me-

chanically routine but flawed by an inadvertent

create an atypical event."

He

and

error that served to

noted that "involuntary muscle movement

stimulated by the electrical current signs of life,"

human

was reported by some observers as

that "these unfortunate circumstances, coupled with the

natural anxiety of some witnesses, resulted in rather bizarre visual accounts

of the execution." In conclusion, Dugger told the governor that, thing, Tafero

took less time to die than most other inmates

their fate in the Florida chair:

"The autopsy

if

any-

who had met

report and the attending phy-

Labor Day account

sician's tine

the

reflect instant

I

is

and

substantiated

is

by

application of current recorded as beginning at 7:06 a.m. and

pronouncement of death This

51

death as normally occurs under more rou-

circumstances experienced in past executions. This first

I

at 7:13 a.m.,

actually less time than has

a seven-minute

been taken

in

total

time frame.

most previous executions.

the Florida State Prison staff deeply regret the concern and anxiety

arising

from

this incident,

but the process of legal execution in Florida

should not be abated by this error that

is

and now

readily identifiable

corrected."

When

Fred Leuchter

talks

in point to explain the

reason

I

suffering

reason

became involved all

about the Tafero execution, he uses

around, for

all

in

why he

is

in the

it

as a case

execution business:

execution hardware

is

'The

to eliminate pain

and

concerned. These inmates have the right to be

executed with competent equipment." In pursuit of this goal, Fred has not only supplied states with hardware

he guarantees

will result in

a "competent execution," he has also acted as

an expert witness for condemned inmates

who

appeal against their death

sentence on the grounds that the state's execution equipment

is

likely to

malfunction, resulting in a cruel and unusual punishment. Throughout the 1980s, Fred's rate for acting as an expert witness

was

five

hundred dollars

a day plus expenses. In June 1990, Fred

was approached by

eral to assist in the appeal of Judy

row

in

Florida's Office of Capital Collat-

Buenoano, one of forty

America. Buenoano was scheduled to die

June 21. She

filed

an emergency motion

in the

women on death

in the electric chair

on

Ninth Circuit Court to

vacate judgment and seek a stay of execution. Part of her claim the Tafero debacle proved that any execution in Florida using

was

its

that

current

equipment would be unconstitutional, violating the Eighth and Fourteenth

amendments. Buenoano wanted Fred

to supply expert testimony that the

Florida electric chair did not function properly, and that the Florida authorities

were incompetent

From

to conduct

an execution.

the time that Fred Leuchter founded

Florida had been high on

its

list

American Engineering,

Inc.,

of potential clients. After Texas and

52

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL row league

California, Florida ranks third in the death

table,

with more

than three hundred people currently awaiting execution. Only Texas has

executed more people than Florida. Since 1977, the

electric chair at Raiford

Prison, near Starke, has been used twenty-seven times.

it

as a prime target for a contract:

It

was

It

wasn't only the

made Fred

frequency with which the Florida chair was used that

think of

number of times

the

had

it

malfunctioned.

At the end of

1986,

Fred was contacted by Thomas Barton, superinten-

who worked

dent of Florida State Prison, and Robin Adair, as electrical supervisor during 1986-87. In 1990, in connection with the defense of

"Mr. Adair

told

me

was

condition of the head electrode

new

affidavit

leg electrode

on

sworn on June

13,

Judy Buenoano, Fred said that

that the leg electrode they

chair in Florida had proved defective

a bid for a

an

at the prison

were using

in the electric

their last execution

questionable.

and headpiece

He

asked

and

me

that the

to submit

for the electric chair

house

at

Florida State Prison."

On December

11, 1986,

Robin Adair asked Fred

to quote for

On December

stock and helmet for Florida's electric chair.

12,

a

new

leg

Fred sub-

mitted a quotation of $3,429. This including a leg stock at $2,200, a helmet at $1,200, plus

$29 shipping charges. Fred also sent a

my

"explained to Mr. Adair that in leg electrode

I

I

the electricity during an

had designed included two

in place at Florida State Prison

which he

letter in

did not believe that a single

was capable of properly conducting

execution, and that the system

The system

expertise

leg electrodes.

simply was not functioning

properly." In his affidavit of June 13, 1990, Fred Leuchter continued the narrative

of events in Florida. "Mr. Adair responded that high,

and

that he

and Mr. Barton wanted

from an old army boot and a copper apparent to

me

that the

me

strip.

my

price quote

was too

to fabricate a leg electrode

At

this

juncture

it

became

Department of Corrections was not competent

to

design electric chair components and no one there seemed to fully appre-

hend the

further participation in these efforts." Fred reported that told

me

from

principles involved. Explaining that an electrode fabricated

an old army boot was inadequate for a competent execution

that

he had fabricated

his

worked on the next executee."

own army

I

declined

"Mr. Adair

boot electrode and that

it

later

had

Labor Day Robin Adair also prepared an

Buenoano

affidavit for the

explained that his duties ''encompassed

all

electrical

appeal.

I

53

He

systems and the main-

tenance of those systems within the prison, including the electrical generating

and transmission devices associated with the

electric chair."

His

came as a shock to the secretive Florida authorities, as it revealed a number of peculiar execution practices. "During my employment at affidavit

Florida State Prison," Adair wrote, "I participated in

numerous 'walk-

throughs,' tests of the electric chair which were conducted in anticipation

As a result,

of imminent executions.

I

became

intimately familiar with both

the procedural aspects and the electrical hardware utilized in executions at

Florida State Prison. In addition, training

am

I

also familiar with the electrical

and education of numerous employees of Florida State Prison

are currently involved

in the

maintenance and operation of the

who

electric

Mr. Al Martin, the current Assistant Maintenance Super-

chair, including

visor."

"Much to my disbelief, I found that the prison did

Adair stated:

—nor have they ever employed at the prison. I

and advanced

to

soon found out that

electrical courses

several of the prisoner helpers,

my I,

knowledge

by

virtue of

— a licensed my

not have

electrician

completion of basic

and prior on the job experience, along with

were the only individuals

Prison with any comprehension of electrical principals

at Florida State

[sic],

wiring and

circuitry."

Adair criticized prison maintenance electrical engineering. "It

was

my

staff for their lack

of expertise in

my employment

experience during

that

Mr. Martin was completely ignorant of the most rudimentary principles of electricity

through

and secured

political

his position as

at the prison

patronage within the Department of Corrections. Mr. Mar-

incompetence with respect to the principles of electricity were amply

tin's

demonstrated on several occasions.

me

head of the power plant

a

common

the light in his

1

I

distinctly recall

Mr. Martin bringing

10 volt outdoor light explaining that he had tried to install

home

but could not

make

how he should go about wiring it. man, who could not even wire a 110

the light

work and asked me

explain

I

this

volt light,

to

simply could not believe that

was

in

charge of the

electrical generating plant at Florida State Prison."

Perhaps the strangest revelation tion of

how

Florida tests

its

in

Robin Adair's

electric chair prior to

affidavit is

a descrip-

an execution. "The chair

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

54

/

is

tested prior to an execution

by

filling

a tub with saline solution and

placing the wires with lugs crimped on into the tub and administering current.

The

saline solution

prisoner's body;

it

is

amount of

the

which determines the

resistance.

the bucket, the control panel

the

supposed to simulate the resistance of the

is

is

added

salt

to the water during the test

Based on the resistance encountered

in

then adjusted by two dials which control

amount of voltage and amperage so that during the execution 2400 volts amps is administered to the prisoner." The problem with the salt-

at eight

water

Adair explained,

test,

degree of

is

that unless

salinity in the water,

you can accurately measure the

you have no way of knowing how much

resistance

it

has created. The whole point of determining the amount of

resistance

is

so that the voltage and current can be calibrated.

Adair described

how

duct a saline solution in the

"the

test

first

time that Mr. Martin attempted to con-

he tripped out one of the two main breaker boxes

death chamber by creating a short

circuit.

Mr. Martin and Mainte-

nance Supervisor Mr. Ron Thornton then looked to fix

the chair immediately as the chair

the only individual

was not working

me and

said

we had

to

was not working. After contacting

who had been trained by

at Florida State Prison,

the chair's manufacturer,

and who has since

the breaker, threw out the water Martin had used, got

who

retired, I reset

new

water, put in

the salt and conducted the test without any problems."

Adair complained of "the prison's unwillingness to make any expenditure of funds to obtain professionally

more than

chair or to conduct chair."

He

told

made components

limited maintenance

how "Mr. Leuchter

advised

me

for the electric

and inspection on the

in 1986 that

two

leg elec-

trodes should be utilized to obtain a uniform passage of current through the body.

I

informed Maintenance Supervisor Mr.

Ron Thornton and

the

Assistant Maintenance Supervisor of the shortcomings in using only one electrode and also provided

them with

the price quotes and diagrams for

purchasing these components manufactured by Mr. Leuchter. told that the prison

was

sionally constructed

unwilling to pay that

components

and was instructed by

my

amount

I

was

later

to purchase profes-

specifically designed for electrocutions

superior officer to fabricate an electrode from

materials available at the prison. Accordingly,

I

obtained a boot and by

cutting off the lower portion of the boot and then using

riveted lead, copper, shim stock,

aluminum

rivets,

and copper screen (some of these mate-

Labor Day rials

I

55

to be used as roofing materials) to the interior of the

were designed

boot, and finally adding a stainless steel bolt from a hardware store to attach the leg electrode to,

homemade

fabricated the

I

rently being used in executions at Florida State Prison.

leg electrode curI

should add that

I

did not use the original electrode provided by the manufacturer of the chair

model

as a

another I

for the design

homemade

why

simply could not understand

After showing

instructed to build, but rather copied

made

electrode that had previously been

expenditure to see that

4

was

I

me

human

the prison

was not

at the prison.

make any

willing to

beings were properly executed."

me

the affidavit, Fred told

Robin Adair had been

that

'uncomfortable with what he had wrought."

"What happened

"He

left

to

him?"

I

asked.

the department and went to

work on

He

the outside.

subse-

quently testified against the Department of Corrections, and at the

found out something that

I

was

totally

unaware

of; that the

reason

trial I

why the

Department of Corrections and the prison didn't buy the electrodes was because they decided to spend the two or three thousand dollars that

would have cost

for the helmet

and the

leg stock

ing the warden's personal house. That's true, that

given by the electrician. He's

it

on painting and remodel-

was testimony

now no longer the warden,

that

was

he's the secretary

of the Department of Corrections. Richard Dugger."

Fred was angered by what he saw as the penny-pinching ways of the Florida authorities. test."

One

And

he was astonished at their use of the "saltwater

of the things he had learned from his research into the history

of execution technology

in the early part

is that,

Edison came up with an idea to improve the place electrodes on the head and leg of the

him strapped

into a chair with his

either side of the chair.

The

of the 1890s,

8,

1892, in

New

The problem wasn't

salt

that while Florida

salt

water

on Charles

New York

is

abundant

water," Fred told me. "That's documented."

that the Florida electric chair didn't work. It

well enough, in the sense that

was

tried

water on

York's Sing Sing prison, with

horrible results. "McElvaine's torture to death in

proof that you can't use

salt

was then passed through the

and the inmate's body. The Edison procedure was

McElvaine on February

Rather than

electric chair.

condemned man, Edison had

hands plunged into vats of

current

Thomas

no one comes out of

may have

it

alive.

works

Fred's point

the right, under state law and the Consti-

56

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

tution of the United States, to execute people, they don't have the right to

torture

them

to death. In searching for evidence that electrocution

when improperly

is

painful

administered, Fred began to study autopsy reports of

inmates executed in Florida.

"Some

states

do not

that

on executed inmates,"

routinely perform autopsies

Fred explained. "But Florida does.

And you

ought to see the autopsies '

get from Florida. 'Most probable cause of death

I

he spat

him up, they look a bag.

mean, most probable? Give

in disgust. "I

electrocution,'

a break. They open

at the brain, they take all the organs out

Why cut the guy open for nothing,

Fred was genuinely angry. determined that

me

is

we want

When

and put 'em

in

unless there's a problem?"

he calmed down, he told me: "If

a watchdog capability, then maybe

we

it's

should

autopsy everybody and look for the necessary things that indicated there

was pain."

"How

would you know

person you could ask

is

if

was pain?"

there

Fred got up and walked over to the low

He

pulled out a

"When

asked.

I

the only

dead?"

number of manila

filing

cabinet next to his desk.

and stacked them on the coffee

files

table.

"I hope you have a strong stomach," he said. pile

He began

to deal out a

of glossy, stomach-churning photographs showing close-ups of the

heads and legs of men

who had died

in Florida's electric chair:

Ted Bundy,

Daniel Thomas, David Funchess, Ronald Straight, Beauford White, Willie

Darden, Jeffrey Daugherty, Aubrey Adams.

"When you

conduct a competent electrocution," Fred reminded me,

"there should be minimal trauma to the body."

Each of

the head photographs that

I

shuffled through

showed one ob-

vious trauma: In each case, the coroner had cut the top of the head

from

side to side to

back together

in

remove

the brain, and then had

a haphazard way.

I tried

sewn

to ignore that

Fred was pointing out to me: the area of burnt

flesh

the

open

two halves

and focus on what

on the top of the head,

caused by defective electrodes and incorrect voltage and current. I

studied the photograph of

coroner's report.

The "burn

Ted Bundy's head

It

conjunction with the

ring," as the coroner called

burn caused by the head electrode inches by 5.5 inches.

in

virtually

— had

it

— a third-degree

cross-sectional diameters of 6.5

covered the entire head. The burn was so

Labor Day severe that the flesh had been cooked

The burn on Bundy's

right leg,

away

to reveal the

bone of the

I

57

skull.

where Robin Adair's boot electrode had

been strapped on. measured 7 inches by 8 inches.

The other photos were more or

same.

less the

I

read through the neatly

typed three-page reports which detailed the size and weight of the executed

men's organs, and

I

looked

drawings of their bodies on which

at the line

were marked the burns as well as bruises from the strap which holds the head electrode

in place. It

documents had a macabre

seemed an ultimate invasion of privacy. The fascination.

They gave almost no

clue to

the person they referred to; they were mainly concerned with the results

of the actions of others. The only indication of the executed living, acting

man

as a

being was to be gleaned from the comprehensive toxological

studies attached to each autopsy, in for the presence of

illegal

which the dead man's body was tested

drugs. Daniel

Thomas went

to the chair with .032

gm/dl alcohol in his blood; Ronald Straight's urine showed he was using the

amphetamine orphenadrine; Willie Darden had smoked marijuana be-

fore his execution.

put the reports

I

way

down and

how

ask Fred

they could be read in such a

as to determine whether or not the execution

He responds with a question. "What's of execution

"You

— hanging,

lose.

painful. all

forms

electrocution, lethal injection?"

." .

"The man's bowels open," Fred says I'm following

was

the thing that happens in

for

me, nodding

at

me, glad

that

his line of thought.

The grandfather clock seems

to tick very loudly in the oppressive,

humid

of the small room. The ashtray in front of us has butts from two packs

air

of cigarettes. Caroline

is

sitting at the

kitchen table, and

I

can hear the

muted voice of the presenter on the Weather Channel, discussing the continuing

warm

weather.

"Okay," Fred continues. "If

means the executee

is

the bowels don't

open immediately,

trying to control his bowels.

He's

still

alive.

that

And

he's hurting." I

nod

in

"Look

understanding. at

Ted Bundy's autopsy and

tell

me how much

urine he had in

his bladder." I

search through the pages and find the information near the end, sand-

58

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

wiched between reports on "renal vessels" and "prostate."

I

read out,

"Urinary bladder contains twelve ounces of straw-colored urine." "Either an execution

is

good, or

bad," Fred

it's

tells

me. "There's no

in-between."

Fred

another Marlboro Light and pushes his lighter in front of

lights

old-fashioned Marlboro

"According to flawless.

all

reports,"

But there's no way

Bundy didn't hurt." "The urine proves

he continues, "Ted Bundy's execution was

that

that?"

no other explanation

for

it.

And

it

would

us that

tell

for problems with the equipment. I think that every that are executed, that

nothing else that

have to

it

is

was

to

do

And

it

it

I

in the ass in the

There's

for.

—

it

I

think that the state of

whether

to everybody,

think, basically, just for the sake of autopsying people.

there's a lot of that done.

have come back to

one of these people

And if the bladder's full and you don't You could catheterize them. I'm not

as a matter of course and they do

or not;

pain, but

should look

this.

advocating that you mutilate people's bodies, and Florida does

we

a key thing that they should look

could mean.

autopsy them

they want

me that

anybody's ever going to convince

"It doesn't one hundred percent guarantee that there

there's

my

regular.

But the consideration here

bite Florida in the ass.

It

did

that

is

come back

it

may

to bite Florida

terms of the photos that were taken and the description of

the burning."

But the executions of back

Jessie Tafero or

Ted Bundy hadn't

to bite Florida in the ass. In the case of

so outraged America

whom

—including

his

to fry,

he did"

—

come

crimes had

other people on death row,

have said to me, "If anyone deserved

was going

Ted Bundy,

really

many

that

of

no one

to take notice of an argument that electrocution hurt, because a

very large number of people would simply have responded, Good. If

anyone ended up

getting bitten in the ass

was Fred Leuchter. By

by the Tafero execution,

Buenoano appeal,

testifying against Florida in the

he invited the wrath of other capital punishment

states,

it

which would even-

tually cancel their contracts with him.

A

month before

the

Buenoano appeal came

ABC's "Prime Time Live,"

to court,

Fred appeared on

criticizing the Florida authorities.

shown photographs of the sponge which

He was

the Florida Department of Correc-

Labor Day tions

59

had determined was the cause of Tafero's botched execution, and he

challenged their conclusion:

"The burning

two, at least as far as I'm able to with the type of burning that

possibility that this will

that

we have on sponge number

from the photographs,

tell

we would

electrode and that would indicate that

good

I

consistent

is

get from a broken or defective

was not

it

happen again

the sponge. There's a

in the future.

Maybe

not on the

next one, but on a subsequent execution."

The

Florida Office of Capital Collateral, which

noano appeal, wrote to

examine the

request

is

was conducting

the Bue-

to Florida State Prison superintendent Barton asking

electric chair.

On May

21,

1990, Barton wrote:

'This

denied. This writer stands by the report released by the Depart-

ment of Corrections and

will

not entertain further requests of this nature."

Undeterred, Buenoano's lawyers sought to challenge the Tafero report and built their

argument from the available evidence:

reports, prison employees' affidavits,

journalists' eyewitness

and expert testimony from Fred and

other witnesses. These included public defender Susan Cary and forensic

expert Dr. Robert Kirschner, the deputy chief medical examiner of

County

in Illinois.

The Department of Corrections that "in

Cook

report accepted Dr. Kilgo's statement

most procedural physical assessment, the areas of dermal and

calf burns

were of no greater extent or

experiences. There

intensity than that

observed

in prior

was no evidence of flame charring of any portion of the

head." However, Susan Cary,

who was

with Tafero up until seven hours

before his execution, later examined his body at Chestnut's Funeral in Gainesville.

ment. In her

Home

She found evidence which contradicted Dr. Kilgo's assess-

affidavit,

inmates executed by

same

imately the

right

said: "I

officials at

have seen the bodies of three other

Florida State Prison.

I

saw them

length of time after they were executed as

None

Tafero's body.

Cary

of the other bodies

I

at I

approx-

saw Mr.

saw before had the severe

burning and scorching and damage to the head as did Mr. Tafero's." The

burning of Tafero's head was so severe, Cary noted, that "the autopsy incision line large area.

during his

I

was

stitched but the skin

was approximately

asked the funeral director

final

if

A inch apart in a

3

he would be closing that

preparation of the body for burial and he told

me

wound that

he

could not because the skin was so badly burned that the thread would just tear through

it

and

it

would not

stretch to

its

original shape.

Mr. Chestnut

60

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

has prepared the bodies of several persons executed in Florida and he said that the deceased's skin

had never been so burned that he had been unable

to close the autopsy incision."

Dr. Kirschner, torture

who

and human

has a special expertise in the documentation of

rights abuses,

reviewed the available evidence and

concluded, "within a reasonable degree of medical and tainty," that tricity.' '

He

"Mr. Tafero was not dead also stated that "It

'unconscious' after the

more,

it

is

first

is

scientific cer-

until the third application

of elec-

not possible to say that Mr. Tafero

was

and second applications of electricity. Further-

medically and scientifically irresponsible to reach and articulate

such a conclusion based on the observed reactions of Mr. Tafero during the execution. Indeed, first,

or

first

it

is

not unlikely that he was conscious after the

and second, applications of current."

Dr. Kirschner believed that "Mr. Tafero did not receive the prescribed lethal

dose of two thousand (2000) volts of

electricity that

was reportedly

applied," and that "the failure to administer the requisite voltage combined

with the other physiological reactions noted by observers of the execution raises the substantial possibility that

Mr. Tafero experienced conscious

pain and suffering during the execution." letter to

Governor Martinez,

in

He

criticized Secretary

Dugger's

which Dugger claimed "the autopsy report

and attending physician's account

reflect instant

death." Kirschner wrote,

"I find no such statement in either the autopsy report or the affidavit of the

attending physician, Dr. Kilgo.

how

The autopsy cannot

possibly determine

rapidly unconsciousness or death occurred in this case."

Dr. Kirschner's view was based partly on Fred's analysis of what had

happened: that flames which erupted from Tafero's head were proof that a defective head electrode created a high resistance connection.

was Tafero

set alight, but

electrode, the current that to as

low as 90 or 100

Not only

because of the resistance created by a defective

was repeatedly passed through

volts

—

insufficient to

his

body dropped

cause death, but enough to

cause unnecessary pain.

On

June 20, 1990, Buenoano's

was denied by four by electrocution is

is

to three, in a

petition to the Florida

Supreme Court

judgment which concluded

that "death

not cruel and unusual punishment, and one malfunction

not sufficient to justify a judicial inquiry into the Department of Correc-

tions'

competence."

Labor Day

Two judges 4

'Judy

is

dissented in the strongest terms. Judge Barkett wrote that

Buenoano has made a simple

The

constitutional claim:

electric chair

not working properly." Yet the decision in this ''simple" matter

him

61

I

historic in that, as

any court has ever held

he wrote, "To that

it

is

my

knowledge

was

this is the first

for

time

the executive branch that decides, without

question or appeal, a constitutional claim of cruel or unusual punishment. Interpreting the Constitution

is

a.

judicial function." In Barkett's view, the

Department of Corrections had usurped the

role of the court.

Barkett concluded his dissenting remarks with a scathing condemnation

of the majority opinion: "Although

relief is foreclosed to

Buenoano, ac-

cording to the majority, she can die taking comfort in knowing that her

death

may

contribute to

some other person's

relief if

her execution, and

perhaps countless others, prove to be as horrible as Tafero's.

Only then,

according to the majority, will there have been a sufficient number of malfunctions to justify a judicial inquiry. This penalty jurisprudence.

It is

is

a bizarre twist to death

even more bizarre when one considers the

pragmatic implications here. The state conceded at oral argument that has spent more time and it

money

disputing Buenoano' s claims in court than

would have spent simply by replacing the

trode.

The humane

alleged malfunctioning elec-

thing to do, not to mention the

efficient thing to do,

it

would have been simply

more economical and

to replace the electrode that

Buenoano's experts say malfunctioned. That would have caused no delay in the administration

of the penalty, contrary to the delay caused by

ing this simple claim.

I

guess

this is

litigat-

too easy a solution."

Judge Kogan concurred with Judge Barkett, and added some remarks of his ties

own.

He was

particularly critical of the "toaster test" that the authori-

performed on the

artificial

sponge used

in the

ing out the obvious scientific fact that voltage

force and that temperature

heat are not the

same

is

is

Tafero execution. Point-

a measure of electromotive

a measure of heat, and that "electricity and

thing," he also

made an

appeal to

the grounds that the sponge used to execute Tafero solution,

whereas the sponge placed

in the toaster

common

was soaked was

sense on

in

a saline

dry. Further,

he

questioned whether the sponge used in the toaster test was actually a piece of the sponge used to execute Tafero. "In fact,"

[Department of Corrections] presents

this

Kogan wrote,

Court with a paradox.

"DOC

DOC asks

us to believe that 120 volts caused the sponge to shrink by two-thirds in a

62

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

mere ten seconds, but

seven-minute period had two inconsistent skull

cap burst into profuse flames that

Tafero during

all

six- to

results: (1)

literally

The sponge

in the

danced around the head of

three jolts of electricity; and yet (2) the sponge remained

a piece could be removed for

sufficiently intact that

fact that the

over a

that three separate 2,000-volt surges

sponge reduced

its

volume by two-thirds

Indeed, the

testing.

after being placed in

the kitchen toaster for ten seconds indicates not only that the sponge

survived the electrical

any

jolts,

but that portions of

significant extent. Otherwise, the

reduced

had not even melted to

sponge already would have been

in size prior to being placed in the kitchen toaster.

difficult to believe that the

version of the facts

Thus,

I

find

it

sponge was the only, or even the primary,

reason for the flames that burst

own

it

from Tafero's head on and contrary to

is illogical

May

4.

The

state's

scientific principles."

Having studied photographs of Tafero's body, and having considered Fred Leuchter's testimony, Judge Kogan found

ments "make

scientific

sense."

He

wrote,

that

Buenoano's argu-

"Under Buenoano's theory

the

flames that arose around Tafero's head were not produced primarily by the

sponge, but by Tafero's

own body

cient flow of electricity through his

tissue being superheated

by an

ineffi-

body." Kogan took as evidence of this

"most of Tafero's eyebrows and eyelashes had been burned

the fact that

away, curled or singed by the flames, especially on the showing the most

side of the

head

serious charring."

—

The evidence Kogan considered especially that of Fred Leuchter and Robin Adair led him to the conclusion that "this Court thus is faced with

—

a ghastly possibility:

A homemade electrode fashioned out of a used Army

boot, spare parts, and roofing material

smoke, and alleged

may sometimes

extensive charring of flesh during

by Buenoano are

true,

result in flames,

an execution.

If the facts as

even more serious malfunctions

may occur

in the future."

Kogan

felt

that the court should

have

hearing "to determine whether there

at least

ordered an evidentiary

was any reasonable

possibility that

the flames that occurred during Tafero's execution were the fault of a faulty electrode or electrodes," and should have stayed Buenoano's execution "until the state overhauls the electric chair in

a manner consistent with

standards generally accepted in other states and by qualified experts."

The

first

Buenoano appeal

left

Fred feeling

bitter.

The

state

had declined

Labor Day

money

to spend the

necessary to update their chair. They had spent more

contesting Buenoano' s appeal than they would have spent

money

proposed modification of the ano's petition,

much

electric chair.

me

be botched. After describing

likely to

in

which he was involved, Fred exclaimed

"I mean, the next step would be to uncap the

and screw wires to

between northern and southern

condemned person's head

states.

was

He

the difference in attitudes

tried to put

it

sisters, uncles,

comes

in

related or friends. They're family

all

as diplomatically

"The people who

as he could, using Florida State Prison as an example.

there are

— cousins, brothers,

nephews, whatever. They get very resentful when an out-

and

tells

them what

to do.

They even gave

the governor a

hard time. They're clannish. Probably what they should do fire

everybody and

there and put there,

it

in disgust:

it!"

Part of the problem, Fred suggested,

sider

to secure

the state of the equipment in Florida, and relating the story of the

Buenoano appeal

work

his

The court had denied Bueno-

wrong sponge. Fred had failed

a contract, and other executions were to

on

of which was based on Fred's diagnosis of a faulty

electrode rather than the use of the

first

63

I

in

start all

a newer

I'm sure they're

want outsiders coming

facility.

all

move

over again. Or

they should

the death penalty out of

I'm not knocking the people

good people. The problem

in telling

is

them how

to

do

is

who work

that they don't

it."

In a second appeal on June 20-21, 1990, Fred testified for Buenoano in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida.

ceeded

Buenoano

suc-

her petition for a stay of execution, and she continues to wait on

in

death row.

But the success of the second Buenoano appeal had disastrous consequences for Fred A. Leuchter Associates. The problem stemmed from apparent conflicts of interest that arose from his acting as an expert witness

what was

for states as well as defendants. Essentially, credibility

belief,

feel that

I'm

in the

courtroom representing first

it

courtroom representing the

people of the state and representing humanity." His

1990, for

the

or a sales line?

Fred explained to me: 'T

The

was

of Fred's "Capital punishment, not capital torture" slogan. Is

a deeply held

in the

at issue

critics felt that

he was

his business interests.

glimmer of a problem

is

Judy Buenoano. Fred had

found

in

failed to

Fred's affidavit of June 13,

inform Jerome Nickerson of

64

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

the Florida Office of Capital Collateral that he had previously quoted for repairs to the Florida electric chair. potential source of problems affidavit:

that

I

"When

I

.

.

.

The

fact that this

reflected in

in the past

was viewed

an unusual paragraph

spoke to Mr. Nickerson previously

had been contacted

Prison.

is

I

as a

in the

did not inform

him

by representatives of the Florida State

regret not providing this information previously."

I

It was to prove a costly mistake for Fred A. Leuchter The following month, on July 20, 1990, Alabama assistant

Ed Carnes wrote

a

Associates, Inc.

attorney general

memorandum

addressed to "All Capital Punishment " 'Execution Technology Expert' Fred LeuchStates" on the subject of

The purpose of

ter."

memo was

the

to suggest that, because he has a

degree in history rather than engineering, Fred Leuchter

an expert states that

in

Fred may

testify

not qualified as

for them one day and against them the next.

customary for expert witnesses to supply

(It is

is

execution technology, and to alert other capital punishment

and defenders.) The Carnes

neering degree or "medical training," but

never installed an

their services to prosecutors

memo makes much it

of Fred's lack of an engi-

falsely states that

electric chair or other execution

he "had

system that had actually

been used."

At the time of the Carnes memo, Fred was under contract to provide Alabama with a new electric chair. Alabama had been the venue for two botched executions. In their first execution since 1965, Alabama had to use three 1900-volt jolts to

burned through and

kill

fell

John Evans on April

off after the

first jolt,

22, 1983.

Flames and smoke erupted from Evans's head and had confused the connections of the the execution of

On

14, 1989,

leg electrode

so that the execution team

had to perform a makeshift repair while Evans was took fourteen minutes. Then, on July

The

still

leg,

alive in the chair.

and the execution

because the execution team

electric chair

and a bank of resistors,

Horace Dunkins took nineteen minutes.

July 15, 1989, the day after the Dunkins execution, the

authorities contacted Fred.

Alabama

He consulted with Holman State Prison warden

Charlie Jones and with Billy Johnson, director of the Engineering and

Administrative Division of the Alabama Department of Corrections.

He

gave them advice as to how the problem could be resolved. Ten months later,

new

on

May

31, 1990, the state accepted Fred's bid to design

electric chair.

and build a

Labor Day Shortly after approving Fred's bid for a

new

an execution date for Wallace Thomas: July

was

set,

I

65

electric chair, the state set

As soon

13, 1990.

as the date

Charlie Bodiford, the administrative service officer, called Fred

on

Warden Jones to ask if the new electric chair could be ready in Thomas execution. Fred replied that it could not. On June 8, he submitted a proposal for supervising the Thomas execution using the old electric chair. He would service the chair and make sure that the behalf of

time for the

electrodes were functioning properly. Fred says that "while the warden,

Commissioner Thigpen and the department were very enthusiastic about

my

proposal,

was not approved by someone

it

in the state finance depart-

ment."

memo, "Leuchter

In July, Carnes reported in his

called

my

office in

connection with an attempt by the attorney for an Alabama death

row

inmate, Wallace Norrell Thomas, to raise a claim involving Alabama's electric chair.

The claim stemmed from a problem

that

had occurred two

executions back (the execution personnel had plugged the cables into our

such a

electric chair in

way

that

it

received no electricity the

first

was thrown). The problem had been permanently

switch

time the

fixed,

but

Thomas' attorney raised a claim concerning the reliability and efficacy of our electric chair system, anyway. Leuchter told us that he was under contract with the pletely

new

Alabama Department of Corrections

wrong with the old system except anticipate there

Thomas

He

said he

had

old;

and

that

told

he did not

Thomas' attorney

all that,

We

got the

affidavit saying all that.

from Leuchter (we paid $450.00

On July 2,

was

it

would be any problem with the scheduled execution of

in the old chair.

and he volunteered to give us an affidavit

that

com-

to install a

was nothing fundamentally

electrocution system; that there

for his time)."

1990, Fred had received a phone

call

from Thomas's attorney,

Bryan Stevenson, having been recommended by Florida's Office of Capital Collateral. In

was ing in

calling

an

me

affidavit

of July

4,

Fred wrote: "Mr. Stevenson said he

because he wanted to raise a claim for Mr. Thomas involv-

Alabama's existing

electric chair,

and he wanted

support of that claim. Mr. Stevenson told

the only person he could talk with

me

to see

if I

would

that he believed that

testify I

was

on the subject because of my knowledge

both of Alabama's existing electrocution equipment and of the electrocution

equipment that was being

built for

Alabama.

I

told

Mr. Stevenson that

66

I

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

had an existing contractual relationship with the Alabama Department of

Corrections to build a

new

answer

his questions. I did

system, but all

I

would be glad

to

answer any of

of the questions Mr. Stevenson asked me."

Carnes's office submitted the Leuchter

along with one from a

affidavit,

"highly qualified electrical and biomedical engineer," to the Federal District

was an

Court. There

Thomas a

denied

on July

evidentiary hearing

stay of execution. This

and the court

10,

was affirmed by

the Eleventh

Circuit Court the next day, and on July 12 the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari.

What Carnes's memo implied up to this point is that while Fred Leuchter believed the

Alabama

support the state in

edge

that

months

electric chair to

its

be old and possibly

faulty,

he would

execution of Wallace Thomas, secure in the knowl-

he had a contract to supply a new chair (which would take three

to build

and

deliver).

But, Carnes continued, "At approximately 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. on July 12, 1990, less than six hours before the scheduled execution,

Alabama Supreme Court a motion for stay of execution. The ground of that motion was that Leuchter had that day contacted the

filed in

sole

Thomas' attorney

Thomas' attorney and to supply

told

him

Leuchter had just learned:

that

Alabama with a new

electric chair

was being

had been used; and, on second thought, Alabama's and unreliable and might not work wrote that Fred's second

Thomas' attorney judge

who had

after

affidavit

he had

in the

"makes

first affidavit.

he contacted

clear that

it

Fortunately," Carnes wrote, "the

12, 1990,

Fred had sworn an

the Finance Department will in all likelihood

is

Thomas was

the last-minute motion, and

of the story on the record: "In the

last

48 hours,

his version

have been notified that

I

my contract arrangement and that new

not be building or designing a

chair for the State

Alabama could have been revealed

to

me

several

find the State's action reprehensible

and

I

new

electric

weeks ago by

the Finance Department, the State did not disclose this to I

1990."

which he put

affidavit in

not honoring

13,

of Alabama. While any change of mind concerning plans for a

week.

he

scheduled execution." Carnes

executed on schedule a few minutes past midnight on July

chair in

felt

was old

tried unsuccessfully to contact the federal

Alabama Supreme Court denied

I

he

re-bid;

existing chair

denied Thomas' petition upon consideration of evidence

which included Leuchter's

On July

his contract

me

feel that I

until this

have been

Labor Day used that

in relation to the

my

Wallace Norrell Thomas case.

representations in the

come of the Thomas

litigation

I

67

am deeply disturbed

I

Thomas case may have influenced the outwhen what the State had represented to me

previously about their intentions about Alabama's electric chair appear to

be no longer

true. I

have attempted today, July

federal court to inform the Court of

my

12, 1990, to

views concerning

my

opinion that a court should stay the execution of Mr.

full

inquiry has been

unsolicited

phone

made

call

to

into this matter.

contact the

this matter. It is

Thomas until a Today, July 12, I made an

counsel for the petitioner, Wallace Norrell

Thomas, and informed him of what had happened.

I

Mr. Stevenson before today or since he

me some two weeks

ago and

I

informed him that

Carnes also

cites as

I

first

could not assist him."

evidence of Fred's dangerousness to states the

testimony he gave on behalf of Ricky Boggs,

on July

19, 1990.

On

called

have not spoken to

who was

executed in Virginia

the day before his execution, Boggs filed a federal

habeas petition claiming that Virginia's

electric chair

gruesome execution of Albert Clozza one year

would prove). Boggs's

petition

might be faulty (as the

later,

was supported by an

on July

affidavit

24,

1991,

from Fred

Leuchter which stated that there could be a malfunction which would leave

"a

living,

brain-dead vegetable

no means that

sitting in the electric chair, the state

having

to complete the execution." Carnes cited the court's opinion

Boggs had "not proffered credible evidence," and noted

that, in spite

of Fred's efforts, "Boggs was executed on schedule."

The Carnes memo shows another part of the execution Angered by Fred's attempt

to stop

an execution

in his

industry at work.

own

state (and

by

Fred's efforts in Florida and Virginia in the same thirty-day period), Carnes offered practical advice to attorneys general in other capital punishment states: "If

Leuchter has consulted with your corrections people and has

offered to replace their execution system or

been turned down, you had better prepare

mony

before your next execution.

Even

if

some component of it and has to

meet

his affidavit or testi-

he has not consulted with your

corrections people, Leuchter

may

was contacted by the other

side for use in three states during the

month

indicates

how

fast

still

word about

appear against you. The fact that he

his availability has

spread

same

among

the

anti-death penalty people.

"The

best

way

to prepare to rebut Leuchter' s testimony that

your exe-

68

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

cution system design,

is

is

too old,

unreliable, or

defective or

is

advance to present expert testimony.

to prepare in

have a bona

electric chair system,

entire

is

system and thoroughly

test

outmoded

in

yours

an

If

fide electrical engineer inspect it,

and

is

your

he makes any suggestions,

if

follow them. There are different subspecialties of electrical engineers, and the best one to check out the functioning and reliability of an electric chair

system

is

who knows high voltage equipment. Another who is very useful is a biomedical engineer, engineer who specializes in application of electricity

a power engineer

type of electrical engineer

an

which

is

to the

human body

electrical

(as in design of devices to administer

treat spinal injuries, in design of pacemakers,

proceedings, ified

we used a

is

Auburn University Unsure of how

in

Alabama

to

is

our Alabama

who was

also qual-

of electrical equipment.

in the functioning

Dr. Michael Morse, and he

low current to

forth). In

very good biomedical engineer

and accepted as an expert

His name

and so

process of moving from

in the

San Diego, California."

states with lethal injection might counter Fred's expert

witness for the defense, Carnes suggested: "If your method of execution lethal injection, I

he

will be,

their case,

nor do

do not know how Leuchter I

know how you can

is

be used against you,

will

prepare for

it.

What

if

Virginia did in

and what might work regardless of the execution method,

is

to

obtain in advance affidavits establishing that their system has been successfully

used and has never failed." (Carnes neglected to say what should be

done where the system has been used, and has repeatedly Texas, for instance.

He

failed

also neglected to mention that in Missouri,

—

in

where

the Leuchter lethal injection machine has been used on six occasions, no failure

has ever occurred.) Carnes gives other attorneys general the names

and phone numbers of contacts they wish to discuss

"Let us know

if

Fred took the

in Florida, Virginia,

how best to rebut

Leuchter shows up

memo from me

a conspiracy," he

said.

The

memo ends,

your state."

and dropped

it

"They're trying to put

Later that afternoon (September in

in

and Alabama, should

Fred's arguments.

4, 1991),

onto the coffee table. "It's

me

out of business."

Fred got a

call

from a journalist

South Carolina, where Donald "Peewee" Gaskins was scheduled to die

in the electric chair in

two days'

time. Gaskins

had been convicted of a

Labor Day of eleven murders, and was linked to others.

total

He had

sentence for one of the murders, which was subsequently

and added onto the eight consecutive

The eleventh

ceived.

murder for a

bomb

in the radio

bomb had been

United States for

When

name on

the

be executed, was a

to

Gaskins (who was white) planted

I

as controversial, because

man would be

would

put to death in the

The journalist was phoning because he had officials

on the planned execution

procedure, and he wanted Fred's opinion. Fred motioned for his half of the conversation,

saying because he thought that

it

could see his penciled notation along-

received a briefing from corrections

in

named Ru-

NAACP list of death row inmates that was on

the left-hand side of his desk.

on

life

the murder of a black man.

Fred picked up the phone,

side Gaskins's

to

given to Gaskins by the son of Tyner's

time since 1944 that a white

first

received a death

commuted

of a black inmate, a convicted murderer

The pending execution was seen

victims.

69

sentences he had already re-

which he was

hire inside the prison. In 1982,

dolph Tyner. The

be the

killing, for

life

I

it

would be of interest

to

South Carolina planned to give Gaskins 2,000

followed by an eight-second

me

to listen

and he repeated what the journalist was me.

I

heard Fred say

volts for five seconds,

of 1,000 volts, followed by a two-minute

jolt

application of 250 volts.

The

reporter wanted to

The news brought out

know

if

Fred foresaw any problem with

the veins

could have," Fred told him, "is that the turning Mr. Gaskins into a vegetable.

first jolts

And

could cause brain death,

then the lower voltage

undo what the higher voltages have done. The two hundred might have the effect of leaving

him

this.

on Fred's neck. 'The problem they

fibrillating his heart.

It

fifty

may volts

could restart his heart,

alive in the chair."

Fred patiently explained

his

views on correct voltage, amperage, and

duration of current to the reporter and told him to phone back anytime

if

he had further questions.

He was

put

down

phone and frowned. "I don't get

the

talking to the engineer

were going to

start

is

thicker than

after the execution,

ing that Gaskins

had

tried to

he told me. "I

there yesterday, and he told

with twenty-four hundred volts."

"I guess southern blood

The day

down

it,"

CNN

commit

me

He shook

that they his head.

Yankee water."

carried a seconds-long item mentionsuicide.

The

New

York Times carried

a front-page story headed "White Dies for Killing Black, for the First

70

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Time

in

Decades."

It

told

how, during the week before

Gaskins had swallowed a razor blade and then coughed his guards weren't looking.

A few

the chair, he slashed his wrists. Institution put

twenty stitches

it

his execution,

back up when

hours before he was to be escorted to

The doctor

at

Broad River Correctional

in his wrists, saving his life so that

he could

not cheat the executioner.

When

I left

as

much

as

in

England, you could go into business for yourself."

I

Fred's house that afternoon, he joked:

do about

this business. If

"You

already

know

they bring back capital punishment

I F HISTORY remembers

Fred Leuchter for anything,

as the inventor of the lethal injection machine carried out in five states.

He

was

first

January

used

will

probably be

invented the machine in response to

Jersey's passing of a lethal injection It

it

by which executions are now

bill

to replace death

in Missouri, in the execution of George

by

New

electrocution.

'Tiny" Mercer on

6, 1989.

Just as the electric chair

replacement for hanging, so

was invented

lethal injection

as a

modern and "humane"

emerged, a hundred years

later,

"humane" execution method of the late twentieth century. Lethal injection has become popular not so much because it works better than other methods of execution, all of which leave the condemned person equally dead; it has become popular because it is, first and foremost, a medical procedure. It has the appearance of being more "scientific" than shooting, hanging, gassing, or electrocution. It is clinical. The equipment as the

includes intravenous lines, prescription drugs, a hospital gurney, medical technicians, doctors,

and an execution protocol 71

in

which the condemned

72

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

person

is

sedated prior to being executed. With lethal injection, there

obvious damage to the inmate. The theory

is

that the inmate simply

is

no

"goes

to sleep."

New

York governor

commission of 1886 considered

Hill's

lethal injec-

tion along with other forms of execution but decided that electrocution

more humane United Kingdom,

the

alternative. Lethal injection in the

was next considered

was

in the

1949-1953 Royal Commission Inquiry on Capital

Punishment, which explored alternatives to hanging. The Royal Commis-

any method of execution must

sion

had established three

isfy:

humanity, certainty, and decency. At

Commission

criteria that

would meet these

that lethal injection

sat-

appeared to the Royal criteria

and would be a

However, evidence from physicians and

suitable alternative to hanging.

anesthetists dissuaded them,

first, it

and hanging was retained

until its abolition in

1965.

Medical witnesses objected to

An

who would

important question was,

British Medical Association

lethal injection

made

it

on a number of grounds.

administer the lethal dose?

prohibited from so doing. Another difficulty arose with the procedure

Lay members of the

inquiry learned that there are

The

members would be

clear that their

two

itself.

sorts of injections:

intramuscular and intravenous. For lethal injection purposes, an intrave-

nous injection in

is

necessary to ensure unconsciousness, followed by death,

a short space of time. Intramuscular injections would be undesirable

because they are extremely

painful,

and because the

lethal

drugs would

take minutes rather than seconds to take effect. Doctors explained that giving an intravenous injection

is

a skilled procedure, and one that requires

constant practice to maintain. Successful intravenous injections require the full

cooperation of the subject, which cannot always be guaranteed during

an execution. And, a percentage of the population abnormalities which

nous

make

extremely

it

injection. (In the case of

proportion of

venous

whom

injection

is

difficult to

suffers

from venous

administer an intrave-

American prison inmates today, a

significant

are former drug users, the administration of an intra-

frequently

difficult.)

Then

there

which drugs to use, and what would constitute a

was the problem of

lethal dose.

This was not

a question to which doctors had ever been asked to turn their minds, and therefore they had no answers. tion issued a statement that

And,

"No

finally,

the British Medical Associa-

medical practitioner should be asked to

Labor Day take part in bringing about the death of a convicted murderer. ation

would be most strongly opposed

to

I

73

The Associ-

any proposal to introduce,

in

place of judicial hanging, a method of execution which would require the services of a medical practitioner, either in carrying out the actual process

of

or in instructing others in the technique of the process." While

killing

the Royal Commission could not advocate its

report

lethal injection

recommended, "unanimously and emphatically,

should be periodically examined, especially in the

light

on

this

occasion,

that the question

of progress

made

in

the science of anaesthetics, with a view to a change of system being pro-

posed to Parliament as soon as

any grounds for the doubts

that

it

can be shown that there are no longer

now

deter us from

recommending

it."

In Britain, support for the death penalty dwindled in the period after the

Royal Commission. Executions had been running

at

an average of fourteen

per year in the decade before the inquiry published

its

and

report;

in the

ten years prior to abolition in 1965, hangings had declined to an average of three per year. There

was no

periodic review of lethal injection,

and there

the matter has rested.

In 1977,

Oklahoma was

the

first state

of execution. Other states followed in quick succession, and the to be executed

by

after the reinstatement of capital

Texas, with

He was

person 7,

the sixth person to be executed

punishment

method of manual

its

first

was Charles Brooks, on December

lethal injection

1982, in Huntsville Prison, Texas.

means

to adopt lethal injection as a

in 1976.

lethal injection,

has executed more

people than any other state since 1976. Executions are carried out in the

maximum doned

its

security prison at Huntsville. While

Texas might have aban-

electric chair in favor of lethal injection in pursuit

modern and "humane" means of execution,

of a more

the procedure has been

plagued by glitches and botched executions, attracting more attention than

any other

state,

with the possible exception of Florida.

Fred Leuchter ville's

familiar with the

Texas procedure and knows Hunts-

warden, Jack Pursley, personally.

more than tions

is

forty lethal injections,

He

told

and about eighty percent of these execu-

have had one problem or another. In the

disgusting."

me: "Texas has done

The condemned men

final analysis,

it

looks

routinely choke, cough, spasm,

and

writhe as they die.

Fred described

how many condemned men

are lifelong drug users,

74

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

whose damaged vascular systems make by

lethal injection.

He

think, lethal injection

difficult to

carry out an execution

many people might

Three separate drugs are required, and the proce-

fraught with difficulty

is

it

contrary to what

not a simple matter of injecting a single lethal dose

is

into the inmate's arm.

dure

me how,

told

if

He

attempted manually.

complained that

doctors are not allowed to be involved in executions. "But even

were," he says,

hand

my

"it is

very

in the correct order

machine, which

is

difficult to

and

if

they

introduce these three substances by

why I invented

at the correct pressure. That's

based on the most up-to-date pharmacological

re-

search."

me

Fred told machine.

He

first

to invent the lethal injection

began with an account of events

down

Jack Pursley the

how he came

the story of

in

Texas. "I

in

know Warden

Texas. He's done the most lethal injections.

three or four before

I

had designed and

built the

He

did

machine." For

Pursley, the nation's busiest executioner, his task has been fraught with difficulty

from the beginning. The most notorious problems have occurred

in the executions of

Stephen Morin (March

13, 1985,

when he waited more

than forty minutes on the gurney while technicians repeatedly failed to insert the

when

the

IV IV

line into his veins);

line carrying the lethal

team with the

Landry was

Raymond Landry (December

fatal chemicals; a

half-dead,

McCoy (May

drugs burst, spraying the execution

new IV

line

when an

incorrect

when

it

is

be inserted while to die);

Stephen

Billy

to

Wayne White (May

took forty-seven minutes to find a vein, even after White

tried to assist the executioners in locating

But Fred

to

mix of drugs caused him

choke and heave throughout the procedure); and 23, 1992,

had

and he took twenty-four minutes

24, 1989,

13, 1988,

a suitable one).

deeply sympathetic to Warden Pursley' s predicament as an

executioner. "Every time he does one, he tries to persuade the state of

Texas to buy him a machine. And they keep saying, 'You're doing a

want

to put out the

taking

its toll

He's doing

it

money

for the machine.

It's all

three chemicals in the process

is

a redundant

set.

it.'

But the problem

They don't is

that

it's

that has to operate the syringes.

manual. They have six syringes. There are

— sodium

pentothal, Pavulon [pancuronium

bromide], and potassium chloride. The syringes there

him on the head and

good job, Jack, don't worry about

on Jack Pursley. He's the one by hand.

patting

The redundant

set

tie into

an IV

line

and

goes into a bucket. The purpose

Labor Day of the thing

know which

so the witnesses don't

is

knows, because Jack's the one

do

that has to

more problems. He's had hematomas;

it."

one's operating

I

75

Jack

it.

Fred sighed. ''He's had

he's gone through veins putting the

needle in."

Fred stared hard

know,

will

not participate.

watched Jack Pursley the doctors

wont do

nician who'll

you

help. Occasionally

find a doctor or

put them in one syringe.

it is,

the chemicals and

all

The doctor stood

down

there

And

Jack mixed the chemicals.

To show you how bad

that.

me. "Doctors, as you

at

so bad that the state doctor

It's

at the first execution.

Jack Pursley did, he took

minutes

and then looked

at the floor

the

a medical tech-

first

execution that

mixed them together and

there watching him.

Some

forty

after they got everything set up, they go in there and he's

later,

pushing the syringe and the syringe won't work. He's got white sludge.

You

Everything precipitated. doctor was "

you

can't

together.

The

T could have

told

mix the three chemicals

standing there shaking his head and he said,

that.'

Fred exploded with exasperation. "You know, give him a break! You've got a

man who

know

doesn't

he's doing something

—

anything about medical procedures, and here

he's totally out of his element

— and the doctor

is

going to allow him to torture the inmate!

"Poor Jack Pursley," Fred thirty. It's really official,

march

and

if

mouth of

it.

comfortable with

But

He

it.

him

back and do

again.'

it

hell.

shouldn't

into the

And it,

I

mouth of hell, he'd

think he decided that

and

it

doesn't

mean

he's

say, 'Nice Jack, nice Jack,

it

T

go

while he's alive. Because the next guy they " going to do it.'

ain't

how

to conduct a lethal injection,

at the

Fred

"euthanasia kits" used to put

worked on animals, Fred saw no reason why

work on human

"Like any engineer

"you don't want

a good law enforcement

He's doing a yeoman's job without the equipment

looked to veterinarian science, and it

likes

on the head and

probably going to say,

animals. If

march

mean he

In addressing the problem of

down

to

is

aged about

every so often asks for a machine, and every so

his pat

and they probably won't buy is

him

That's his job.

doesn't

it

often they give

get

on Jack. Jack

its toll

the governor told

into the

when he took

taken

said softly. "In ten years, he's

it

beings.

that's going to design

to reinvent the wheel.

something," Fred told me,

So you go and

find out

what the

76

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

last

guy

Sodium

did.

pentobarbital

is

excellent for destroying the respira-

What I would have done is recommend sodium pentobarbital, would have recommended potassium chloride. The doctors in New

tory system.

and

I

Jersey were in agreement with me. Those were the same chemicals that

they would have used."

New Jersey's lethal injection statute took shape, doctors progres-

But as

sively distanced themselves

from

Ultimately, the statute forbade the

it.

participation of doctors in the actual execution, although they to give a pre-execution sedative.

Department of Corrections administer injections and

It

who

are qualified to

are familiar with medical procedures, other

than licensed physicians," to assist lated that "the procedures

commissioner of the

called for the

to "designate persons

who

were allowed

The law

in the execution.

and equipment

.

.

.

shall

also stipu-

be designed to ensure

that the identity of the person actually inflicting the lethal substance

unknown even

to the person himself."

The

New

is

much

Jersey law pretty

described the machine that Fred would go on to invent.

"By the time New Jersey called me in," Fred told me, "the doctors had made a decision that they didn't want to touch lethal injection. They were afraid of

because Texas had just done three botches. They witnessed

it,

the botches.

do

it

any

And

the chief doctor in

better. There's got to

They checked

New

Jersey said,

be a way to do

it,

there

T

don't think

I

was

can

must be a machine.'

the medical catalogues, and there's no machine.

get a machine. They found out

I

We

got to

building execution equipment, so

they contacted me."

Fred had no track record

in lethal injection technology; but then, neither

did anyone else. "I got the job in

because ing

I

Jersey," Fred told me, "only

The

first

meet-

we had a deputy commissioner who was totally disintermeeting. He was looking at the walls, the floor, the ceiling, and

we were

ested in the

New

the electric chair helmet for South Carolina.

I built

at

expected him to snore any minute. The doctors

—

there's quite a repartee

going back and forth between the doctors and myself and the warden. Finally," Fred related with a smile, "the commissioner's like this." Fred

slumped over

in his chair, as if asleep.

"One of the

and he says, 'Commissioner, Fred was the one South Carolina.'

one

He

looks at

that they just used?'

I

me and

doctors turned around

that

made

the helmet for

he says, 'You made the helmet? The

says, 'Yes.'

He

said, 'Okay.'

He

turned around

Labor Day and he

to the doctor

He

said,

T don't care what it costs,

builds the equipment.' That's

it.

I

11

give Fred the contract.

Meeting over."

Fred had a number of problems to solve. What drugs should be used,

and

what combinations and

in

quantities?

What

kind of machine would be

condemned person? "I

right for administering the lethal injection into the

had to come up

with a universal dosage that

would work with everybody,"

Fred explained.

As he

did before redesigning the electric chair, Fred took himself off to

the library turates

—

a medical library

this time,

—

to research the effects of barbi-

He

and other drugs on the human system.

no documentation on

absolutely

had

lethal dosages. I

to

go back to the

What I was working with was a paper written

original Pentothal literatures.

by the two doctors

discovered that "there's

back

that developed Pentothal

in 1947, I think

it

was.

There was more information on pancuronium bromide, but again, nothing relative to lethal dose.

Pancuronium bromide

muscles so they can suture

would be no

lethal tests

lethal

It's

used

it.

And you can

see right off the bat

where

dosage information. They didn't even do any

on animals. There were some numbers, but they were not good

numbers because they hadn't done

They just wanted is

a muscle relaxant.

where they paralyze a portion of the heart

primarily for heart operations

there

is

in effect

a synthetic curare.

South America use medical use.

And

in their

it

from a

lethal

dosage point of view.

was

lethal.

Pancuronium bromide

whether

to determine

It's

the

it

same chemical

blowguns. As far as

I

that the natives in

know,

it

has no other

potassium chloride, that's been around for years and

used for various heart conditions.

human What I did is, I took the pig, because it's got the closest system to the human being, and I ran the numbers. I gave these numbers to the state of New Jersey. The doctors duplicated my efforts and they were in agreement. The dosage amounts "So," Fred continued, "there's no

beings.

But

were passed

I

to Texas,

Before, they were just

And

lethal

and

it

pigs.

eliminated eighty percent of their problems.

pumping as much as they could get

the executees were coughing and spasming.

municated the proper dosages, Texas

They

dosage information for

have information on rabbits and

still

tried

into the syringe.

When New

Jersey com-

them. They worked better.

had coughing and choking and spasming, but not as much. The

problem was that they needed an antihistamine.

I

said to the doctors in

78

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

New

Jersey

coming

we

from

and I'm not a doctor, so I'm

physiologist

here with these suggestions

left field

—

I

'Why

said,

And

use an antihistamine to drop the coughing and spasming?'

that at

in

—and I'm not a

I

would recommend using Benadryl. The doctor in

me

and he

watching

started to laugh.

He

said, 'Doctors all

happen, and they said there was no

this

just solved the problem!

Why did you think of it?'

allergies takes antihistamine.'

He

said,

to

do

lethal

said

and you've

it,

'Everybody with

said,

know

'We're supposed to

You should have seen the expression on the doctor's face. He why didn't we think of that? We're paid to do it!' " "The

I

New Jersey looked

over the country are

way I

don't

dosages were based on running the pig numbers?"

that!'

'Damn,

said,

I

asked.

"Correct."

"So your prescription for lethal dosages

is

based on numbers rather than

actual tests?"

Fred shook

his

head and lowered

his voice.

"In an undisclosed location,

one pig was executed." I

made a

about

killing

note of this and tried to keep a straight face. We're talking

human

beings, but being secretive about "executing" a pig.

Fred admitted that he was worried about an adverse reaction from the

NSPCAifwordgotout. "So,"

I

asked, "what are the dosages?"

"The dose

is

twenty percent larger than would be necessary for the

average person. Possibly

if

you had a seventy-pound

pound woman, you could have a problem with

child, or

that. It's

a seventy-

not likely that's

going to happen, and the people that are doing the execution have enough

savvy to cut back on the dosage a

not likely that you're going to

little. It's

execute somebody that weighs less than ninety pounds, though."

Thinking back to the problem that Tennessee had with chair, that

it

was too narrow

"What about very

to

accommodate

its

old electric

the average inmate,

I

asked:

large people?"

"Fifteen to seventeen cc's will put anybody away," Fred reassured me.

"Even

if

the dosage

is

not enough to do

it

in

one minute,

it

will

minutes. Within four minutes you're going to get brain damage,

do

it

in ten

so that will

work with just about anybody."

The should

basic design requirement of Fred's lethal injection machine kill

quickly and efficiently, and in a

way

is

that

it

that causes the least pain

Labor Day and

condemned person,

distress to the

I

79

the executioners, and the witnesses.

Fred concluded that the way to achieve

condemned

this is to give the

person a pre-injection of 10 cc of antihistamine half an hour prior to the execution. This ensures that choking, coughing, and spasming will be re-

He recommends

duced to a minimum.

that the inmate also

a pre-injection of 8 cc of 2 percent sodium pentothal bringing

him

the inmate; five

chamber. Fred argues that

into the death

it

also

makes him

minutes before the

five

start

and

docile

be sedated with

minutes prior to

calm

this helps to

less resistant to his fate. Forty-

of the execution, the condemned person

is

attached to an IV line delivering saline solution, which allows the lethal

drugs to pass more easily into his veins.

Once

the execution has

machine introduces

commenced,

15 cc of 2 percent

three drugs are administered.

The

sodium pentothal over ten seconds,

followed by a one-minute wait. This causes unconsciousness. The machine then injects 15 cc of pancuronium bromide, followed by a one-minute wait. Finally, 15 cc of

within

potassium chloride

The problem tively large

in designing the

volume of drugs

The answer

injected,

and death should follow

machine was how

into the

to introduce the rela-

condemned inmate

in

a regular flow.

a delivery module, mounted on a wall in the execution

is

chamber, which holds eight syringes doses, along with

—two complete

two purge syringes

a manifold with eight

tially

is

two minutes.

containing the lethal drugs

inlets

is fitted

filled

sets of the three lethal

with saline solution.

and one

outlet.

Each of

It is

essen-

the syringes

beneath a weighted piston.

When

acti-

vated from the control panel, the pistons depress the syringes in the timed

sequence described above.

The

control

module

box which

sets of controls.

Each is

station

is

typically placed

on a wheeled

on which the delivery module

side of the wall 1.5 feet

is

is

is

mounted.

operated by the two executioners.

They

trolley

It

at the

It is

a 2 feet by

has two complete

are marked, military-style, Station

armed by turning a key

on the other

1

and Station

bottom of the panel.

When

2. it

time for the execution to commence, each of the executioners presses a

button.

A

computer

in the

machine chooses which executioner has

vated the sequence, and the choice ory.

A

series of lights

procedure:

Armed

on the panel

is

then automatically erased from

acti-

mem-

indicates three stages of the execution

(red), Start (yellow),

and Finish

(green).

The execution-

80

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

ers use these lights to monitor the three injections during the execution

process.

power or system

In order to avoid execution glitches caused by

Fred added a number of fail-safe devices a

12- volt battery

hours, making

it

machine.

in the

which can be recharged from a

It is

minute intervals before

it

powered by

110- volt line in fourteen

independent of the prison power supply.

power the machine

cutions are required, the battery can

failure,

If multiple

exe-

six times at fifteen-

needs to be recharged.

In the event of a timing system failure, Fred incorporated an electrical

override which can be used to activate any or

all

of the three pistons. Both

executioners operate the electrical override, and the on-board computer

has already chosen, during makeready, which of the executioners has actually activated the system. in the

execution control

When using the electrical override,

assistants

room must time the administration of each drug commence the next stage.

with a stopwatch and give the order to

In the event of total electrical failure, or failure of the prime system, the

delivery pull

module has a mechanical system comprising three

sets of

double

knobs, which manually activate the pistons that drive the syringes.

Fred described the machine

me

to

using two poster-size color photo-

graphs he had dry-mounted for exhibition purposes.

— along with posters and

—

explained the machine, he asked

to prison

for business alongside

manu-

if

I'd like to see the control

module he

to Delaware.

"Of course,"

me

I said.

into the kitchen, past Caroline,

door led down to the basement.

him down the steep

On

them

and other security products. After he

facturers of nightsticks, firearms,

Fred led

bring

specifications for his electric chair

wardens' conventions, where he would tout

had supplied

He would

He

and

where a

into a corner

switched on the

light,

and

I

followed

cellar stairs.

a shelf along the wall were boxes of Bisquick, Quaker Oats, and

other staples. At the bottom of the

stairs, off to

one

side,

were cases of diet

Pepsi and cans of Hawaiian Punch, along with enough paper bags

canned goods to withstand a

siege. Electrical cables ran in

full

of

crazy patterns

across the ceiling, and given Fred's profession, the cobwebs that hung

everywhere gave the place an eerie

At the back of the

cellar

feel.

was a

giant pile of electrical junk.

Empty

Labor Day packaging for computers and the

new

VCRs was

strewn about. Fred pointed out

me

gas furnace he'd installed and led

where the Delaware

machine

lethal injection

81

I

to the

end of the

sat gathering dust

cellar,

on

his

workbench.

The area around the bench was cluttered with tools and electronic paraphernalia. Next to the control module were a soldering iron and voltmeter, and one end of the bench had a vise. The area was lit by a single naked bulb suspended from the ceiling.

"Here gloomy I

it

to

it

and read the control panel, standing where the execu-

would when they pressed the buttons

Fred explained

its

he described like

its

functions,

a car ignition key

Station

1.

A

I

down

pumped

me

—

that

the lethal dose.

that this

at the prison in

couldn't help focusing

light. It

an

On the front,

half

As

my attention on the key

it,

and

I

picked

it

was made of black rubber and cut

look in the poor

was only Delaware.

was protruding from system control

key ring was hanging from

electric chair.

that

operation again, reminding

a machine; the delivery module was

—

through his thick glasses in the

cellar.

walked up

tioners

me

is," said Fred, peering at

up

in the

shape of

the image of an electric chair, complete with

harnesses and restraint fastenings casually positioned across the seat,

etched in white.

I

turned

Leuchter Associates, his address

Inc.,

it

over.

On

the back

was

printed

was

"Fred A.

Execution Equipment and Support," along with

and phone number.

Fred observed

me

toying with the unusual promotional device.

he said with a smile. "I give those out

he also had pens, and he'd give

"You

at

for a better

at

me one

wardens' conventions."

"Oh,"

He

said

later.

see this?" he said, pointing to a small stack of

corner next to the workbench. "That's oak

left

wood

in

a

filthy

over from the Tennessee

chair." I

went over

to

it

and poked with the toe of

my

boot.

cobwebs, and a spider emerged, then scurried for cover

When rapists

away from

the county sheriffs and handed

switched over to electrocution, tore

make

was covered

in the

in

shadows.

Tennessee took the power of hanging convicted murderers and

authorities in 1909, they built a gallows

to

It

their first electric chair.

from

down

this

it

over to the state

wood. Then,

in 1916,

the gallows, and used the

Execution records

in

they

wood

Tennessee are

in-

82

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

men had been

complete, but scholars have documented that at least 134

hung or

fried

on the

had

"living tradition" Fred

"So,"

He

I

asked,

told

me

had looked

at

"why

it

is

damp

in

me

about

in the restaurant the

Part of the

day before.

the Delaware control module in your cellar?"

good working order and had required a

in

and found

had been stored

told

cellar.

Delaware authorities had been concerned

that the

machine was not

of wood in the corner of Fred's

pile

that the delivery

that the

service.

Fred

module and the control module

conditions and were corroded.

Fred explained that Delaware had issued a purchase order to repair the

machine (and

which had

their gallows,

shipped the control module back to Fred difficulty getting paid after the furor raised

"The Department of Corrections

is

They had Maiden, but he was having

fallen into disrepair). in

by the Carnes memo.

up against the

hard place because they had been given

strict

traditional

rock and a

orders not to deal with

me,"

Fred explained.

seemed as though

It

after another,

and

I

recently Fred's business had suffered one setback

began to suspect that some of them might be

self-

induced.

Fred then claimed

that, since

Delaware wouldn't pay him for the repairs

to the control module, ownership sell

had reverted

to him,

and he planned to

it.

"Who to?" injection

"I

I

asked.

could see

Who would want to buy half of a lethal

for a well-heeled collector," Fred told

me

me.

looking skeptical.

shrugged and explained: "The machine has never been used, but the

machine

is

a bona fide piece of equipment, and

certification that

it

was

of Delaware correction lars.

wondered,

machine?

was hoping

He He

I

Ten thousand

in fact

is

would supply

with

it

a machine that was removed from the state

facility at

dollars

I

Smyrna.

I

was asking ten thousand

dol-

probably a reasonable price for someone to

pay." I

wondered how Fred would go about

me. He'd taken out an ad It

calls itself

in

selling the thing,

and he showed

a Boston weekly called the Want Advertiser.

"The Honor System Magazine" because

in,

and you pay the magazine only

me

the ad.

On either side of the

after

it's

you've made a

free to advertise sale.

He showed

notice for his lethal injection machine

were

Labor Day ads for items as diverse as Beatles bubble

out, the

"Controversial Inventor Places

story has a photograph of Fred sitting

tion

old. "I

this is

me

between

and

lethal

and looking much younger than

forty-

was going

to

we

really

his electric chair

be a problem," a spokesperson

reported as saying.

not something

the ad appeared. said.

this

Want Advertiser was

and

Fred told

he

knew

Boston Herald ran a story headlined

Ad Aiming to Sell Execution Device." The

injection posters, grinning widely

for the

Control module for lethal injec-

Being sold for non-payment. $10,000." At the end of the ad

was Fred's phone number. Two days after the ad came

seven years

83

gum cards and Budweiser steins.

"EXECUTION DEVICE

Fred's ad said: tion machine.

I

want

"We

in the

are a family publica-

book."

he'd received more than a hundred calls in the days after

"Most of them were hang-ups, or nasty or obscene

"Thirteen or fourteen of them were threats.

"It's all part of the

campaign

to persecute

me,"

said Fred.

calls,"

T

_1_H HE STORY

of

why Fred Leuchter

deeper than the Carries

memo

and

its

believes he

"persecuted" goes

is

Fred threatens to

allegations that

turn expert witness against states that don't use his services.

In April 1988, Fred appeared in a Toronto court as an expert witness for the defense in the case of Ernst Zundel. In 1985, Zundel

publishing a pamphlet entitled

Did Six

argued that the Holocaust was a Hitler

We Loved and

was

tried for

Million Really Die?, in which he

fiction (his previous

works include The

Why). Zundel was found guilty of spreading false

information and was sentenced to fifteen months in prison.

Zundel appealed against for his

new

trial,

his conviction

and secured a retrial. In preparing

Zundel had the support of extreme right-wing historians

from Europe and North America. The most active of these was David Irving, the British writer

revisionist

tions

by

movement.

who has been one

Irving

lethal gas in the

of the leaders of the worldwide

had long maintained

that

a study of execu-

United States would help to "prove" that the

Nazi gas chambers never existed.

He argued that American prisons are the 84

Labor Day only place where cyanide gas has been used to ately;

and

that

tions could

kill

human

I

85

beings deliber-

American prison wardens who have carried out gas execu-

be important sources of evidence which could disprove the

Holocaust "myth." In January 1988, David Irving flew to Toronto to help Zundel prepare his defense.

ican prison to

He

suggested to Zundel's lawyers that they write to an Amer-

warden who had

go to Toronto and

testify.

carried out gas executions and persuade

They chose

Bill

Armontrout,

of Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City.

Barbara Kulaszka on January

13, 1988.

He

Bill

him

who was warden

Armontrout replied to

explained that he himself had

"considerable knowledge in that area." However, he suggested that, in his opinion, the Zundel defense should contact Fred Leuchter in Massachusetts.

He

described Fred as "an engineer specializing in gas chambers and

executions."

He explained that Fred was well versed in all of the execution

technologies and, as far as he knew, the only American specialist working in this area.

In January 1988, Fred received a telephone call from the French Holo-

caust revisionist Robert Faurisson asking

if

he would agree to act as a

witness for Zundel. Fred agreed.

The Zundel defense lost no time. On February 3-4, 1988, David Irving was in Maiden, Massachusetts, having conversations with Fred. Fred outlined his experience in the execution industry

carried out a study of the Missouri gas

had proposed a redesign of tions

and returned

to

it.

Irving

and explained

chamber

he had

that

for Bill Armontrout,

was impressed with Fred's

and

qualifica-

Toronto to advise Zundel that Fred could be

his star

witness.

In Irving' s mind, Fred's expert testimony could "prove," once and for all,

that the Holocaust never happened.

making

He

thought he was on the verge of

history.

Zundel proposed that Fred should bers in the concentration

camps

at

visit

three "alleged" Nazi gas

cham-

Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek.

His job would be to make a forensic determination of whether or not they

had ever contained gas chambers which had been used to

kill

human

beings.

On

February 24, 1988, Fred

along with his draftsman,

set off

Howard

on an eight-day mission

Miller; his wife, Caroline;

to Poland,

a Polish

inter-

86

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Theodore Rudolph; and a video cameraman, Jurgen Neumann. Neumann's video shows Fred and Howard Miller at work in the Nazi preter,

death camps. Fred, wearing a fur hat and carrying a small hammer, takes

samples of the while

Howard

floors, walls,

Fred addresses the camera

what he

and

ceilings of gas

chambers and crematoria,

Miller bags and tags them. In the amateur-looking video, directly

from time to time, giving

his opinion

observing forty-three years after the end of World

is

states that

where there

was used

to delouse the clothing

is

War

II.

of

He

clear evidence of cyanide gas (Zyklon-B), this

and blankets of concentration camp

victims.

Upon

his return to the

United States, Fred sent samples of brick and

"gasket material' to Alpha Analytical Laboratories '

setts, for analysis.

in

Ashland, Massachu-

During March 1988, he wrote up the results of

to Poland, producing a

document which David

cations issued as The Leuchter Report (the

his trip

Irving's Focal Point Publi-

full title

Fred gave

it

is

An

Engineering Report on the Alleged Execution Gas Chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek). In the report, Fred finds insufficient evidence of levels of cyanide gas to suggest that large

death.

He judges

that because the gas

specifications of the ones used in

numbers of people were put

to

chambers do not meet the technical

American

prisons, they

were

not, in fact,

gas chambers.

The

report also claims that the crematoria could not process the

number

of bodies that were "allegedly" fed into them at the height of the Nazis' Final Solution.

The

report,

cludes: "After reviewing

all

which Fred finished on April of the material and inspecting

1988, con-

5, all

of the

sites

Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek your author finds the evidence

at

overwhelming. There were no execution gas chambers locations.

It

alleged gas

now

or

is

at

any of these

the best engineering opinion of this author that the

chambers

at the inspected sites

could not have then been,

be, utilized or seriously considered to function as execution gas

chambers." Fred's report had cost Zundel more than $30,000. staked a the

first

lot

on Fred.

On

a personal

level,

He and

court's verdict of guilt; and, in the larger arena, both

excited because they

felt

Irving

had

Zundel was hoping to reverse

on the verge of a

men were

revisionist victory, in

they would "prove" that the Holocaust was a Zionist hoax.

which

Labor Day During the

third

week of

April 1988, Toronto

was

I

87

the setting for a

meeting between an odd network of people from the American execution industry and Holocaust revisionists.

warden

tiary

Bill

On

April 19, Missouri State Peniten-

Armontrout took the stand as an expert witness for

Zundel and answered questions about the procedures used

by

lethal gas.

He was

beginning of the

trial,

Judge Ronald Thomas had taken judicial notice of

was not admitted

no formal engineering or medical

was on

Bill

Fred's

from the

it

to prison for nine

months.

the second

of Ernst

trial

Armontrout worked closely on the plan for

executions would resume there. At the

purchase one of Fred's

result,

training.

refurbishing Missouri's gas chamber, as

lethal injection bill,

As a

made much of the fact that Fred had

The jury found Zundel guilty, and he was sent In the months following their testimonies at Zundel, Fred Leuchter and

trial.

and he had to summarize

in evidence,

witness box. In court, the prosecution

passed a

executions

followed on April 20-21 by Fred Leuchter. At the

the Holocaust: Zundel, not the Holocaust, report

in

it

last

became

increasingly clear that

minute, the Missouri legislature

and Armontrout recommended that the

lethal injection

state

machines.

The paths of Fred and Bill Armontrout crossed again on ABC's "Prime Time Live" capital punishment program of May 10, 1990, in which both men appeared. The Village Voice was critical of the program, calling Fred "the executioner's best friend" and taking that

Fred has no engineering degree, and

ABC to task for not mentioning that

The Leuchter Report had

made him "a call 'the

star of the anti-Semitic far right's crusade against what they Holocaust hoax.' " It also revealed that the report had since been

published in the United States by the white supremacist group Aryan

Nation, and by the Institute for Historical Research, the American branch

of a French organization run by the far-right historian Robert Faurisson.

A 1989,

Village Voice report of

May

22, 1990, also revealed that in

Fred was the featured speaker

Institute for Historical Research,

and

at the ninth

that the

by the anti-Semitic group Liberty Lobby.

annual conference of the

meeting was It

February

much publicized

also reported that

David

Duke's National Association for the Advancement of White People tured The Leuchter Report on

its

mail-order

list

fea-

of racist publications.

Other journalists, and Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation

League of B'nai

B'rith,

began to focus on The Leuchter Report. The

88

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Boston Globe called told the Globe: "I

no use

for Nazis.

"the backbone of the revisionist movement.

it

am The

not an anti-Semite. report

is

a

atrocities did not occur, only that there

am

I

I

am

Fred

'

not a revisionist and

document.

scientific

1

have

I

not saying that

were no gas chambers."

Fred's attempt publicly to distance himself from Nazi sympathizers did not convince Ross Vicksell of the Organization of ists.

He told

the Globe:

does not square with

"Mr. Leuchter says he

his actions.

He

is

New

England Revision-

not a revisionist, but that

is

a big star in the movement."

Fred's report attracted the attention of Nazi hunters Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, as well as a group based in

Latham,

New York, called Holocaust

Survivors and Friends in Pursuit of Justice, headed by Shelly Shapiro. Shapiro's group sought legal advice and brought an action against Leuchter,

based on an obscure and untested

statute, for practicing as

without a license. (Under Massachusetts law, licensed to practice

all

types of engineering

it

is

not necessary to be

—only those which involve

issues of public safety, such as building engineering.)

lawsuit

was

to discredit

an engineer

The purpose of

the

Fred as an expert, and so discourage readers from

taking his report seriously.

On October 23, Court

in

1990, Fred

Maiden with

was charged

Middlesex County District

in the

the fraudulent practice of engineering.

courtroom listened as Fred faced the charge with judge set a

pretrial hearing for

December

1 1

.

fine.

the prospect of spending any time in prison

was a

Revisionist support for Fred

IHR

came

quickly.

A

packed

head bowed, and the

Fred faced a

tence of three months in prison and a $500

the far-right

his

maximum

sen-

Given Fred's occupation, particularly bleak one.

The October number of

Newsletter ran the headline: "Alien Terrorists Target

Leuchter." The report alleged that Fred was being hounded and harassed

by the Klarsfelds and U.S. Jewish groups

that

had mounted an ambitious

campaign "to destroy Leuchter professionally and economically."

On December

11, 1990, the

day of Fred's

pretrial hearing

and the

of Hanukkah, Maiden residents were greeted by an unusual

sight.

start

More

than two hundred protesters, including Holocaust survivors and supporters,

had gathered to protest against The Leuchter Report. Some carried

placards saying "Leuchter

= Nazi."

Student protesters from

New

York

City and Boston chanted, "Six million died." Separated by police, a small

group of Leuchter supporters gathered on the other side of the

street.

Labor Day State, Metro,

and

local police

and Fred and Caroline had approaches to

were on duty

it

in the

Under constant

reaching the courthouse, since

was

public,

all

by police roadblocks. Mounted police

off

event of a disturbance.

police guard, Fred

and Caroline were escorted into the

many

courthouse, where there were almost as the case

89

had been called out to control the crowd,

difficulty

were sealed

I

called, police

and court

separating them from Fred,

police as observers.

formed a

officers

When

line facing the

the judge, and other court officials.

The Maiden lawyer who normally handles Fred's legal work refused to defend him in court. Fred was assigned a court-appointed attorney, Anthony Santoro, who found the work equally unappealing. (He told Leuchter, "I have to practice in Maiden.") At the pretrial hearing in front of Judge James Killam

III,

Fred moved to dismiss Santoro

Houston lawyer Kirk Lyons. Lyons had gained

when he

successfully defended Louis R.

dragon of the Texas Knights of the

Beam,

Ku Klux

favor of

in

national attention in 1988 Jr.,

Klan,

the former grand

who had been charged

with sedition. Lyons heads a group called the Patriot Defenders Foundation,

which

offers legal representation to right-wing activists

supremacists.

He

claims his organization

modeled on the

is

Legal Defense Fund, one of whose functions

is

and white

NAACP's row

to represent death

inmates at appeal. After the hearing, Fred gave an outdoor press conference at which he reiterated the

main point of his defense:

that

he was being unfairly harassed

for having written a scientific report, the conclusions of which

some people

found offensive. While protesters chanted outside the courthouse, Fred told reporters: "I stand fully behind

my

not like

findings, these groups

tional cabal to destroy the report.

my report.

Because certain groups did

and individuals have formed an internaUnable to do

this,

and

since the report

the truths contained therein speak for themselves, this international gang

of free-speech busters determined to destroy cally.

and

.

.

libel

.

Through a program of

about myself and

civil rights

and the

witch-hunt must and

my

violated

my

threats to innocent people, lies, slander,

of every American alive today.

will stop. I give fair

civil rights

—

personally and economi-

equipment, they have set out to destroy

civil rights

of this international cabal, to

me

all

those

.

This

.

who

are part

unjustly attacked

me and

warning to

who have

.

my

all

to the Klarsfelds, Shapiros,

those

and Kahns of

this

90

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

world, Fred Leuchter

coming

is

for you!" After sounding his warning,

Fred concluded: "I'm sure Columbus, Galileo, and Copernicus caused emotional harm to those

who promoted

the

flat

earth theory, but that did

not stop the earth from being a sphere." After the pretrial hearing, extreme right-wing support for Fred acceler-

The December

ated.

30, 1990, issue of a

Toronto-based publication called

Power featured the logo of a white fist over a Star of David and the slogan, "Smash Zionist Terror!" The issue carried a two-page article by Ernst Zundel is

in

support of Fred and his report. At the bottom of the front page

"Help us

printed the message,

At the top of the page his trip to Poland,

is

.

.

We need you — you need us."

fight!

.

a photograph of Fred

and a message from him

a three-piece

in

to readers of

suit

during

Power. "To

my

supporters: Because of the recession and uncertainty caused by the Gulf

much more slowly! Please send your our work. Many Thanks." Zundel wrote

the donations are coming in

crisis,

support so that

we can

continue

The Leuchter Report was gaining influence worldwide, having been

that

German, French, Portuguese, Spanish,

translated into

Swedish, and Japanese.

peared

in Polish

He

and Russian, with wide

Italian,

Dutch,

"underground editions ap-

also reported that

circulation in Soviet-ruled coun-

tries."

A

week

later,

Fred speaking

the

IHR

Newsletter carried a front-page photograph of

at the tenth annual conference of the Institute of Historical

Research under the headline: "Fred Leuchter Fights Back: Needs Financial

Help for His Courtroom Battle." In

fund-raising plea, the

its

IHR

Newsletter presented Fred as a persecuted hero: "Fred Leuchter hasn't been,

isn't,

and

will

cowed or

not be either

lobby's efforts to destroy him.

.

.

.

deterred by the Holocaust

Leuchter could have backed out or

backed down or backed away from the

facts as

he found them

at

Ausch-

witz and their terrifying, revolutionary, liberating implications. But he

never

did.

And now

he intends not merely to defend himself but to launch

a counterattack against some very powerful enemies of truth and freedom (or as the down-to-earth

Yankee engineer puts

it,

'Now's the time to kick

ass and take names!')."

At Fred's next court appearance, hundreds of demonstrators turned up ish

groups were joined by gay

at 9:00

a.m. on January 22, 1991,

in freezing

weather. This time, Jew-

activists including the

AIDS

Coalition to

Labor Day Unleash Power and Queer Nation. played pink triangles like those the this time,

Many

I

91

of the gay demonstrators dis-

Nazis forced homosexuals to wear. But

pro-Leuchter supporters nearly equaled the opposition. Fighting

broke out when a pro-Leuchter demonstrator, Friedrich Berg of Fort

Wayne,

An

New

up an

Jersey, held

Israeli flag

and attempted to

anti-Leuchter demonstrator (whose name, ironically,

him, and both

tried to stop

men were

is

set

it

alight.

David Duke),

charged with assault and battery.

Another Leuchter supporter, Hans Beisner of Ontario, Canada, was also charged with assault and battery after knocking over a police officer while joining in the fight.

Fred was escorted into the courthouse by three police

officers.

The judge

allowed Kirk Lyons to act for the defense. Lyons presented a lengthy

motion to dismiss the case on two grounds:

that the state's case

was

procedurally and substantially inadequate; and that the Massachusetts engineer registration statute

was vague, and not

Killam dismissed the motion and set a

trial

applicable to Fred. Judge

date of

May

9.

After further motions and attempts by Kirk Lyons to have the case

thrown out, Fred came to court again on June judge, Christine

11, 1991, in front

of a

McEvoy. He was placed on pretrial probation after

new

signing

a consent agreement with the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and

from using the

title

Land Surveyors,

telling reporters:

has there been any admission of guilt." Fred in

calling himself

which he agreed to

refrain

of "engineer."

Kirk Lyons claimed a victory,

an engineer

in

"There

vowed

no finding nor

to seek registration as

Massachusetts and pointed out that he

an engineer

is

in the other forty-nine states

is

not barred from

of the union.

D

URING THE week

hold out

much hope

Labor Day, Fred

after

that the state engineering

told

me

he didn't

board would grant him a

license.

'They're frightened of me," he

was no such category

And anyway, he pointed out,

said.

as "execution engineer."

In the aftermath of his court case, Fred found that

were reluctant told

me:

"My

They're not are,

to deal with him. clients,

They've worked

and what they don't want If

He wore

many

they

to

do

start using

of his old clients

a resigned expression when he

mostly prison wardens, are

civil servants.

governor on down.

there

all

political appointees.

their lives to get

where they

is

upset their employers, from the

me

again, the Jewish groups will start

complaining, and they'll be in trouble." However, that has not stopped Fred's consulting. Nowadays, his advice I

asked Fred to

explained

how

Bill

tell

me

is

Armontrout had passed

defense team. "I didn't

given secretly.

the story behind The Leuchter Report.

even know who 92

his

name on

He

to Ernst Zundel's

Ernst Zundel was," Fred told me.

Labor Day

He

said that

when he took

He

gas chambers.

me

told

The videotape of Fred Fred told

me

that the

the job, he fully expected to find evidence of

he was surprised that he didn't.

collecting evidence tells a different story.

Toronto court required him to do some homework

was given

before traveling to Poland. "I court required that survivors. I

I

93

I

"The

material to review," he said.

review material that was produced by the alleged

I

had to read the material of the alleged confessions of the Nazis.

had to understand how these things supposedly worked. And then, with

all this I

information,

asked him

if

went to Poland."

I

he had carried out any further research prior to

his Polish

trip.

"Sure," he replied. "As an engineer terial I

began to correct Fred on

crematorium

was

went and obtained available ma-

is

his

grammar, and

tell

him

that the plural of

crematoria or crematoriums, but thought better of

it.

He

in full flow.

"I studied

how

they were built," he explained. "Then

visited three crematories.

I

watched bodies being burnt.

ran the bone pressing machines. actual hardware.

I

I

I

went and

I

handled ashes.

I

I

work with

actually did hands-on

had a good working knowledge, and

I

crematory from what I

I

on crematories."

I

the

could build a

know."

thought about Fred out on his research

trip,

eagerly doing his

home-

work. Burning bodies. Crushing bones to powder. Checking out the ventilation requirements.

He was

angry that the judge

mony. "I had actually

to

in the

be allowed to

done hands-on work," he

done hands-on work for pay, allowed to

testify

on

my

I

Zundel case had restricted his

testify

told

on gas chambers because I've

me. "But since

I

haven't actually

couldn't testify on the crematories.

if

I

wasn't

chemical analysis."

Curious about the details of Fred's "forensic" methods

asked him

testi-

he had told the chemical lab

in

in

Poland,

I

Massachusetts what the

samples from Auschwitz and the other slave labor and extermination

camps were.

"Nah," he

said, straight-faced. "I told

them they were

to

do with a

case of workmen's compensation, and that they might be called to testify in court."

94

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

For Fred, the whole

about "scientific method" and "profession-

affair is

"They

alism." "It didn't faze the lab at all," he said.

was. Their responsibility began and ended with the

way a professional's supposed

good. That's the

Report; that

I

had been pirated

stopped him and asked

He and

it

explained

told

how

if

all

test tube,

what

which

it

is

to be."

Fred started to complain that he's received no ter

didn't care

royalties

from The Leuch-

over the world.

he thought the Holocaust had happened.

the judge had taken judicial notice of the Holocaust,

me, "I wasn't

testifying

on the Holocaust.

was

I

on the

testifying

existence of specific gas chambers at predetermined locations."

"But,"

I

asked, "do you believe that the Holocaust happened?"

Fred answered smoothly, switching believed there had been a Holocaust. 1

told Ernst

if I

Zundel

— he was

I

was going

probably most people

all

from evasion to frankness: "I

I

wouldn't find them

positive

was

I

think

it

—

like

know

I

depends upon

I

I

told

him

that

most Americans and

over the world, they believed that

everybody points to weren't gas chambers. I

I

had the capability of being

facilities

to report such.

believed what I'd been taught in school.

Holocaust, but

would find gas chambers.

believed

did find them, or even that these

gas chambers,

easily

I

it

happened.

I

that the facilities that

think probably there

how one defines

was a

'Holocaust.' There

are serious questions that have to be asked and answered about that whole

period in our history, and concentration

camp

be worthwhile information I

I

think that this better be done before these

survivors die, because

it

be

that's going to

may be

that there's going to

lost forever."

pressed him further, and Fred admitted that "thousands" of people

had probably been

"What about an address,

As I was

Nazi camps.

the millions of people,"

who were

Fred explained of innocent

killed in the

absent after

that, during

I

asked,

"who had friends,

family,

1945?"

wartime, there

is

much

destruction and loss

lives.

getting ready to leave,

were a bunch

of, quite frankly,

Fred told me: "I do know that the Nazis

nasty bastards."

Missouri

M

Y WEEK

nology, and to

I felt

with Fred had been a crash course in execution tech-

as prepared as

I

could be for the next leg of

meet the executioners and some of the men they would put

My

was

destination

ment with

Bill

Jefferson City, Missouri,

Armontrout. Since the Zundel

where

trial,

mates as

MSP,

although

it

My the

flight

by

staff

states

sweat-soaked as

I

and the Mississippi River

lugged

my

it

into St.

me

over

Louis.

The was

had been back East, and

I

bags to the rental car in the underground City, the state capital.

excited at the prospect of the journey. St. Louis in the

in-

Department of Corrections.

and headed west toward Jefferson

had traveled

and

to deputy director of the Division of Adult

weather was hotter and more humid than

lot

to

from Boston was routed through Pittsburgh and took

mid western

parking

had an appoint-

had recently been renamed Jefferson City Cor-

JCCC)

Institutions in Missouri's

to death.

he had been promoted

from warden of Missouri State Penitentiary (referred

rectional Center, or

I

my journey:

United States. 95

was the

farthest

I

was

west

I

96

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Interstate 70 begins near Pittsburgh It

and ends, abruptly,

at Salina,

Utah.

follows a straight line across Missouri, from St. Louis to Kansas City.

My journey City,

where

My effort

me

would take I

would pick up Route 54 south

week with Fred had seemed on

Kingdom

nearly halfway across the state, to into Jefferson City.

longer than that.

had taken some

It

my part to adjust to a daily conversation about capital punishment now

as an engineering problem, and

highway, with America spread

flat

was good

it

on

either side,

to

be out on the open

and the biggest sky on

earth above me. I

settled into the

rhythm of the

wheeler heading west, cruising

at

traffic, falling in

a comfortable

sixty-five miles

New

past St. Peters, O'Fallon, Wentzville, Wright City, ville,

Mineola.

toward the

turned

I

capital,

hear what was on

one

left at

finger

evangelist

who I

was a

dial,

per hour

Florence, Dan-

down Route

54

FM band

to

scanning the

might provide some essential clue

Christian station which featured a white

got hopelessly muddled and self-contradictory in his

listened in astonishment as he stopped the live broadcast

told the audience

abandoned

City and headed

on the radio

offer, as if the choices

to mid-Missouri. There

preaching.

Kingdom

behind an eighteen-

his

he was going to pray to

theme and asked God

God for

to give

inspiration to

and

He

go on.

him words with which

to

preach His gospel.

The approach

to Jefferson City

from the north

is

a divided highway cut

through rich mineral ore. Crossing the bridge over the Missouri River into the city, late

I

could see the

afternoon

when

I

dome

arrived,

of the capitol building,

and a

big,

tall

and proud.

orange sun was

It

was

setting, casting

a

pleasant glow over the small city.

The

hotel

was host

to a regional gathering of an over-sixty society.

next morning, the dining

room was

full

The

to capacity with brightly dressed,

gray-haired groups tucking into breakfast and chatting vigorously about last night's social event. I

ordered sausage, biscuits, and gravy and settled

everything

Pd

all

to rehearse

learned from Fred about gas chambers in preparation for

my conversation Nearly

down

with

Bill

Armontrout.

of them were built during the 1920s by Eaton Metal Products

of Salt Lake City, and very few of them had been used since the 1960s.

Crumbling

seals

and

rotting gaskets could cause leaks that

would be

lethal

Labor Day and the

to the executioners

from

state witnesses; but, apart

I

97

Fred

that,

believed that they contained such inherent design flaws that, as a method

of execution, they should be viewed as a

dangerous, and

One

operate.

difficult to

not leak," Fred told me,

"The

cost of a gas

is

it

chamber

that will

have

virtually

built in.

A

that they

is

gas chamber should be a sealed system

operated at negative pressure. That way, says Fred, leak,

are messy,

"is prohibitive."

of the main problems with gas chambers

no safety mechanism

They

last resort.

leaks inward, not outward.

to build in a

vacuum pump.

The second

fault

Fred

The design

identified

was

the air coming into the gas chamber.

the

if

which

solution,

The temperature

is

means

the absence of a

should be 80 degrees Fahrenheit, because 78.6 degrees

chamber does

to preheat

death house

in the is

expensive,

the condensation

or sublimation temperature of the gas. "Anything below that," Fred had " and normally you're bringing cool, outside air in to evacuate told me

—

—

the

chamber

for

anybody going

The

it

condenses

over the walls and

problem Fred

third safety

facilities

all

sewer system, where

used to bury

it.

how

Over two or

that's expelled into the air

walls, floors,

and clothing

My

trap

most of the

—

and

is

is

confined

it

three days,

is

it's

and where

normal

lethal for

it is.

Some

completely harmless.

harmless because

a residue of prussic acid

ceiling

into the

The gas remains

really doesn't belong."

it

With gas executions there

on the

identified "is the fact that

which then gets flushed out

an hour or two, depending upon

The gas

becomes a death

generate their gas either in a bucket under the chair or in a plumb-

ing system under the chamber,

states

it

in."

it

dissipates rapidly.

left in

the chamber,

—and the on the executed person's body

that the executioners

have to contend with.

note reading was interrupted by the waitress asking

if

I'd like

more

coffee.

"Thank you,"

I

said,

pushing

my

cup toward

her.

"Say, you're not from around here, are you?"

"No,"

I

said.

She was a

was

serving.

friendly

and

woman, as old as the over-sixties she Her calf muscles were like a sprinter's.

inquisitive

She had strong

legs.

"Are you the one from England?" she pressed, pouring the I

said

I

was, and rustled

my

notes in front of me.

coffee.

98

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

She gave

me

a lovely smile and said,

"You too," I said. "Good "Why, thank you."

"Have a

nice day."

coffee."

Probably the most dangerous part of a gas execution, Fred had told me, is

removing the body from the chamber. For fifteen

death

is

pronounced, the chamber

possible.

ing gas.

Then

it

is

to

twenty minutes

vented to dispel as

much

after

of the gas as

has to be sprayed with ammonia to neutralize the remain-

The members of the execution team

detailed to

remove the body

then enter the chamber. They used to wear gas masks; nowadays, they

wear oxygen masks. Fred described

down

"You go

it.

in.

The inmate has

through his skin.

And

if

you gave

undertaker. You've got to go

You've got

to take

Fred had told me,

ask

finished

how

my

that

body

I

to

an undertaker, you d kill the

you've got to completely wash the body.

a

little

practical aside, let

"They should execute them them wear a

shirt

in

andpantsl")

breakfast and the smiling, gray-haired waitress

I'd liked

"Great,"

came by

to

it.

told her.

more

She asked

if

After they

wash down

I'd like

the

biscuits, but I told her I

burned. After that, the inmate

is

clothes,

full.

which are taken away and

placed in a body bag and transferred to a

waiting ambulance for removal to a funeral

no one has claimed

was

body with ammonia or bleach, the execution

team removes the dead inmate's

if

washed

of the clothes that were on there." (At that point

all

in

in,

a pair of gym shorts; some of the states I

to be completely

with chlorine bleach or with ammonia. The poison exudes right out

home

of the family's choice or,

the body, to a local facility

where he's given a

pauper's funeral. The gas chamber only becomes safe after every inch of it

has been washed

down with

"Every one of these had

told

me. "And

personnel or

its

I

bleach.

facilities is

an accident waiting to happen," Fred

don't think any state has the right to subject

its

— whether suspectingly or unsuspectingly —

an

witnesses

event that could take their

life.

The witnesses

totally don't

people that work in the prisons, they know, and they're taking

may is

opt to take that

risk,

a major problem, and

I

but they shouldn't be asked

to.

risks.

They

The gas chamber when it's finally

think everyone will be better off

abolished and replaced, probably, with lethal injection."

to

know. And the

Labor Day

99

I

My appointment with Bill Armontrout was at eight, and I allowed myself hour to

half an ters

find the

was a five-minute

city. It's

Department of Corrections

away on

drive out of town, tucked

a new building, low and functional, and

battered pickup truck

in the

down

sat

Among capital punishment states,

the edge of the

pulled in alongside a

lot.

I

was

early. I an-

to wait.

Missouri has put relatively few people

when

to death. In the period between 1938,

duced, and 1965,

I

employees' parking

nounced myself at reception, and

The headquar-

building.

chamber was

the gas

when Lloyd Leo Anderson was

intro-

the last person to die in

"the tank," there were thirty-nine executions at Missouri State Penitentiary.

After capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, the ranks of Mis-

row inmates began

souri death

to swell; there are presently eighty-one

people awaiting execution. Bill

tiary,

Armontrout

is

a veteran of gas executions

at

Missouri State Peniten-

and he probably has more experience with the procedure than any

prison warden in the United States today.

executions would resume in Missouri, State Penitentiary.

The gas chamber

Bill

When was

the

it

became

there hadn't been used for twenty-

three years, and he did not relish the prospect of having to try called

Fred

to leak.

in to

examine the chamber, and Fred warned

Anxious to avoid the

clear that

warden of Missouri

that

risks associated with using the

present condition, and aware of the fact that their

first

it it

again.

was

He

likely

chamber in

its

execution since 1965

would be the subject of close media attention, Missouri commissioned Fred to carry out a detailed study of the execution facility

and to make recom-

mendations. Fred's report said that the Missouri gas chamber would need to be rebuilt at

a cost of around $300,000. In the end, the state saved

deal of time and trouble

by passing a

lethal injection bill

Fred's gas chamber contract, replacing

it

itself

a great

which canceled

with a $30,000 order for a lethal-

injection machine.

At

eight o'clock sharp, Bill Armontrout's secretary

me and Bill

led

me

upstairs, to the offices of the Division of

came around from behind

his

desk to shake

came down

to get

Adult Institutions.

my

hand.

A man

of

average height but with an enormous stomach, his face was friendly, and

I

took an immediate liking to him. Silver-haired and with a widow's peak, he has skinny legs and was wearing

cowboy

boots.

Though

he's in his

fifties,

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

100

/

he

still

has a youthful quality. For a big man, he moves quickly and

economically.

pumped my hand and welcomed me in his Oklahoma drawl. He sat me down and told me a little about himself. He had been a career navy Bill

facility. He told me that his who had recently died of cancer, was English. I liked his frank style. When he told me about his wife, a brief shadow of sadness fell across his

man, and then worked

in

a military corrections

wife,

face.

After a few minutes of preamble,

Mark

Mark

Schreiber.

and while he

shorter than

is

working on a

is

and younger by ten or so years,

Bill,

Bill-size gut,

contrast to Bill's relaxed jacket and trousers, suit,

he

still

way

has a

to go. In

Mark wore a dark gray wool

despite the oppressive heat.

"How

you doing?' Mark asked, eyeing me '

Before taking his job uty,

executive assistant,

Bill called in his

at the

head

office,

and then a homicide investigator

Bill

seemed more relaxed about

critically.

Mark had been a

sheriffs dep-

inside Missouri State Penitentiary.

my

visit

and offered

me

a cup of

coffee. I

explained that

in Missouri,

and

before that,

I

my

main

was

that I

wanted

interest

was

in capital

punishment procedure

particularly interested in Fred's machine.

But

chamber

to learn about the history of the gas

in

Missouri. I

realized that gas executions

was unprepared Bill

for the revelation that they

He

Armontrout.

on the desk and ''Didn't

were a thing of the past

in Missouri;

but

I

were not a thing of the past for

placed his large, heavily tattooed arms in front of him

Mark, who was

said to

you go down

to Mississippi with

sitting

on a sofa

off to

one

side:

me and do one?"

Mark's face did not change expression.

"Okay," Bill

Bill told

"We went to

me.

paused for a moment, and

I

Mississippi and did one with gas."

worried that he might not continue the

story.

"Because they "Well,"

and

this

Bill

was

didn't

have anyone trained to do

explained, "a

his first one.

and helped him.

Do

friend of

it?"

asked.

He's a young warden. So Mark and

a complimentary one for him, you

Mark, resigned to the

I

mine was the warden down

fact that the story

was going

I

there,

went down

know?"

to

be

told, joined in.

"

"

"

"

Labor Day

"Our concern was, of

course, here

was

this old

gas chamber.

And

/

101

there

were no written procedures.

We have a plan here that we revise each time.

We

There was an old major, corrections major,

were

who

really concerned.

was extremely sharp in his time, and he had basically drafted the

procedures, and he had

and

had to go by there and get

I

then

the original notes out at his residence. Bill

all

we came up

with our

his notes,

own

sit

We

plan.

down and review them, and

were

really

concerned about

because of the venting system, because of having to

it,

seal all the

seals."

Mark had

away from one about

steered the conversation

traveling exe-

cutioners to one about procedure. I

asked:

"How did you test the seals?" "We measured

we measured the chamber door gasket area and had manufactured a couple of new seals for it. And then, one of the things we figured out down in Mississippi was to Bill

took up the story.

windows and everything, on — on there

use Vaseline on

you've got

Mark "

—

all

interrupts:

really coat

"You Bill

it

the

"You mean

all

the seal areas

—

it

I

first

He

a thang.

It's

time the language that talks of,

did that thing" " even with the precautions that

—

got to decontaminate the

Bill

"When we do

we

Once

—

—

heard for the

an execution.

we took there

employs to describe this thing,

when we

took there with that thing, you've

chamber and the body before you can do any-

see?"

nodded.

Bill

continued: "Well,

down

there,

when we used

the gas, and started to

decontaminate the inside of the chamber by blowing stepped outside. could smell the Bill

I

wanted

ammonia

to see

that

it

out the stack,

what you could smell out

we were

using,

I

there,

and

I I

and bleach."

talked as a veteran of gas executions, but not as

relished his task. Bill

the seals.

resumed: "Even there, even with the precautions that

Here

I

all

a lot."

heavy with Vaseline

don't want to be sparing with

with that thing

thing,

the seals and

someone who

couldn't help noticing the difference in attitude between

and Fred. While the idea of gas chambers made the veins on Fred's

102

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

neck stand out, and

an octave, talking about them made

his voice rise half

voice soften. Fred was an expert on the theory of gas chambers.

Bill's

Bill

operated them. I it

asked

was

when

Bill

"That would be Edward Earl Johnson,"

documentary

"Was

me

told

BBC

The

said.

I

had made a

film about him.

that the kid's

name?"

continued to explain the

Bill

Bill

asked. "I don't remember."

difficulties

involved in removing the body

he had conducted gas executions. "One of the things that cyanide gas

after

does,

it

goes in the pores of your

You hose

skin.

the

body down,

have to use rubber gloves, and you hose the body down it

He

the Mississippi execution had taken place.

1987.

see.

You

to decontaminate

before you do anything."

Mark picked up on a

point that Fred had

made

to

me

earlier.

"We were also concerned because,

clothed.

Mark

had

black trunks and

like

me:

told

Fred had

who was

expressed astonishment that anyone would gas a person

fully

years ago, they

Of

type of thing that the person wore.

all this

we wanted to get away from that type of thing ..." "And be as dignified as possible," Bill said softly.

course

".

.

.

and be as

dignified as possible,"

Mark

continued.

"Which

we've done. But on the other hand, we could understand why necessary, because you had to worry about

all

that clothing

is

what

that

was

when you

remove the body, see?" Bill's attitude

seemed

to be that

tioners to put a fully clothed

owed

man

it

may be more

difficult for

the execu-

to death in the gas chamber but he was

the dignity of dying wearing a shirt and trousers, and not just a pair

of gym shorts and a stethoscope taped to his chest.

Mark added: "Today, we

don't want to forget about aspects you get

involved with about the environment."

"You mean

releasing cyanide gas into the atmosphere,

drainage system?"

I

and

into the

fought back an urge to laugh at the idea of "green"

executions.

"Yes," he I

was

said.

excused myself to pay a talking to a

tall

visit to

young man

the

in his

toilet,

and when

doorway.

a local FBI investigator and told him

I

was

He

I

came back,

introduced the

visiting

Bill

man

from England to

as re-

Labor Day

As

search a film and book on capital punishment.

young man looked as looked

at Bill as if

if

someone had shone a

to say,

"See you

The FBI agent made me

1

later,

'

I

shook

some

103

hand, the

his

bright light in his eyes.

and hurried

He

off.

think of the proposed anti-crime

introduce a federal death penalty for

I

would

that

bill

fifty-one offenses, including

major drug trafficking with no murder involved. Different versions had

been passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, and as though

it

would come onto the

planned to discuss

We

sat

certainly

with

back down

happy

Now

for us.

it

to see

statute

in Bill's office

them

books

but he brought

Bill,

in the

minute pass that

had

I

was

did.

I

and he told me: "Like

at the last

say,

I

lethal injection bill

you know they're going

the federal system,

I

near future.

up before

it

looked

it

to the death

now for narcotics traffickers. Now, here's what they're faced with. The way that bill reads is that the death penalty has to be done in the penalty

method of the

district

where the guy was convicted. We've got

So

ent methods in this country, of executions.

system

is

means the

that

federal

going to have to set up five different things."

"Will they end up subcontracting

penalty?"

five differ-

I

to the states that

have the death

asked.

"They want

to," Bill said.

already asked us, and

he groaned.

it

"And

Mark joined

we

told

"But nobody's going

them

no.

to take

it.

They've

We got enough of our own to do,"

the legal aspects of it."

"You

the conversation.

are responsible for that.

The

legal

hassle, the cost." Bill

turned to the question of cost-effectiveness in executions.

chemicals you use under our state contracts than forty dollars. Well, the thing here,

and you have to compute

horrendous amount of

is,

a lethal injection are less

you've got a

their time.

legal stuff

in

you have

But to

"The

lot

like

of people involved

Mark

go through.

only that, but the press. The press would tear you up as a

said, there's

a

And

then not

state.

Here we

are in the business of killing people, you see."

"And the federal officials that would have to come in and be involved?" Mark reminded me. "You know that aspect, the accommodations. Not that it

you wouldn't do the best

that

you could, because you always do. But

would just be unbelievable, the accommodations

provide and

all

of that."

that

you would have

to

104

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

"So

if

the states won't be an executioner for the federal government,"

mean

asked, "does that

Washington, say, with a gas chamber, an

and a

injection machine,

Bill told

me. "Unless they get that

changed and just go to one method, which would be

would strongly suggest they do

Smith, was the warden out there cution.

— of course,

And Sam Smith had camped

all

A

that

now when

the federals

do

I

first

Sam

squad exe-

firing

—

looked

it

the press out there watching them, waiting to see.

a mess. So

And

friend of mine,

was a

bill

out on the front of the prison out

there, eighty-seven days prior to the execution

with

lethal injection.

Because Gary Gilmore was the

that.

country for a long time.

in this

a gallows, a lethal

electric chair,

squad?"

firing

"They're going to have to,"

inmate executed

I

have to build an execution complex? In

they'll

like

And

camp

city

was just

it

going to be a mess for

this thing, it's

them." I

turned the conversation to the main purpose of my

how

Missouri used Fred's lethal injection machine.

about

it

in

Bill started telling

me

a frank and confidential tone.

"The machine

so precise.

is

We have had very little problem with it."

In contrast to Fred's staccato

considered. His tone

about

to learn about

visit:

killing

is

such

someone by

Yankee

that, if

delivery, Bill's speech

is

slow and

one were unaware that he was talking

lethal injection,

he could be mistaken for describ-

ing a particularly well-tuned car engine.

He

explained:

"One

way a

There's no

of the things

set I

does not give a bolus.

is, it

I

would say

that in less than

thirty cc's into the vein. It varies

depending on

It's

a

a minute

how we

the machine up, but we've had only one hang-up."

had not planned

with executions until

when I

does

bolus can go in and bust a vein, or bust a tubing.

very slow injection, and precise, and

you've got about

it

me,

Bill told

remained

"We

had

didn't realize

dropped,

it

any problems

later into

my

it

was cocked, because you

Mark

on there which

stopwatch, and

research.

I

have occurred

was taken by

surprise

had a hang-up on one syringe."

up on the machine, and it

that might

waiting to learn what that meant.

hung. Well,

set of lights

we used

much

"We

silent,

it

to explore

when

it

was cocked can't see

just a

it.

And

little bit.

as the piston

kept watching the lighting system

you'll see

—and

was timing

—

there's

a

the light with a

it

should be, then

ahead and dropped the

manual on, and

exceeded the time

the manual pull, and went

I

We

that

I

thought

Labor Day But

finished the job out.

that's the only time

105

I

we've had any problem with

The machine is exceptional as far as I'm concerned." Bill was referring to the execution of Maurice Byrd, which had taken place three weeks prior to my visit, on August 23, 1991. Something had it.

gone wrong with one of the pistons on the syringes, and the execution team had been obliged to use the manual backup system

to

complete the execu-

tion.

Mark joined

in the conversation.

"It really did not affect the individual," he said, anxious that

I

shouldn't

interpret Bill's information as evidence of a glitch.

"That's right,"

bumped "Like

"Uh-huh," again,

I

I

"The

"And

agreed.

let

it

old car with a

so

hammer

we learned by that. And

go on, see? But, not used the manual

Mark,

thing about it," said

mean, the machine was

to get

it

bump the back knowing what we had at pulls. I'd

pull

"is that

had a hang-

if I

and dropped

we had done

tested. It's not like, well,

it

it

on

in."

a practice.

worked

I

so

last time,

take our chances this time."

Rehearsal,

was

I

to learn,

is

one of the keys to Missouri's success

The

carrying out incident-free executions. is strictly

the machine, just

came on down."

wouldn't bother with using the manual

we went ahead and

let's just

loose and

asked.

Bill

end of the machine and the time,

came

pump on an

water

hitting the

started again?"

up

"The minute we bumped

Bill said.

the cabinet, the piston

adhered

to,

and

it

is

drilled into

at

routine, the Missouri Protocol,

every state employee involved in

the execution process, over and over again.

Going back careful he'd

to the night of

been

Maurice Byrd's execution,

Bill told

me how

what we do

to test the machine. "This particular time,

about seven o'clock on the night of the execution, we'll run the machine through three cycles.

And

I sit

there and cycle that machine out.

thing run through three cycles and it

down, you know. And just Bill

snapped

his fingers to

like

sit

I let

that

and clocking

there with a stopwatch

clockwork ..."

show

that the

machine had run through

all

three cycles precisely and without a hitch.

"... and then Like

I

said, the

at ten-thirty that

one syringe had

evening

to be

—or

the plunger

load the machine

cocked just a

very precise. The machine's very precise.

been even the syringe

we

And

it

little bit,

had to be

on the syringe."

—

down.

because

it

it's

could have

—

"

106

—

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

"It could

have been a flaw with the syringe that you didn't see," Mark

added.

But not Fred's machine.

"You just it

don't know,"

started, and of course

my

minute mark on

me

give

manual

and

Bill told

—

it's

me. "The minute the piston dropped,

my

started

stopwatch,

the signal that

pull,

I

I

time with

knew

through.

it,

and when

did not, so

It

the one-

I hit

should go, you know,

it

we went

it

should

right to the

"Finished the thing," Mark concluded, having had enough of problems. " finished the thing," Bill repeated, anxious for me to understand that

—

was nothing wrong with Fred's machine, and nothing wrong with the Missouri Protocol. "And when we got into where we get to the cabinet from the front side and bumped that cabinet reached up to unlatch it" there

Bill I

snapped

his fingers

asked about

when

it

Bill

how

was necessary

—

—

"it

to

engage the manual

was comfortable with

question.

went ahead."

the dual executioner controls actually functioned

this technical talk,

"You have two manual

have got the same

pulls.

size spring

pulls,

and readily answered

and one

is

a

on them, so the person

dummy

pull.

my

Both

pulling doesn't feel

anything different."

Mark added:

"It's

a matter of

it

being set up that

way

to the advantage

of the individuals that are actually pushing the buttons or whatever, be-

cause there's just a very small

been

trained,

know who

and are

that small

all

very small

there together.

group of people

is,

—group of people

No

and

it

one

else

doesn't

is

that

have

all

we

all

there, so

make any

difference

to us."

So much control,

I

for Fred's

view on the psychological importance of the dual

thought, and the need for the executioner to feel that he wasn't

actually responsible for the killing. In Missouri, everyone takes responsibility.

Bill

turned the conversation to Fred, for whom he has the highest regard.

Fred's contribution was not simply providing a machine that works; he also trained the Missouri execution team, the select corps of Bill

and Mark

field,

in Jefferson City

and Greg Wilson

men

including

and Paul Delo, Don Roper, Gary Sutter-

at Potosi Correctional Center.

During the previous week, Fred had

told

me how he trained the Missouri

executioners: a combination of classroom teaching and "actual hands-on

Labor Day use of the equipment."

He tells

his students:

"The human body

not to be destroyed. The minute you stop the heart,

And

restarting the heart.

have to design a system

heart death that, after

is

the key in

it

all

do the same

thing. It results in brain death,

anyone who deals with these things the medical.

And

it

makes them

executions.

destroys the brain,

it

it

107

designed

has a mechanism

all

heart. It's crucial to electrocution, to lethal injection,

is

I

for

So we

destroys the

even hanging. They

and then heart cessation. So

trained in

all

of the aspects, including

better people.

It

makes them more com-

is

fortable with their job."

Armontrout leaned back

Bill

in his chair

and

told

"When we

me:

pur-

chased the machine from Fred, the training was part of the purchasing package, and then Fred has graciously

He wanted

know.

to see the

machine proved

watched us go through an execution to

make

sure that machine

come

to see

out here several times, you out,

and so he came out and

how we were

doing things, and

was workable, you know? And, of course,

it's

proved very effective for us." In the execution industry, effectiveness has never necessarily been mea-

sured by a quick, neat, or clean

seem

little

equipment it

kill.

State officials in Florida

and Texas

concerned with evidence that inmates suffer when execution fails

to function properly. In Missouri, the state has decided that

does matter. Missouri's determination to carry out capital punishment as quickly and

painlessly as possible derives, as far as Bill

Armontrout

is

concerned, from

a "humane" desire to ensure that the inmate's suffering

minimum. There are

also other reasons behind Missouri's

is

reduced to a

modern

punishment procedures, and these have to do with reducing

stress

capital

on

employees and promoting an acceptable public image of Missouri

state

in the

media. Bill

Armontrout

is

particularly adept at handling the press, as

is

the other

key member of the execution team, Potosi superintendent Paul Delo. Both

men

confront questions head-on. Both understand that the task they are

charged with

is

performed

in the

ment must be accountable Bill

did

media

name of the

to those

when Missouri switched

who

people, and that state govern-

elect

it.

One

to lethal injection

of the

was

first

things that

to help develop a

policy.

The media

policy

execution procedure

is

as

much a

itself

part of the Missouri Protocol as are the

and the security arrangements which surround

108

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

an execution.

It's

a precise and detailed three-page document which be-

gins, " Every effort

shall

be made by the

staff

of the Missouri Department

of Corrections to accommodate representatives of the news media prior to

and during a scheduled execution." The department makes a videotape and photographs of the death chamber available provides superior press

facilities at

to

news organizations and

Potosi Correctional Center

on execution

night.

"We a

lot

can

of times we'd

The key will

is

At

the

benefit. It's

first

told

me. "And

avoid them. But they're not going to go away.

like to

knowing how we can handle the press

be to our

Mark

look at the press in various aspects,"

all

been very

in

an effective way that

effective for us."

Missouri execution by lethal injection, the Missouri State

Penitentiary and the Department of Corrections were under siege from television

and newspaper

had twenty some of the

reporters. Bill recalls:

—

them

I call

'Star

"The

first

TV

Wars'

one we

this thing,

maybe

we'll

for our

first

one.

we

you know,

trucks,

them

the big combat-size ones that got the telescoping satellites to

had twenty some of those

did,

—we

And now that we're getting into

have one or two, and

that'll

be

it

anymore, you

know." In the aftermath of the Byrd execution, the Department of Corrections

was working on

the twelfth revision of the Missouri Protocol.

versions had been written by the later ones.

I

Bill

was allowed

The

early

and Mark, with Paul Delo contributing to

to read the eleventh revision,

and to take

extensive notes. In Missouri, death warrants are usually issued around ten days prior to

a scheduled execution date. The protocol says that the condemned person should be taken to the deathwatch, or holding, to the execution

— except

in instances

cell forty-eight

where other

hours prior

factors suggest an im-

mediate isolation of the inmate. These are essentially security worries garding the inmate's safety.

another inmate

may

Is

he a suicide risk?

Is there

a danger that

attempt to cheat the executioner by murdering the

condemned man? The forty-eight-hour rule is only a guideline, and in reality, minimum time a condemned man would spend in the deathwatch "That varies," to

re-

Bill told

Maurice Byrd. "This

me. "Just

last

like this last

one," he

it

is

the

cell.

said, referring

one had professed that he would take

his

own

Labor Day

I

109

we get word that the date has been set by the court, from that date on, we can grab the guy that day and set the deathwatch from that day on, you see. When they set the date, it's usually within a week or two. And we've had them set the date like, the court would meet today and say tomorrow. So we grab the guy as quick as possible, depending on the fellow's mental state. Now, another thing that life.

Now,

the minute that

attaches here the guy to

is

peer pressure. Other inmates on death row trying to get

commit

suicide rather than have the state

do

it." Bill

referred to

Peewee Gaskins's suicide bid in South Carolina the previous week. "That's the kind of thing you have to watch for." During the deathwatch, there

is

an

officer in the holding cell with the

condemned person twenty-four hours a

day.

The deathwatch

officer

keeps

a log of visitors and events throughout the period. In Missouri, condemned inmates on deathwatch have free canteen privileges, including soft drinks, snacks, and cigarettes. There

is

a television and

VCR in the cell, and most

inmates spend their time watching films on video. They are also allowed to

make

collect

who keeps

phone

calls

with the prior approval of the operations officer,

a log of outgoing and incoming

calls.

from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Visiting hours are night).

Two visitors are allowed at any time,

"You

run into some real security risks

if

and

(6:00 p.m.

this is

on execution

followed religiously.

you don't do

it

that

way," says

Mark.

When

he was discussing

of the protocol with me,

this part

"We're not too concerned about hours to

one hour or whatever. Like, on the

family or whoever, night.

Then,

So we make

all

day

if

here, either.

last

they want

at six o'clock at night,

is

day, they can

to, until it's

we've got things

notified forty-eight hours in

tocol states that the inmate

is

On

sit

there with their

about six o'clock at that

we need

to do.

advance, and the pro-

given a physical examination twenty-four

hours prior to being executed. During the time he

may

We don't restrict visits

the visitors leave."

The prison doctor

inmate

Bill said:

receive visits from up to

is

two ministers or

on deathwatch, the religious advisers.

the day of the execution, media contact with the prison

from 6:00 p.m.

(or sooner

press conference.

A

if

deemed necessary)

until the

is

suspended

post-execution

sophisticated security operation, involving nearly 150

prison officers, state highway patrol, sheriff's deputies, and local police

110

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

forces,

is

mounted. With the Mercer execution

in 1989, the

Department of

Corrections took extra precautions. The area around Missouri State Peni-

was closed

tentiary

off,

there were snipers

on rooftops, extra

was

security

assigned to the state capitol and the governor's mansion, and the river police patrolled the Missouri River. Since death security requirement has been

row moved

somewhat reduced. This

of the fact that Potosi Correctional Center

full

partly because

situated in a fairly

is

of the state, more than an hour's drive from drive from Jefferson City, and a

is

to Potosi, the

remote part

Louis, nearly three hours'

St.

day's journey from Kansas City. This

has discouraged protesters and so has

made

perimeter security easier to

manage.

At 6:00 p.m.

—

six

hours before the normal execution time of 12:01

superintendent carries out a

man

their posts.

One

of all

final briefing

of the things

is

and

not part of the

official

told

me: "One

a prayer service for that

all staff

I

think

— say

I

lot

this,

of staff people," he said,

he also added a note

"Even though you "we make it where if a

put you on a security post or whatever, and you don't

believe in the death penalty

you don't want

me

—

all

you have

to be involved with

it.

No

to

do

is tell

me personally

had a number of

signed.

And

that's just

staff,

that

questions asked, and you'll be

dropped. Because people do have feelings, you have to understand. I've

staff

in assigning staff for execution duty.

you know a

person

have

I

on the evening of the execution. And any telling

is

staff. Bill

started originally with this thing,

wants to attend can attend." In

about his policy

they

protocol,

a prayer service for the execution team and the rest of the prison of the things that

— the

at 6:15 p.m.

Armontrout introduced with the

Bill

execution of Tiny Mercer, but which

staff,

And

once they've been assigned, ask not be

between

me and

them. That's their

belief,

as-

and

I

honor that."

From

the time the staff

man

their posts

and the inmate's

obliged to leave, every second of everyone's time

•

7:00 p.m. Phones in the execution

room

is

last visitor is

accounted

for:

are checked. Clocks are checked

and synchronized with the one in the media room. •

7:30 p.m.

sedative.

chine

is

One

ready.

The inmate

is

given a clean set of clothing and

is

offered a

of the certified operators verifies that the lethal injection ma-

Labor Day Mil The gurney

prepared. Blinds in the death chamber are drawn.

•

8:30 p.m.

•

10:00 p.m. During the previous ninety minutes, telephones and clocks

is

have been checked and rechecked, as has the

lethal injection

machine and

associated hardware. At 10:00 p.m., the execution team reports to the death

chamber, and the drugs are loaded

into the lethal injection

assistant superintendent of programs verifies that

team have reported. (As

tion

all

machine. The

members of the execu-

part of the security operation, the six

key

members of the execution team wear highest-priority security badges. Other staff wear badges identifying them for duty at various levels of security within the prison and at the perimeter.) •

10:30 p.m.

The chaplain

reports to holding

cell.

Ambulance and hearse

arrive at sally port. State witnesses report to employees' entrance. Missouri

law requires that there be a minimum of twelve

state witnesses. Six

of these

are normally press. Telephones are manned. •

10:40 p.m.

The

director of the Division of Adult Institutions reports to

parole board courtroom

in the prison.

•

10:45 p.m. State witnesses report to hearing room.

•

11:00 p.m.

hearing room.

The

director of the Division of Adult Institutions reports to

The deputy

director monitors the

open telephone

line to the

attorney general.

The deputy

•

1

1:05 p.m.

•

1

1:10 p.m. Telephones are tested.

•

1

1:15 p.m.

The doctor

•

1

1:20 p.m.

The department

lines.

director reports to

main conference room.

tests the electrocardiogram

equipment.

director tests the telephones

and monitors

all

Clocks are rechecked. The department director carries a portable radio

as a backup in case of telephone failure. •

1 1

:30 p.m.

The department

representative to check

if

there

director telephones the governor's designated is

any

stay.

The

assistant superintendent of

programs ensures that only authorized personnel are •

11:35 p.m.

The inmate

is

in

execution area.

escorted to the gurney and secured on

it.

The

EKG is attached, and the IV line is set. •

1

1:40 p.m. Telephones are monitored. Inmate witnesses arrive. (Missouri

allows the inmate to invite five witnesses. security operation

They

and are segregated from

are the subject of a separate

state witnesses at all times.)

112

/

if

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL •

1

•

12:00 p.m.

1:55 p.m.

there

are

is

The department

a stay of execution.

opened

•

Telephones are monitored.

in the execution

12:01 a.m.

director telephones the superintendent to ask

If no, the

superintendent proceeds.

The

blinds

chamber.

The superintendent reads

The execution

the death warrant.

commences.

During the execution, each event

by the operations

who

officer,

is

is

timed with a stopwatch and logged

in the

death chamber. The doctor moni-

EKG

and

signals to the operations officer that there

heart activity.

The

blinds are closed,

tors the

is

no

sign of

and the doctor examines the inmate

and establishes the time of death and

signs the death certificate. After the

blinds have been closed, the inmate witnesses are escorted from the prison.

The

a Return Warrant of Execution, and the press

state witnesses sign

A

witnesses proceed to the press area.

press conference

is

held,

and a

nominated media witness must be available for questioning by other media

who did not witness the execution. "Why," I ask Bill, "are executions "It's not only

a

always scheduled for 12:01?"

he

historical type thing,"

replied. "All

your other

in-

mates are locked down. You've got everything controlled. And so you've

no problem with other inmates. We've deviated from

we had

a stay of execution

what the court was going vacated at

at the last minute,

to do.

The United

like six o'clock that afternoon.

that

on one because

and so we had States

So we

to wait to see

Supreme Court then

actually did the execution

at nine o'clock at night."

The

12:01 tradition stems not only

the fact that

it is

some

allows the state a sentence.

full

The death warrant does not

themselves a

full

I tell

affords,

and it

stipulate

So Missouri takes

what time of day the exe-

the prudent step of allowing

day.

the staff," says

midnight, we'll just wait takes,

it

twenty-four hours in which to carry out the death

cution should take place.

"Like

from the extra security

deterrent against demonstrators, but also because

till

Bill, "if

we can do

we it

can't

do

it

at

one minute

that day. Regardless of

after

what

it

you know."

Trying to imagine what

it is

like to

be a condemned man, and to watch

Labor Day one's

life

tick

away through

carry out the sentence,

on

Bill

— the

it

was most

difficult for

Supreme Court turned

this

after midnight.

one down

was very

The

drags out, the tougher

it

we knew were

staff

minutes

at five

was over

tired after that

appeals, nothing else, that this guy

moment and

peace with myself on

this thing

We

I

was

I

I

knew

knew what we were going knew that there was no

going,

you see."

a person?"

look at

by knowing

—the United

because

We

it.

said: "I

going to be going

got tired just from the

it

I

this

asked.

way. I've made

that the fellow that's being

executed has had every chance of appeal. He's had his of appeals the guy has had

it is.

nine that evening.

that evening,

"How does the actual killing affect you as thought for a

till

we were

that

tired.

to do. There wasn't any wondering about

Bill

had

it

toward the deliberate taking of

from nine o'clock onward, a three-hour period,

more

effect

one [Maurice Byrd]. The United States

this last

So, at nine o'clock that evening, little

wondered what

I

him when there was a stay of

very tough. The longer

is

noticed something with

a

in the certainty that the state will

life.

me

execution. "It

tension. I

hours

its last

impossible to do.

ticking of the clock inexorably

another man's Bill told

is

113

/

States

trials;

Supreme Court

the

number

three times,

Eighth Circuit three times, the local court of appeals three or four times.

When you know makes you

feel

that the case has

much

system

in the

world, but

an ample opportunity to prove

it's

his

with a slight trace of emotion:

know

that this guy's case has

the best I've seen.

innocence."

"So I'm

it is

I

was

It

at

Bill

It

affords the person

looked at

me and

said,

peace with myself because a number of times.

may

And

I

I

do

not be a deterrent for the

for that person."

While the popular concept of process,

at

been looked

personally believe in the death penalty.

next person, but

it

laws of our country. I've been

We may not have the most perfect criminal

around the world several times. justice

been scrutinized that closely, then

easier. I believe in the

learning that

it

lethal injection

may be

that

was a complex and lengthy

it is

a simple

operation. In the

execution of Maurice Byrd, for instance, the execution team's log shows that fifty-one minutes elapsed

to the time the doctor

from the time Byrd was placed on the gurney

pronounced him dead.

Byrd entered the death chamber

at Potosi at 11:24 p.m.

strained six minutes later, at 11:30 p.m.

and was

re-

"

114

I

/

"

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

asked Mark Schreiber what happened during that six-minute period.

'They're just basically talking to him and everything."

What about?

"We that.

wondered. "Has anyone ever resisted?"

I

haven't had that yet,"

And

because

that's

we do

the things that

is

Bill told

we know

me.

"We

our prisoners to

asked.

start with.

you know, and

talk to him,

I

haven't been faced with

tell

And one

of

him exactly what

we're going to do, what's going to happen to him. So there's no surprises. There's no scare to him, you know.

and

his

mind

is

made up

he's going to die,

appeals being out or whatever.

And

going to happen to him. And, so

inmate to get him "I'll tell

— tance

time for him to do

it's

you know, because of

we explain, step by step, what's we have not had to manhandle an

so

far,

Mark. "I think

said

it's

a

—

it's

—

all,"

almost an accep-

—

"They have no animosity towards us whereas before maybe they were a little bit full of animosity and

Bill interrupted:

"

Mark

concluded.

In the case of Maurice Byrd, the

IV

line

was

set at 11:48 p.m.,

eighteen minutes after he'd been placed on the gurney. (In sation with Bill that period. Potosi.)

I

The

recorded that 12:07 a.m.

At

and Mark,

was unable

I

would learn

to discover

lethal injection

machine was activated

Byrd was pronounced dead

was

at 12:03

a.m.

at

Mark

later, at

he noted, "Visible muscular movement stopped," and

"Respiration apparently stopped." Monitoring the

I

condemned men

Byrd was "apparently unconscious" four minutes 12:08,

some

my first conver-

what happened during

later on, after talking to

recorded that "cardiac complex amona" started

the

it,

his

put him down."

in there to

you what,"

He knows

at 12:15

EKG

machine,

at 12:12

Mark

a.m. Maurice

a.m.

curious about doctors' involvement in Missouri executions, since

American Medical Association expressly

forbids their participation,

except to pronounce death. Fred was always careful to use the phrase "IV

who sets the IV line and, in fact, participates in the execution. Bill told me that Missouri used a contract doctor for the Mercer execution a physician who volunteered for the role. technician" to refer to the person

—

Bill

the

explained that

"We

don't set the

IV and then we hook our

IV

lines into the T-valve.

pronouncing of the death through an

EKG

We

have him

set

The doctor does

the

ourselves.

machine hooked up to the

Labor Day person being executed. The

first

one we

Tiny Mercer, the

did,

impulses from the heart will show on your monitor before You'll see

for quite a while

it

on

there. It

the electrical impulse from the heart before

seems

it

115

electrical

flat-lines out.

like forever that

she'll flat-line

/

you see

out then. But the

doctor monitors that continuously through the whole thing."

some

In

setting the

beyond

cases, the doctor's involvement in the execution goes

IV

line in the

EKG.

inmate and monitoring the

"With an old doper,"

Bill

explained,

"we have

trouble getting a vein.

We had to do an IV cutdown on one." That inmate had been Tiny Mercer, the in Missouri. in

An IV cutdown

is

when

out with a suture so the needle

"The doctor does I

that,"

Mark

incision

may be

told

man

be

to

lethally injected

the vein must be surgically exposed

An

order for the IV to be connected.

lifted

first

is

made, and the vein

is

inserted.

me.

asked about the IV cutdown procedure on Tiny Mercer.

"Rather than do the IV cutdown neck, "he went to the

leg,

in here," Bill explained, pointing to his

and did the IV cutdown down there."

"The doctor had prepared himself

pointed to his groin.

for

Bill

with his

it

And we've found that we have a lot of different equipment we may never use, but in a case like this, for the IV cutdown,

equipment, see? there that

we had

it."

"Did Tiny Mercer

"No,"

find

said Bill. "It

it

alarming?"

was a

lot

I

asked.

more alarming

for

me

than

it

was

for the

inmate."

Tiny Mercer's execution took place before Missouri had

made

lethal injection facility at Potosi. It

with the chair and door removed.

I

was done

wondered how

built its

in the old gas Bill

custom-

chamber,

and Mark felt about

carrying out executions by lethal injection as opposed to lethal gas. "It's like

said

you or

I

went

to the dentist

and they gave you Pentothal,"

Mark. "You're gone. Good-bye."

"Oh, so

if

there's

no comparison,"

much more humane. There

tion. It's just

is

said Bill. "I

would say

lethal injection is

no gasping, no jerking with

lethal injec-

going to sleep. Closing your eyes and going to sleep. With

gas, there's gasping. Their eyes bulge out, they try to hold their breath. It is

much more

done with

painful than lethal injection. I've never seen

electricity. I

an execution

have seen them done with gunshots. But

electricity

116

to

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

me

—

electrocution,

if it's

mane, with the exception

no way

done properly

no way

out. There's

— would probably be

that you're going to get out.

some

fairly

hu-

burning. There's

You're going to get some burning. See,

the last electrocution they had in this country [Peewee Gaskins in South Carolina], they

had

thought they had

have to I

hit

it

to hit the

guy twice. They

The doctor goes

it.

again. That's not too

told Bill that if

to

hit

him once, and they

check him, he's

alive,

still

so they

humane."

Fred Leuchter were facing execution, despite having

invented the lethal injection machine, he would choose the electric chair. Bill smiled.

And

I

"Fred has got

would say

if

could probably get

this stuff figured

out pretty close, you know.

anybody could do electrocution

it

down more

precise than

in this country,

anybody could. And

faced, as a warden, with an electrocution of a guy,

I

would

call

Fred

if I

were

Fred

in as

a consultant as to the voltage to use for that particular man." Bill

softened his voice and continued. His tone was one of deep concern.

"Now, everybody's different. Everybody's different. One of the things we do in our training sessions is pick a person that's equivalent to the size of the subject we're going to be dealing with. And we take that guy and actually put him down on a gurney and adjust the straps to him, you see, so that we know when we get the person in there that's going to be given the lethal injection, everything's going to Bill

wouldn't see I

fit

for him."

stood up and apologized that he had a meeting out of town, and

me

again during

thanked him for

after I'd learned

a

his time

little bit

my

present

and said

more about

I

visit.

hoped

to see

the process.

"I look forward to that," he told me.

him

again, perhaps

M

ARK

SCHREffiER

offered to take

me

over to the old Missouri

State Penitentiary to see the gas chamber. Before into his office to

for

which he

tell

is

left,

he showed

me about the history of executions in Missouri

me

—a task

well suited, being an amateur historian and having re-

searched Somewhere

He opened

we

in

Time: A 160 Year History of Missouri Corrections.

an old leather-bound book

in

which he had collected photo-

men and one woman who had been put to death men who had, so far, been executed by thirty-nine who had been executed in the gas cham-

graphs of the thirty-eight in the

gas chamber and the six

lethal injection.

ber, three

Of the

were kidnappers,

The majority of those put

thirty

were murderers, and

to death

six

were

rapists.

between 1938 and 1965 were black:

twenty-three, as opposed to sixteen whites

—

in stark contrast to Missouri's

present-day death row, where whites outnumber blacks.

The book was a

strange rouges' gallery of the vicious, the stupid, the

Mark showed me a photograph have been executed in Missouri: Bonnie Brown

unfortunate, and the obviously defective.

of the only

woman

to

117

118

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Heady. She and her partner in kidnapping, Carl Austin

Hall,

together in the two-seater gas chamber on

18, 1953.

me

December

were executed

Mark

told

that, with very few exceptions, the condemned have gone to their

deaths in a dignified and stoical way. The one exception he

who whimpered as he was strapped into the chair. Bonnie him to "take it like a man" and told the executioners

Carl Austin Hall,

Brown Heady

knew of was

told

exactly what she thought of them.

Mark

we made our way out of the comfortable, car. By now the temperature was up around

put on his jacket and

air-conditioned offices to his

a hundred, but the day was beautifully bright and

He seemed more

in the sky.

him whether he had found

"No

he

sir,"

some very deep

the Tiny

"No

said.

relaxed talking to

I

found

own, and

his

Mercer execution personally

he repeated, shaking

sir,"

feelings about things.

I

corrections business and not like inmates.

know where

with hardly a cloud

still,

me on

asked

I

difficult.

his head. "I

do not think you can be I

have

in the

also understand inmates,

and

I

the line can be drawn."

his

answer

intriguing.

"If there's anything in

my

He

elaborated.

opinion, in regard to the death penalty, cer-

tainly there are other people that

it

should be applied to

—

that

have been

lucky by one circumstance or another that they did not get the death penalty.

But

it

really

does not bother me, simply because

cases myself, of people

who have

Mark

told

taunt death

say,

me

T'm

that

where I'm going

he had experience of corrections telling

to

have a

go up

to

"

glad you got the death penalty.'

row inmates,

have worked

killed corrections officers. I don't

feeling of animosity for those people, like

someone and

I

officers

who would

them how much they looked forward

when the switch was pulled. Of death row inmates he said, "I have sympathy

to

being there

They're

still

for their parents.

a mother and a father, and they have feelings the same as you

or I."

He

talked about his experience of being a homicide investigator at the

penitentiary,

and

said,

"Things

affect

those police drama type of movies. sion.

But you have to have

that's

your psychological

As we approached

It's

me. And

that's

why

I

can't

watch

not that you don't like your profes-

that certain curtain that

you put down, and

self protecting itself."

the old penitentiary,

Mark expressed

his anxiety

Labor Day in executions, relating

about participating

to his other experiences of

it

violent death. "I think that, as an individual,

may

situation

want there

to be a glitch

— but

if it

die. I've

seen

When

people have died.

Or when

investigator.

many I

people

It's

die. I've

that

A

to point

may be

B

been

right there

when

I

in the

was

when many there as an

to get to the infirmary to save that person's

of negative dealings with, but at that time, that's

you can do, you know,

that

it

and you're trying to get from

still

a

human

And

life.

you had

the sorriest inmate in the penitentiary, that

you do the best

— you don't

investigator for the sheriff's department.

I've seen an inmate stabbed multiple times,

point

happen

probably never easy seeing

they've been stabbed,

was an

to

does, then you will try to handle

most professional way. And humanely.

someone

can handle whatever the

I

you don't want something

be. Sure,

119

/

all

kinds

being,

and

to try to save that person's

life."

What became was

increasingly clear to me, as

we approached the

old prison,

that the Missouri Protocol helped the individual to handle his personal

feelings

work

by sharing

in

a collective responsibility for executions.

Mark told me. They know what

together,"

erly trained.

"It's

a collective thing. Everyone

they're supposed to do,

"We is

all

prop-

and take care of

business."

As we approached

started the prison in 1834.

We The

Mark told me: "My

the forbidding stone walls,

third great-grandfather built

this.

By

He

1889,

it

built the first capitol in

was

1827,

and

the largest prison in the world."

parked and entered through a pair of enormous gates and checked officer

behind the screen asked

me what was

in

my

bag, and

him a notebook, camera, and tape recorder. Mark flashed told the

An

frowning officer

I

were then admitted

and locked us between

inside the prison,

dors whose geography he

The yard

had permission to bring them

knew

at Jefferson City

is

and a

I

told

badge and

inside.

and another just

and out

and

large

softball field.

it

and Mark led

intimately,

days, inmates used to quarry part of weight-lifting area,

his

in.

a heavy bunch of keys opened one of the massive

officer with

internal security gates

it

wife's

it.

And

me

like

it.

We

through dark corri-

into the yard.

irregularly shaped. In the old

Now

it

has handball courts, a

plenty of dark corners, making

a dangerous place to be.

Because of the good weather, hundreds of inmates were

milling about.

120

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Down near the little

stone building that used to be the death house, a mixed

a capella group was crooning earnest young black ies

were

out of tune, under the direction of an

slightly

man who would

stop and start

them

own

Mostly, black and white formed their

right.

harmon-

until the

groups.

was

It

easy to pick out the Aryan Nation followers, with their swastika tattoos.

The black

prison gang, the Moors, hung together, separate from the street

gangs. Both Crips and Bloods were present, keeping a wary distance from

one another.

As

most American

in

pumping

iron.

Lone

prisons, there

figures

walked

were impressively muscled men

Some

past, staring hard.

smaller groups

stopped what they were doing to stare with collective curiosity or con-

come up and

tempt. Every few minutes, an inmate would are

you?" In the afternoon

identity. I

was a cop, an

Mark and an is

was

I

rumors proliferated

there,

"Who about my

challenge:

investigator, a reporter.

me down to

old corrections major took

a small, rectangular stone structure with two barred

pointy stones set into the roof

all

the

way around

the death house.

steel doors,

and with

"This thing was

it.

by inmates," Mark

told

with a big key and

stepped into the cool, musty-smelling building.

In front of

I

me was

resembles a diving

The door

oblong windows on either side tioners.

built

me. The major opened the heavy, creaking door

the gas chamber.

bell.

It

It's

shaped

is

—one

a small

like

an

steel structure that

ellipse,

for the witnesses,

and

it

has two

one for the execu-

An exhaust pipe emerges from the top of the chamber and

through

the roof, to expel the cyanide gas.

Mark

led

me

to the right of the chamber,

trols are located.

He showed me how

the lever

how

nide pellets into the hydrochloric acid, and

were introduced

into the

chamber

after

Inside the chamber, from which the

the gurney

To

where the executioner's con-

worked the

lower the cya-

an execution.

two

chairs

had been removed, was

on which Tiny Mercer had been executed.

the right of the

chamber was the

inmates waited to be executed. Not

tiny holding cell

ten feet

to hold a

bed and a few

Adjacent to the holding

cell

where death watch

from the gas chamber, which

the inmate contemplated throughout the deathwatch,

enough

to

ammonia and bleach

it

was barely

large

visitors.

was a room with a

large sink.

There were

shelves to store the bottles of acid, cyanide, ammonia, and bleach.

It

was

Labor Day the

room where

The

121

the drugs were measured out and the syringes loaded to

administer Missouri's

his

/

first lethal

dose.

was silent. He jiggled his keys and wiped his brow under HeMooked at me, and I supposed he wondered what I was was busy memorizing the details of the place, and learning the

old major

straw hat.

thinking.

I

movements of the

executioner.

I tried

screams as they choked and gasped

to imagine thirty-nine people's silent

by two, with the witnesses standing where a time was

difficult. Inside,

defunct tank, one by one, two

in the

was. Even imagining

I

the temperature

was cool and

it

one

at

agreeable, and

my two companions remained silent, ready to answer any questions I might have. Outside, wall, I

I

could hear the sound of a handball thwacking against a

and the cheers and shouts of men watching the game.

didn't

have any questions.

Before 1989,

when

it

was moved

to Potosi Correctional Center, in a rural

corner in the southeastern part of the state, death Penitentiary had

Located cell

in the

some of the worst

basement of the

one looked

at

were roach

infested,

a clock,

Missouri State

had no natural

it it

difficult to

to

tell

light at all.

Each

read or write. Unless

the time of day.

The

cells

and subject to flooding. There was no communal area,

and inmates were confined to a half hours a day.

made

was impossible

it

at

prison conditions in the United States.

building,

had a low- wattage bulb which

row

On

a

their cells for

maximum

were allowed a forty-five-minute

an average of twenty-three and

of three alternate days per week, they solitary exercise period

on an indoor

weight machine or in a small outdoor cage. There were no educational or vocational programs. Inmates took two daily meals in their at 8:00

cells:

breakfast

a.m. and a second meal at 2:30 p.m. Then, seventeen and a half

hours without food. Medical service was poor, and dental care nonexistent.

Death row inmates

filed

a lawsuit

in federal

court and in 1986

won

a

consent decree which provided sixteen hours a week of out-of-cell time for ''regular

custody" inmates and eight hours a week for "close custody"

prisoners.

and

There was better access to health care, recreational

religious

and counseling

services,

and an evening meal was introduced.

The major who showed me around took me back the prison. "What do you think?" he asked. I

told him,

"It's

"For an old

building, at least

a constant battle," he

said.

facilities,

it's

inside the

clean."

main part of

122

I

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

said

it

was cleaner than

the waiting

room of most London

hospitals'

emergency rooms.

He

smiled, thinking

able. In fact,

it

was

"You know," he

I

was

indulging him, trying to say something agree-

the truth. said,

"we're backward here

in Missouri.

We're twenty

years behind the times." "I guess you've got to do the best you can with limited resources,"

I

offered.

"Yeah," he

said,

wiping the sweat from his brow and stuffing his hand-

kerchief back into his trouser pocket. "We're

The major

let

us out of the prison, and

I

still

backward."

thanked him for

"Anytime," he said, with genuine warmth.

his trouble.

Y

OU WANT to go for a ride?"

"Want me "Sure,"

to I

inside

got in the car.

show you around?"

told him.

"Okay," he

We

Mark asked me when we

said.

"But

let's

get

some Coca-Cola

first."

drove to a gas station a few blocks from the prison and Mark went

and bought two sixteen-ounce Cokes.

as he set off

We

swigged them

in the car

on an unusual tour of Jefferson City and the surrounding

countryside.

"Now,

look at that house over there,"

Mark

told

me.

He

slowed down

and pointed to an elegant mansion near the prison. "That used to be the warden's house." "It's

a

"Sure

fine is.

house,"

I said.

But the warden doesn't

sell it off. It's

live there

anymore. They've had to

going to be renovated. Lawyers' offices."

As we drove

along,

Mark

started out as a teacher, then

told

me

a

little

bit

became a deputy 123

more about sheriff,

himself.

a corrections

He

had

officer,

124

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

an investigator

at Missouri State Penitentiary (investigating offenses

com-

mitted by corrections officers as well as inmates), and then an executive assistant in the

service,

a

and

Roman

Department of Corrections. His brother

his wife

Catholic of

works

is

in the prison

in the Jefferson City prosecutor's office.

He's

— one of many who

Mis-

German descent

settled in

souri in the nineteenth century. (Until the turn of the century, Jefferson

City had wife

is

its

own

daily

descended from English

settlers.

they belong to a society called the

he

chter,

Thomas

is

a

He

German-language newspaper.)

member of the Sons

me

told

He's traced her family

that his

tree,

and

Magna Carta Barons. Like Fred Leu-

of the American Revolution. His hero

is

Jefferson.

On the highway, we passed a long convoy of National Guard trucks and jeeps, and the Missouri

way

Highway

and the banks of the Osage River,

to attractive, rolling countryside

which branches

off from the Missouri River near

kenstein, Missouri) and flows into the

onto a blacktop road

The town soon gave

Patrol headquarters.

Bonnots Mill (near Fran-

Lake of the Ozarks. Mark turned

and we drove

past Algoa Correctional Center, a

He

medium-security prison that holds more than 1,200 men. Missouri's prison population ago,

it

He

was

off

told

me

that

Ten years

currently in excess of 15,000.

totaled only 5,600. attributed

much

of the dramatic

rise in

crime to drugs. Looking

I asked how Missouri could have a drug way that states like New York or California did. "Easy," Mark told me. "Land is so cheap in Missouri that we're now the number two marijuana growing state in America." While we were walking in the yard at the penitentiary, I had noticed a number of inmates wearing the colors of the two most notorious Los

around the peaceful countryside,

problem

in the

Angeles gangs, the Bloods and the Crips.

them

I

was

surprised,

in Jefferson City; and, secondly, that they

first

of all, to see

would be allowed

to

wear

we

care

their colors in prison.

"As

long as they don't wear them around their waist, that's

about," the major had said to me.

"As

long as they're not going to war."

Most of the Crips and Bloods had been

— major

sent to the walls for drug offenses

trafficking, felonious assaults, or lesser

that their influence has spread as far east as

As we began

to follow the

all

murder charges

Kansas City and

Osage River, Mark

told

me

— evidence

St.

that

Louis.

Americans

Labor Day

were

and

sick

and

tired of violent crime,

125

I

was very wide support

that there

for the death penalty in Missouri.

He was

pessimistic in his prognosis for the future, with a rising crime

rate and with state budgets coming under increasing pressure. "I don't

row dwindle," he

think you're going to see the population on death

"I think you're going to get in to execute. We're getting that juries

more

more

all

at

a faster rate than what you're going

the time. Other states are as well.

and judges are becoming

said,

less hesitant in

And

sentence out. People have gotten fed up.

I

handing the death

think that's true

I

think

on a

national scope. They're fed up, and they realize that something has to be

done.

Now,

that something

may

Who knows

the right answer.

— who knows?—

it

may

not turn out to be

be.

But they certainly have to do

that inmates in Missouri

and across the United States

what

it'll

something."

Mark's view

is

spend too long on death row. The national average

Two of Missouri's capital punishment inmates, Shaw, have been on death row

is

just

under eight years.

Martsay Bolder and Bobby

for eleven years. Five

have been waiting

for ten years.

Mark

told

me: "What we need

something with the delays not saying take

we

think

where

it

is

to

do

in this

country

—

that's

they need to do

Don't get

in the appeals process.

away a guy's appeals

is,

me

what makes our system what

a democratic system. But certainly you can cut

doesn't take eight, nine, ten years."

a panel of judges whose only responsibility

wrong. I'm

He is

it

down

to

suggested there should be

the review of capital cases,

speeding the process up to two years from sentencing to execution.

We drove along a tiny road me ble.

that the

that

had flood warning

Osage River often burst

There were

tiny

its

They had made

told

banks and made the road impassa-

stilts

the car in front of one of them,

beneath the raised structure. sheriff's deputy,

and Mark

houses and fishing camps scattered throughout the

pleasant woodland along the river, built on

Mark stopped

signs,

He

told

me

to avoid flood

damage.

where wood was

a story about

piled

when he was a

and three young black inmates had escaped from Algoa. their

way down

the railroad line that runs parallel to the

river,

and Mark and another deputy tracked them and had them cornered

in the

woodpile under the house. Nobody wanted to go under the house

and

flush

them

out, so

Mark came up

with a plan.

126

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

knew

"I

said to

Well,

my

they were in there,"

them

didn't take long for

it

Mark

crying. 'Don't shoot!' "

He

to

"So

laughed.

partner, There's a copperhead

come

in there,

I

drew

my

gun and

I'm going to shoot

out. 'Don't shoot!' they

it.'

were

slapped his thigh and drove on.

We turned away from the river and onto higher ground. We drove along a road lined on either side with out his house

—a

fine,

mature oak

trees,

farther on, he pointed to a small, shabby house

little

story

from

and Mark pointed

by woodland.

well-kept, ranch-style house surrounded

and

told

me

A

another

deputy sheriff days, when he was working as an undercover

his

narcotics agent.

"I'd bought

some drugs from some

we'd gone back

make an

to

as they entered the house

I

arrest. I

hippies

who

lived in that house,

heard four gunshots.

I

had happened was, the hippies kept a snake behind

boa I

constrictor as a pet. said

looked

it

like

And one

went

"They

door."

He

me

that Bill

Armontrout was

and what

They had a

it!"

a good area for hunting. Mark said

eat the acorns. I've got wild turkeys

told

inside,

their sofa.

of the deputies shot

he was an enthusiastic hunter. "There's wild turkey said.

and

had some other deputies with me, and

all

it

was, and that

around here," he

come right up to my

his hunting partner,

front

and

that

they both sometimes hunted with a muzzle loader.

"Good "That's

sport," right,

I

"One shot." Mark told me he

remarked.

Steve."

single-shot, bolt-action .22-caliber

"You

eat the squirrels?"

I

rifle.

also hunted squirrels with a

"I only hunt what

I

eat."

asked.

"They're delicious," he told me. Later on, City,

and he

I

met a prison

told

me

that

officer at Potosi

one

who'd

also

of the favorite pastimes

worked on night

at Jefferson shift

was

to

cook up a mess of squirrels.

"What about deer?" I asked Mark. "We've got great deer hunting in Missouri," he told me. "But you need to go a little bit south of here, down towards where you're going tomorrow, down near Potosi. Paul Delo, he's a great deer hunter." "What about you?" I asked. "I don't go hunting for deer," Mark told me. "I couldn't kill anything that beautiful."

A Mark flights

T THE

end of the afternoon, we drove back

offered to

of

show me around

stairs for

to Jefferson City,

the capitol building.

He

took

me up

a peek into the splendid senate chamber, then

and

steep

down

long corridors past senators' offices and group portraits of each govern-

ment since Missouri became the twenty-fourth I

state in 1821.

stood in the middle of the floor in the reception area, under the enor-

mous dome, and craned my neck

to read the homilies that are

carved

stone:

WHERE THERE IS NO VISION THE PEOPLE PERISH LORD GOD OF HOSTS BE WITH US YET, LEST WE FORGET IDEAS CONTROL THE WORLD PROPERTY

IS

THE FRUIT OF LABOR

THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S PARTY HONESTY

IS

IN

THE FULLNESS THEREOF

PARTY EXPEDIENCY

127

in

128

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

Mark walked me around

the permanent history exhibition in the lobby

—a

nicely conceived tour through Missouri history, with life-size models

and

artifacts.

Missouri's story

is

a fascinating one, as the

on

state falls just

the western side of that great dividing line between East and West, the Mississippi River, and nearly is

smack

in the

middle of America.

not the exact geographical heart of America,

it is

If

Missouri

the dividing line be-

tween west and Midwest, between southern Midwest and the Deep South. Its earliest

were Native Americans. Explorers Louis

inhabitants

Jolliet

and Jacques Marquette came down from Canada via the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River in 1673. Nearly a decade later, Rene-Robert Cavelier,

Sieur de la Salle, claimed the Mississippi River Valley for France.

By

the eighteenth century, France had set up trading posts and small

settlements to wilderness,

work

the lead and salt deposits.

was ceded

to Spain in 1762

1803, the Louisiana Purchase

Louisiana became a U.S. tory.

From

When

was

The

territory, largely

and returned to France

signed,

and

territory. In 1812,

in the following year,

it

became

a

in 1800. In

Upper

the Missouri Terri-

then on, Missouri spawned one American legend after another.

frontiersman Daniel

Boone

lost his

land claims in Kentucky, the

Spanish governor of Missouri granted him 845 acres of land (Daniel Boone died in a house built by his son Nathan, near Defiance in St. Charles

County, and that area of Missouri became known as the Boonslick country).

At the end of

washed away by Santa Fe

Trail,

In 1797,

the Boonslick road

was

the Missouri River), which

the

town of Franklin

was an important stop on

Moses Austin

built

a lead mine, furnaces, shot tower, and sheet

town of Potosi and

the largest lead mining area in the world. Trade relations

with other areas were

made

the upper Missouri, and

Development came

who

possible

on August

fast, led

by Lewis and Clark's exploration of

10, 1821,

Missouri gained statehood.

by plantation owners from the Deep South

bought cheap land in the southern part of the state, where slavery

allowed.

the

and the boyhood home of the scout Kit Carson.

lead plant in southeastern Missouri that gave rise to the

made Missouri

(later

They shunned

the northwest territory,

where slavery was out-

lawed, and the issue became divisive as northerners and grants began to settle in the 1830s. Just

how

judged from Missouri's experience during the

German immi-

divisive the issue Civil

was

was can be

War. Passions ran

and 60 percent of Missourians of military age fought in the war

high,

— 109,000

Labor Day

Union army, and 30,000 on the Confederate

in the

was

steep, as

victorious rilla

the animosity

Union army and

felt its

side. Casualties

I

129

were

by the defeated Confederates toward the

was ravaged by guer-

supporters. Missouri

action throughout the war.

Jesse James

Twain

—perhaps Missouri's most legendary

— was a product of

Civil

War

divisions in the state.

Clay County, Missouri, James's family suffered forces. fifteen

He became

son, apart

at the

an informer for the Confederate

Born

in 1847 in

hands of Union

and

at the

age of

guerrilla force.

Along

side,

he joined William C. Quantrill's "Black Flag"

from Mark

with his brother Frank and their friend Cole Younger, Jesse James was part of a Quantrill raid

were

residents

killed

on Lawrence, Kansas,

in

which more than 150

and the town was nearly destroyed by

fire.

After the

men were the key figures in the James Gang, who robbed and killed their way across the midwestern states. Jesse James was murdered at his home in St. Joseph, Missouri, by two members of his gang, war, these three

Robert and Charles Ford,

on

his head,

dead or

epitomize a peculiar

him as a

Gang

after the state

alive.

split in

The

much

and death of Jesse James came to

the thinking of Americans.

folk hero; but in a land

did

life

governor put a bounty of $10,000

Many

to encourage the rise of "hanging judges"

support for the ultimate penalty.

still

regard

which demands law and order, the James and public

A

S

I

LEFT Mark

for his concern, but

was

slightly baffled

Potosi couldn't be that dangerous.

a Missourian

way

"Be

Schreiber, he said,

I

would

of saying good-bye

genuine expression of concern

in

by

careful."

his parting

later learn that

—akin

to

I

thanked him

words. The road to

"Be

careful"

is

"Take care," but more a

a place where people feel that caution

is

prudent. I

set out for Potosi

from Jefferson City

in the late afternoon, tracing

route on what turned out to be an inadequate road rental

company. Potosi

is

and I

It's

my

supplied by the car

in the southeastern part of Missouri, sixty-five

miles south of St. Louis, off

Arkansas.

map

Highway

67, the

main road

to Little

around 130 miles from Jefferson City, and the route

Rock, is

slow

twisting.

headed southeast from Jefferson City on Highway

River and

down

63,

over the Osage

through Westphalia, Freeburg, and Vienna, communities

where German names are prominent on mailboxes and on the windows of small businesses. Leuchter

was

the

German name uppermost 130

in

my mind

Labor Day as

reviewed

I

Tomorrow would

all

that

Fred had

would see

I

me

told

about his

executions to date. And,

trepidation

—

would be meeting some of the

I

with short numbers,

seemed

me

to

who would soon be

death chamber, and

I

thought

capital

itself,

I

who had

Fred trained,

— not without

punishment inmates

executed on Fred's machine.

that Fred's greatest pride in his lethal injection

lay not in the thing

131

machine.

lethal injection

installed in Missouri's

talk to the first 'lethal injection technicians"

participated in the six

It

it

/

but in the protocol surrounding

its

use.

machine

He

said

it

recognized the humanity of the executee and the executioner. Fred had

me how

told

to execute

traumatic

it

was

for the

officers

an inmate they have known for years. "Prison wardens tend to

think of the inmates as their wards.

man

warden and other corrections

that you've

a traumatic experience to have a

It's

been responsible for for ten years be executed, and you

have to be the one to do

it.

And nobody

has ever considered this before. /

mean, you just go throw the switch and kill the bastard, and

that's the

end

ofur I

was

thinking about Bill Armontrout.

tion about

some of

the inmates he

been transferred to Potosi.

two

He

He had

knew

spoken almost with

affec-

who had

since

at Jefferson City

spoke of them with concern; and

in

one or

men who had murdered on death row in Jefferson City, he a way that a parent would, of a child who had done wrong, and

cases, of

spoke

in

about

whom one feels

The sun was

responsible.

me

as

I

headed south on a road cut through

sandstone and rich mineral deposits.

I

could have saved myself a few miles

setting

behind

by turning onto Highway 68 map.

ended up

I

old Route 66.

cleaned

my

I

I

was

a

man who

my tank. He was a lanky, rawboned man weather-beaten face and a ready smile. He asked me

going, and said.

my

of Interstate 44, a stretch of the

stopped for gas and asked directions from the

windshield and

"Heck," he

Vichy, but the road was absent from

in Rolla, at the junction

in his fifties, with

where

at

I

filled

told him.

"This

is

some of the most

beautiful country

on

earth.

Why don't you go fishing instead?" I

smiled.

He

It

was a

looked at

"Have you

fine suggestion.

my map and

shook

got a better one?"

"Sure thing."

I

his head.

asked.

He went inside and brought out a decent road map, which

132

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

he spread out on the hood of shirt

my

car.

He

pocket and searched carefully for potential fishing spots.

thick lead line through back roads in the

marking places where

When the "Take

tank was

it,"

he

and he refused

it

"Now listen," "I won't,"

He

to stop.

I

full, I

asked him

my windows

cleaning

tip for

traced a

National Forest,

the

week of fishing.

map would

be.

and for

his thoughtfulness,

graciously, without any suggestion of feeling insulted.

he

"You be

said.

careful.

Don't get taken hostage."

laughed.

"Be

smiled, but he didn't laugh.

waving when

He

his

allowed him to go on,

I

for a

how much

from

said.

him a

offered

would be good

it

Mark Twain

by the fantasy of abandoning work

half taken in

I

pulled a stubby pencil

checked

I

my rearview

He was still away from the gas

careful," he repeated.

mirror as

pulled

I

station. I

drove a few miles along the

Highway

nervous

James, then turned off onto

The road was narrow, with an adverse camber The sun was setting fast, and soon the trees were

8 going south.

and no shoulders. shrouded

interstate to St.

in

gloom, from which

at the

edges of the

I

could occasionally spot the eyes of deer,

forest.

Potosi Correctional Center

is

at

Mineral Point, just outside the city limits

My destination that evening was Farmington,

of Potosi.

southeast of Potosi.

It

was

some twenty miles

the nearest place with decent accommodations.

Potosi, with a population of around 2,500, had one motel. tually

saw

it, I

knew

that the half-hour daily

When

I

even-

commute would be time

well

spent.

When

I

got to

Rat

River,

it

had been dark for an hour, and

looking for the road that would take the highway,

came

I

me to Farmington. As

across a two-car accident.

I

I

soon as

got lost I

found

read in the local paper

the next day that three people had died in the crash. In the morning,

way the

8, finding

town

railway line

My first Missouri,

my journey

north on High-

the sign for Potosi Correctional Center just before reaching

The

itself.

to the prison

got up early and retraced

I

sign directed

and the

still

tiny

me

to

Highway

community of Mineral

busy with

0,

a county road that led

Point, divided in half by a

freight trains.

sight of Potosi Correctional Center, the venue for executions in

was

the 200-foot-tall water tower adjacent to the prison.

The

Labor Day giant white structure

133

I

dominated the landscape, providing an awesome

sense of scale as the prison appeared in front of me. Built of rough gray stone,

it is

a low, sprawling complex surrounded by three perimeter fences.

Behind the

third

and outermost fence

man's-land of red clay. The clay rains. Either

way,

it

them a rusty red second fence

is

is

is

a

dusty in

clings to shoes, socks,

is

topped with razor wire and

alarm system which detects body mass.

second

summer and

layer of floodlights

in the central control

comes on and

module

fitted

with a supersensitive this fence,

alerts the tower,

where, twenty-four hours a

powerful scope scans the fence inch by inch. Behind the prison yard, where attempts to plant grass have failed.

it

is

to rock,

and cannot support

life.

a

the computerized security system

day, an officer equipped with binoculars and an automatic

way

it

and the

floodlit at night,

anyone approaches

If

when

sticky

and trousers, indelibly staining

The no-man's-land

color.

of razor wire and a no-

triple roll

The

site

first

The

rifle

fence

with a lies

the

clay soon gives

gives added security, since

virtually impossible to tunnel out of the prison.

In the whole of the prison, there are no

has a thin, vertical

window

that

windows

that open.

throws a narrow shaft of

the sewer system

is

escape-proof.

The pipes narrow

clock by a

fleet

is

The

of security cars.

Potosi Correctional Center

elegant structure.

The

grilles.

surrounded by a perimeter road, patrolled round the

is

a state-of-the-art American prison

ably the most secure prison in the United States.

degrees.

cell faces.

to a six-inch

diameter at the end of their run and are capped with "rat trap"

outermost fence

cell

light at the

beginning or end of the day, depending on which direction the

Even

Each

The entrance

is

It is, in

— prob-

some ways, an

an imposing facade, angled

at forty-five

walls of the administrative offices are plain concrete blocks

painted off-white; they are no different from the walls in the inmate's recreational facilities or cells. trally

entire prison

is

air-conditioned

and cen-

heated, so that the temperature varies by only a few degrees the year

round. be.

The

It is

as different from Missouri State Penitentiary as

By comparison,

Visitors to Potosi

it is

it

could possibly

luxurious.

who

are acquainted with the old penitentiary, or with

the Victorian prisons of other states and countries, are sometimes baffled

by the reason for creating such a high-tech and well-equipped house criminals

who have committed

the

facility to

most heinous crimes. However,

134

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

there

is

no aspect of the environment

at Potosi

which

is

not connected with

high security. Since Potosi opened in 1989, there has not been a single

murder is

have been a number of minor stabbings). This

in the prison (there

an astonishing record, since the three hundred general-population

mates

have one thing

at Potosi all

without parole or

were sentenced

its

when

violence

(in

common: they

murders committed while

Some

at Missouri State

1985 alone, there were eleven murders in the

most dangerous men out of the old penitentiary and Potosi, Missouri has created a prison in

fight

result in a killing.

At

with another knows there

street

offenders, of

and old convicts, the atmosphere

young inmates

earn "respect" through

money.

was

It

lease-back contract. carried

them

to prove

little

capable of murder. is

at

a good chance

Any

would

it

It

much more

just off the

obviously threaten-

fear.

built

by corrections

is

young toughs

they need to prove their dangerousness to

feel

Potosi Correctional Center little

taking the

MSP and other prisons which house a mixed group of

medium- and maximum-security ing, as the

is

By

isolating

which inmates have

one another. Each has demonstrated he

inmate picking a

life

of them

housed the death row population, was noto-

it

Missouri prison system, the bulk of them occurring at MSP).

to

in-

are either serving

or are sentenced to death.

fifty,

to death for

Penitentiary, which,

rious for

and

life

in

is

unique

by a

came

private corporation

fully

officers. It is

than ones of similar vintage

in that the state

equipped,

down

it

for very

state land

under a

to the walkie-talkies

a far more pleasant and secure prison

built in other states

a state long strapped for cash,

on

it

acquired

was a

with public funds.

necessity. In the ten years

And

in

between

1980 and 1990, Missouri's prison population doubled. The same exponential

growth

is

forecast for the year 2000 and beyond.

Driving into the prison, there

is

a large warning sign prohibiting the

carrying of guns, knives, and other weapons, and the importation of alcohol

and drugs.

It is

repeated again at the top of the steps that lead to the main

entrance, where

all visitors

exempted. Attorneys,

are subjected to a rigorous search.

state contractors, occasionally

even prison

required to submit to a routine set of questions which, however the

armed

officer at the

door asks them,

deadly earnest. The visitor

The contents of

all

is

asked

if

No

is

staff,

is

are

many times

are, without exception,

he or she

one

meant

carrying a gun or

in

knife.

pockets must be emptied onto the desk for inspection

Labor Day

by the

officer. All

bags are thoroughly checked and X-rayed. The walk-

through metal detector

is

much more

will detect the metal

ports. It

135

I

sensitive than the type used at air-

frames of a pair of glasses, a belt

in the

buckle, the underwiring in a brassiere, even the eyelets in a pair of shoes.

Any

of the above must be removed and passed through the

admission to the prison. (During

one of

my

X

ray to gain

visits to Potosi,

a female

was refused admission on the catch-22 grounds that her bra alarm; she offered to remove it, but was denied access on

attorney off the

grounds

that

garments.")

set

the

women entering the prison must wear "appropriate underVisitors may not bring money into the prison and must carry all

identification at

all

times, in the event of being taken hostage or killed.

Security procedures were beefed up soon after the prison opened,

when

the angry wife of an inmate pulled a gun on the officer in charge of security.

Now, anyone number and

entering the prison

their

name run through

check has resulted prison

who

in

is

likely to

have

their car registration

the state police computer. This routine

an average of one arrest per month of visitors to the

are found to be the subject of felony warrants.

After stowing

my

were

wallet in a locker (though special arrangements

made for me to bring my tape recorder and camera inside the prison), I was escorted to the office of Paul Delo, the superintendent. I was surprised to find the room full of people. Paul Delo got up from his large, polished desk with a hand-carved Missouri State Seal on the front of it and came around to shake my hand. A stocky man of medium height, with short, graying hair, he moved slowly and deliberately. He was congenial, and very much at his ease. He introduced me to the other men in the room. On the sofa at one end of the office was a slight, bearded man wearing dirty white cowboy boots and an inscrutable expression. He was introduced as Gary

Sutterfield, chief

maintenance engineer.

wondered why he had been

invited to

what

I

He eyed me

warily,

and

I

thought would be a private

interview about taking responsibility for carrying out the death sentence.

The other man

in the

tache. His eyes

were

dangling from his

around lot

his

room was

fixed in a

permanent

half-squint, as

mouth and smoke were

He was

A

pair of crutches

if

was

mus-

a cigarette were

curling around them.

eyes was wrinkled and his face was that of a

of time out-of-doors.

his chair.

wiry, with reddish blond hair and

The

man who

resting against the

skin

spent a

arm of

introduced as Greg Wilson, the prison investigator.

He

136

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

had recently been

in

series of operations

a motorcycle accident and was recovering from a

on

were two other key people

Don Roper and I

was

Phil

I

that there

should meet, the assistant superintendents

Banks, but that they were away

fishing.

offered a cup of coffee and a chair opposite Paul Delo's desk.

explained the purpose of project.

The superintendent explained

his leg.

He was wary

my

visit

and watched Delo's reaction to

but polite, obviously expert at handling reporters.

was soon apparent that neither of us was what the other had expected. was a

far

more easygoing and relaxed man than

less formal

and aggressive than he might have

I

had guessed;

I

The

anticipated.

was

I

my It

He far

fact that

my questions were to be focused on process and procedure engaged everyone's attention and helped put the conversation on a more comfortable footing.

Like ground.

many men

He

a twenty-year veteran of the army, and had also served in

is

He

the air force.

Delo comes from a military back-

in corrections, Paul

first

went

to

Vietnam

in 1954,

and fought there through

He was a helicopter pilot, much decorated and wounded numerous times. An unusually talented officer, he became the Tet Offensive and beyond.

and was assigned as a

fluent in Thai

1970s. After Vietnam, he

deputy.

He

row

MSP

at

military adviser in Thailand in the

worked as a highway

took a job as a corrections in the late 1970s

officer

patrol officer

and was

and 1980s. After a

in

and

sheriff's

charge of death

an insurance

spell as

salesman, he returned to corrections and was chosen to open Potosi. For

two years before

the inmates arrived, he

worked with the

architects

and

engineers to oversee the building of Missouri's securest prison.

He

spoke

in

a quiet voice, with an ironical tone lurking under the sur-

face, about the peculiar world

"What's a

little

mainstreamed our

I

was about

unusual about

States

He

where

this place,"

CP [capital punishment]

our general population. As far as this is

to enter at Potosi.

I

know,

he told me, "is that we've

inmates with the it's

life

and

the only place in the United

done."

explained that

some CP inmates

protective custody, and that wish

is

prefer solitary confinement or

granted. These inmates live in the

administrative segregation unit ("the hole"), where they are locked

twenty-four hours a day in single If

they need to

visit

fifty in

cells,

the hospital or

down

allowed out only to take a shower.

any other

facility,

they are escorted in

Labor Day handcuffs. General-population inmates

who

I

137

violate prison rules are also

sent to the hole for varying lengths of time. In addition, there

a small

is

population of extremely violent or dangerous inmates from other institu-

who

tions

As

are kept in the hole indefinitely.

Paul spoke, the others remained

introduction, Paul offered to take

we meet up with the in

silent,

watching me. After his brief

me on a tour of the

others for lunch at 11:30.

1

prison and suggested

was aware of being

treated

a privileged way: Tours were normally conducted by a lieutenant, not

the superintendent.

He trol,

led

me

through a confusing maze of white corridors to central con-

which separates the inmates from the administrative block of the

prison.

front

A

heavy

steel

was another

door

open, then shut behind us. Thirty feet in

slid

sliding door,

operated by an officer inside the ultra-

secure bubble from which the security of the controlled.

From

entire orison

monitored and

the central control tower, officers are able to observe

inmates throughout the prison on closed-circuit television. nest tower above central television monitors

While

is

control,

an

From

the crow's

observes inmate activity on

officer

and scans the perimeter fence with a pair of binoculars.

MSP has numerous towers manned by officers armed witii shotguns,

Potosi's high-tech design requires that only one officer, in the crow's nest

above central

control,

above a handwritten

From

A

be equipped with a firearm. The AK-15

sign that says

is

mounted

"Fence Master."

central control, the entire prison can be monitored electronically.

sophisticated computer system prints out

maximum-security area.

On

all

a large console

prison, with warning lights to indicate

entry to and exit from the

is

a schematic

working inside are issued a walkie-talkie which has a alarm. If the officer

is

map

any security problem. All built-in

of the officers

"man down"

assaulted or involved in a disturbance, or

if

his or

her walkie-talkie moves from the upright position to a forty-five-degree angle, this immediately alerts central control,

and the "man down"

sent out, along with the officer's precise location so that assistance

call is

may be

rendered.

Paul pressed the button that admitted us through the second sliding door,

and when

it

closed behind us

control bubble, with

two

courtyard from which

we were

standing in front of the central

further locked doors

we would

between us and the

internal

eventually gain access to the yard and

138

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

housing

The

units.

expression.

One

officers

behind the thick, bulletproof glass wore a stern

of them opened a steel trapdoor such as drive-in banks

use and passed through a clipboard on which

my

signature.

Once

was

I

printed

I

my name and added popped open

cleared for entry, a large steel door

we climbed down two short flights of stairs to a we waited for central control to pop the lock. Paul similar door, where pushed open the door and we emerged into a concrete paved area with the with a loud noise and

hospital block to the front of us,

left,

a

area, the yard,

and housing

through which vehicles could enter in

sally port

and doors to the

right leading to the administrative segregation

units.

we were

Paul pressed another buzzer and

weather was

still

one end of the yard, a

flag football

game was

of colliding bodies carried across the thick

MSP is

admitted to the yard. The

sunny and hot, and there were 150 or so inmates

that the inmates at Potosi

in progress,

An

air.

wide variety of ages.

around fourteen years

and the sounds

were an almost equal mix of black and

Two

of the inmates

saw another

old. I

At

obvious difference from

white. Considering the sentences of the inmates at Potosi, to see the

out.

I

it

was shocking

saw looked

to be

walking slowly

in his late sixties,

along the paved path between his housing unit and the hospital.

The men were mostly hanging out

in groups,

though a few lone figures

stood silently against a wall, smoking, or walked along the running track that circled the football field. in

An

crazy patterns.

had taken only

The red

earth

attempt had been

intermittently,

was parched and cracked open

made

to plant grass, but the seed

and what did grow was coarse and

the bright end-of-summer sun, the gray stone of the prison and

geometrical shapes looked attractive

and the run-down

British prisons I

—compared

had

visited. I

thick. In its

hard,

to the old penitentiaries

mentioned

this to Paul,

and he just smiled. Paul seemed in no hurry and allowed

a

feel

of the place. Having

made

me to walk around the yard, getting

films in British prisons, I

used to the company of murderers. In British prisons,

a palpable tension between

officers

I

aware of the need

on

had always noticed

more murderers, and more

had ever encountered to be

relatively

and inmates, and was always aware of

the threat to myself. Potosi housed

murderers, than

I

was

my guard,

at

one time.

and that the

sedate surroundings were probably deceptive.

I

I

vicious

was more than

relatively attractive

and

watched Paul and noticed

Labor Day that, despite his quiet

and

his

his body was movement around him.

and apparently relaxed manner,

eyes were narrowed, taking

in the

I

139

alert,

As soon as we entered the yard, all inmates were aware of our presence. More than at MSP, there was curiosity as to who I was, and why I was there. Unlike at MSP, inmates did not simply come up and challenge me. Here, everything was slower, cooler. All movement seemed more deliberate than at MSP. Time, I would learn, passes differently for those under sentence of death or Potosi,

life

without parole. There were only three ways out of

and two of them involved a

could die while serving

coffin.

You

without parole.

life

could be executed, or you

The only hope of

a reversal of your sentence, a most unlikely

alive lay in

nation to spending the rest of one's

at Potosi

life

getting out

possibility. Resig-

bred a certain malaise.

As we walked, a number of inmates came up to Paul with complaints or requests, or simply to pass the time of day. One inmate wanted to know

when

Paul was going to respond to his

violation

give

he had

received. Another

him permission

to

marry a

letter protesting against

wanted

woman

know whether

to

with

whom

a conduct

Paul would

he had been corre-

sponding. Paul said he would. I

thought about the

common "Yes, I

last

request for a moment, and asked Paul

if it

was a

one. it

is,"

he replied.

wondered why a woman would marry a man who had almost no hope

of ever leaving Potosi, in the certain knowledge that their physical relationship

would be confined

to limited kissing

and hand-holding.

made no comment. He just smiled again. asked Paul why the prison had been built at

Paul I

corner of the

remote

state.

"Well, one of the reasons

down

Potosi, in such a

here, security

Mercer

at Jeff City,

prison.

We

is

that

when we decided

was one of our concerns.

we needed

had the water

move death row When we executed Tiny to

a massive security presence outside the

patrol, the

highway

patrol, the capitol police,

the governor's security force, helicopters, the county sheriff, the Jeff

City police, and our

but

we had

to

own

officers. It

be prepared.

We

was a

didn't

pretty expensive operation,

know how many

protesters

we'd

have." In the event,

two hundred or so anti-death penalty

protesters

mounted

140

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

a quiet candlelight

vigil in front

of the penitentiary on a cold and rainy

night.

"Down to

make

"we

here," Paul continued in his slow drawl,

protesters.

We are

in

a

fairly rural spot,

don't get

and there aren't that many

the trip from Kansas City, Jeff City, or even St. Louis.

relatively

easy to mount our security.

We

many willing

So

it's

close off the highway, but

we

allow the protesters to set up on our property, near the county highway in front of the prison."

"Where did you get your prison officers from?" I asked. "The majority of them are from the local community," he replied. He explained that when the state decides to build a maximum-security prison, local residents are usually

up

in

arms

protesting.

"Here

at Potosi,"

he told

me, "they wanted the prison."

When

the bottom

fell

out of the American lead market, Potosi became a

ghost town. Other industries, such as shoemaking, had long ago region. Clay soil

and heavy bedrock made farming

small businesses, there

is little

difficult,

Locals lobbied to have Potosi Correctional Center

cause

it

the

and apart from

economy of

to contribute to the

left

in their

the area.

backyard be-

brought three hundred jobs to the most economically deprived area

of Missouri. With in the area (the

addition, those in the prison

the local

its

$15 million payroll, the prison

second largest source of income

who make

is

the largest employer

in Potosi is welfare). In

the journey to Potosi to visit friends or relatives

spend money

in

nearby motels, restaurants, and shops, giving

community a much-needed shot

in the

innkeepers and restaurateurs are happy about the

arm. However, while

new

source of revenue,

many of whom are black, who come to visit. The Missouri Department of Corrections is organized on paramilitary lines, and many of the senior personnel and junior corrections officers have they are not always welcoming to city folk,

a military background. The groups of inmates: Brown

(CO

I,

CO

II);

tain, major).

white

officers I

met

shirts are the

shirts are the

more

at Potosi are divided into

more junior

two

corrections officers

senior (sergeant, lieutenant, cap-

Paul prides himself on the rigorous professionalism of his

staff,

but the neatly pressed uniforms and stern demeanor of some officers are, in

some

cases, a front for a group of relatively uneducated people of narrow

experience.

Some

inmates might

call

them

hillbillies,

and some of the

Labor Day officers

may even

no doubt

that Paul

do, and does total lack

141

proudly refer to themselves as rednecks. There can be

Delo has created a prison

effectively.

it

/

that

does what

it

sets out to

His brand of relaxed leadership, backed by a

of reluctance to enforce discipline

when he

feels the necessity, is

largely responsible for the absence of prison murders to date, and the relatively

low

me

Paul led basketball

level of violence.

across the yard to the gymnasium. There

game

in progress, and inside a

the court, inmates were

lifting

weights.

was a pickup

windowed room looking out onto

Up at MSP,

the weight-lifting areas

were out-of-doors. Here, a number of impressively muscled men were working out. Black and white inmates seemed to mix without tension. One

men had an Aryan Nation

of the white

swastika tattoo on his neck and

was

working out alongside a black inmate wearing the headdress of the Moors. In an adjacent

room was a boxing

ring,

and

I

asked whether

much

got

it

use.

"We've got a few boxers here," Paul told me. "But there have been some problems with lawsuits, and so it doesn't get much use." I told him that the idea of British inmates filing lawsuits against anyone was pretty farfetched. I had to other inmates or the administration

—

—

remind myself

would

learn,

For some,

On

it

it

that, in

America, suing other people

was a habit

a

that not only spilled over into

dominates prison

our way out of the

is

gym

way

life.

American

As

I

prisons:

life.

to visit the library, Paul

showed me the two

music rooms provided for inmates. Each was equipped with

ments and electronic paraphernalia of rock music, and he there

of

were three prison bands, each

all

the instru-

told

me

reflecting the different tastes of

that

a very

mixed group of inmates: R&B, country and western, and heavy rock.

The

library

was very much

exception of the books

it

like that

stocked.

I

of a

new

high school, with the

scanned the shelves to find histories of

organized crime, forensic texts, true crime accounts of grisly murders, and other books obviously of interest to inmates. to

The

largest section

is

devoted

law and includes the proceedings of the Missouri Supreme Court. In-

mates can buy a credit card to operate the photocopier, and typewriters are available for their use. Since the execution of Tiny Mercer in 1989,

many Since

death row inmates have taken a greater interest visits

from public defenders or lawyers from the

in their appeals.

state's Capital

Pun-

a

142

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

ishment Resource Center

Kansas City are

in

because

rare, partly

many

own

an important way of structuring time

defense. For many,

And

ten years or less. is

is

it

inmates have taken charge of their

do when faced with the

difficult thing to

an opportunity

for

their cases,

who

proficient in the law,

it

are less literate.

a number of inmates are dedicated

to fighting the administration through a constant stream of lawsuits.

may

—

virtual certainty of execution in

some who have become

to help other inmates

Apart from working on

a

it is

day's car journey from Potosi,

These

pertain to living conditions, to a claim that a conduct violation has

been wrongly issued, or "I'm named

in

to a claim against an officer for assault.

hundreds of lawsuits every year," Paul told

me

with a

smile.

"But doesn't

that

having to answer

"Not I

like this.

it

difficult to

it

run the prison,

if

you're always

from inmates?"

Most of them

really.

look at

make

suits

are bullshit. Occasionally one stands up. But

I'd rather

have them

filing

lawsuits than digging

tunnels."

There I

really

remarked

was almost

was no arguing with

to Paul that,

his logic.

compared with most prisons

I'd visited, Potosi

a hotel.

like

we have air-conditioning, and the facilities are just about you can get. I know some people regard this as a luxury, and that

"It's true that

the best

their tax dollars could

people think

we

be better spent on schools or highways.

A

lot

of

should keep them in a basement."

The

was a high

rate

of violence and an order from the federal court to improve conditions.

The

For years,

state

had no

that

is

precisely

what Missouri

did.

alternative but to build Potosi.

"In corrections, you always have problems

weather gets a

little

hot.

You

get

air-conditioning here goes a long

Paul said

result

it

more violence

way

summer, when the

in the

then.

I

to keeping the violence

was just about time for lunch, and so

back through central control plant maintenance engineer,

would say

to his office,

that the

down."

we made our way

where Gary

and Greg Wilson, the prison

Sutterfield, the

investigator,

were

waiting.

"You want playing at his

to ride with

lips.

Red?" Paul asked me, a mischievous smile

Labor Day

Greg laughed, and

know what

I

Red was

realized that

his

nickname. But

I

I

143

didn't

the joke was.

Greg was

stuffing

an old police

a well-worn grip into the waist-

.38 with

Paul's

'Tve got something to do first. I'll see you over there." drove back out to Highway 8 in an old but immaculate Ford LTD, official car. I noticed that it had more than 100,000 miles on the

clock,

and he explained

band of his

We

trousers.

that

it

had formerly been used by the chancellor of

Missouri State University. The Department of Corrections has a homely sense of housekeeping, and keeps costs cars

from within the

state sector, often

down by

purchasing secondhand

from the Highway

Patrol.

We drove half a mile toward Potosi, where we parked in front of a family restaurant

where the administration lunched most days. The restaurant had

three rooms, and Paul led us to his usual table in the back

—the

table at

which the most important meetings about the running of the prison were held,

and where many decisions were made.

The

waitress brought big glasses of iced tea, and everyone ordered the

lunch special:

all

the soup, salad bar, and chicken wings

you could

eat for

$4.99.

There was a trips to the

of banter with the waitresses, and everyone

made two

food bar, leaving the table piled high with chicken bones. Greg

Wilson came

Gary

lot

in while

we were on our second

Sutterfield pulled out a chair.

helping of wings.

"Hey, bud, take a

Greg positioned himself alongside the

chair, held

hand, and steadied himself with his right while

seat," he said.

both crutches in his

down.

sitting

He was

left

scowl-

ing.

"What's the problem, Red?" Paul "I got a guy.

I

know

he's got

asks.

dope up

his ass,

and the doctor won't

X-ray him for me."

"Why

not?" Paul inquires mildly.

"Says

it's

"Aw work

not his job."

"We

hell," says Paul, disappointed at the lack of cooperation.

all

together."

"Yeah," says Red,

disgusted.

Paul thinks for a minute and patrol,

I

"But he doesn't see

tells

a story.

"When

was out on Sixty-seven one morning and

of-state plates, doing sixty-five.

I

didn't

it

I

this

that

was

way." in the

highway

guy comes by, out-

have anything else to do, so

I

144

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

him over. He's wearing a

pulled

license,

and

write

I

him a

suit.

ticket. I

Mr. Businessman.

hand

it

to

him and

the bottom. 'I'm not signing anything,' the guy that, since he's

from out of

ceived the ticket and

state, he's got to

will either

pay a

fine or

Tm not signing anything,' the guy insists. him

to park his car, lock

it,

and give

me

garage around here that he particularly says,

'What do you mean?'

ticket,

and you drive away,

pay the

fine or

'It's

simple,'

I've got

tells

I

me.

I tell

no way

'If

So

rights.

ask him

I tell

there's a

if

at

me and

you don't

sign this

The guy looks him.

re-

court appearance.

Standing on his I

at

him

explain to

I

acknowledge that he's

make a

the keys.

likes.

ask to see his

I

ask him to sign

to guarantee you're going to

go to court. So I'm taking you

to

jail.'

The guy signed

the

ticket."

The table laughs appreciatively. "Which asshole is it?" Paul asks Red. Red tells him the name of the inmate. "Okay, Red," Paul says matter-of-factly. "You're a

sheriff's deputy,

right?"

"Right."

"Then tell the doctor if he doesn't do arrest. Take him over to the county jail." Sometimes the smile

that concludes

the

X

ray for you he's under

one of Paul's anecdotes

is

more

like

a large, horizontal zipper opening. Paul and Gary got up to leave. Paul suggested

I

get a ride

back with

Greg. I

waited while Greg negotiated the food bar with his crutches.

returned, he told real difficult to I

me

me

little

with a rueful grin, "There's one or two things that're

about his

how he came to be the investigator at Potosi. He told career. He had served long tours of duty in Vietnam,

and he talked about

it

with a wistful look in his eye.

anyone speak of his time

in

Vietnam as

Greg mentioned nothing of the any

stories

later,

life,

if it

battles in

about his time there;

important part of his

months

it

and now

it

Hill.)

I

had never heard

were something he now missed.

which he'd fought; he didn't

was simply

that

was over

from one of his colleagues,

of Hamburger

he

do on crutches."

asked him about a

When

that

tell

Vietnam had been an

forever.

(I

learned

Greg had fought

many

in the battle

Labor Day After Vietnam, he had been a police officer in

St.

I

145

Louis, and an investi-

gator at MSP. When Paul Delo was chosen to open Potosi, he was allowed to handpick his own team. Greg was one of the names at the top of his list.

"My job it's

is

to investigate everything that goes

on

in the prison,

whether

inmates or staff," he told me.

Knowing

that, so far, there

assaults at Potosi,

"Drugs," he

I

had been no murders and only a handful of

asked him what most of his investigations concerned. "There's a drug problem everywhere, and here

said.

is

no

different."

He the

explained that, within the closed system of the prison, drugs cause

same problems they do on

the outside, but in an exaggerated way.

Marijuana, cocaine, heroin, are small amounts,

compared

to

for absurdly inflated prices,

what

imported into the prison

is

available

and problems

many ways

In prison, there are

services to carrying out a killing is

all

ever forgotten. Greg's job

arise

street. They are sold when inmates fall into debt.

on the

to repay a debt,

on behalf of the stopping drug

in

in relatively

from providing sexual

dealer. In prison, traffic is

no debt

primarily about

preventing opportunities for violence from arising.

"How do most of the drugs get into the prison?" "Primarily.

They

bring

it

inside in, uh,

body

search everyone. But we've got a problem with I

staff,

thought that Greg's job must be a lonely one.

was above

suspicion,

it

must be

difficult to

"So how do you handle suspected

I

asked. "Visitors?"

cavities,

If

and we can't

strip-

too."

no one

be anyone's

in the prison

friend.

staff violations?" I asked.

"Searches. Polygraph tests."

"How do

you begin any

"It's like with different,

officer

to suspect

investigation. They're never the

and you've got to

on basic pay who

boat, or

is

treat

turns

same. People are

each one individually. But

up one day

in

a

new

car, or has

see an

if I

a

new

bass

taking expensive vacations, I've got to think about that." Greg's

eyes narrowed as he talked.

can be worth a

lot

"But surely," and

someone?"

I

"It's

easy to be tempted.

A

little bit

of dope

of money in prison." said,

"people

know

that

it's

not worth risking their jobs,

that with the kind of security you've got in the prison, they're

bound

to get caught."

"There's more to

it

than just greed," Greg told me. "It's real easy to be

146

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

conned by inmates. They've got all the time out

how

to run a

They can

game on

you.

in the

And some

world to

sit

there figuring

of them are great con

take an officer, get him or her feeling sorry for them.

some

with getting them to bring

little

artists.

It starts

and goes on

thing into the prison,

from there."

My was

first

impression of watching inmates and officers suggested there

love lost between them;

little

wondered how

I

that

worked.

"We've got a number of female corrections officers working here, and some of them have been susceptible to inmates. You know, they fall in love. We've caught some giving sexual favors. In the prison up at Farming-

women

ton, they recently fired five

for fooling around with inmates in the

kitchen."

"Does your job mean that you've even got to suspect Paul? he's up to something, that you've got to investigate him?" "Yes,

Greg

it

does."

me

told

that he loved his work.

investigation, of finding the right

information he needed.

way

"You know,

way

to get

them

to

He

liked the challenge of

to handle

inmates

But everybody's got a story to

snitch.

the right

you think

If

tell,

an inmate to

like to think that

an

find out the

they hate a

and you've just got to

figure out

tell it."

Greg changed the subject and asked me questions about where

I

lived in

how I liked it. We were talking about the problems of maintaining a steady home life while working long hours, and he told me that he and his wife had broken up a few weeks previously. I asked him how England, and

long he'd been married, and he told me, "fifteen years."

came out of the

how

fifteen years

was a

of shared

could add up to nothing.

The

waitresses joked with Greg as

into the parking

"What

"A

decision

blue for Greg, and had affected him deeply. There

hint of despair in his voice as he reflected on effort

Her

I

paid the

bill,

and

I

followed him out

lot.

kind of car do you drive?" Greg asked.

Fiat."

"It's

probably nicer than

Ford van.

It

was a

my car." He stopped in front of a broken-down

dull, rusty

hulk of a vehicle, with a half-gallon plastic

bleach bottle tied to the front. "Radiator overflow," Greg explained. I

climbed

in

and Greg showed

me

the sofa he'd fitted in the back.

I

•

looked

down

at

my

feet

Labor Day

and could see daylight through the

I

147

floor of the

van.

'The heater doesn't work too good," he mentioned. "I guess that doesn't matter today,"

"No,

it

doesn't," he agreed.

drove back to the prison.

I

said.

The engine sparked

grudgingly, and

we

E

AUL DELO and Gary Sutterfield were waiting for me when Greg and I My tour was to continue with a visit to the execution chamber,

returned.

and we made our way through the elaborate into the walled courtyard

As we were in detail. I

by which the

security checkpoints

hospital

was

walking, Gary began to explain the lethal injection machine

mentioned that

a pretty good grounding

I

had spent a week with Fred Leuchter, and had

in the basics.

"What'd you think of Fred?" Gary asked

bluntly.

He'd been eyeing

suspiciously ever since I'd arrived in the prison. ''He's unusual,"

I

said.

Paul smiled broadly.

"He's kind of strange, don't you think?"

"Yeah." "Did you meet I

said

I

and out

entered.

his

wife?" he asked.

had.

Paul opened the door for us. 148

said Gary.

me

Labor Day

We on

it.

"the

it

The main door gave way

was a bench. Two nurses were seated on bench."

liar's

to a corridor, to the right of

door leading to the inmate waiting area. hospital,

If

which was another

an inmate wishes to

visit

When

the request

is

granted, the inmate

of paper, which he takes into the waiting room.

The

slip

room

separated from the nurse's station by thick security glass.

the inmate

is

called,

he

medical

slides his

slip

under a door

of the waiting room. The door leading from the waiting itself is is

manned by an

officer

checks the

end

hospital

then admits the inmate.

slip,

searched before being allowed into the treatment room, which

opposite the nurse's station. It

who

When

at the other

room to the

looks like the emergency

The treatment room

room of a modern

is

waiting

given a is

the

he needs written permission. The administration has up to eight

days to respond to the request.

He

149

entered the hospital, which had a red cross and a no smoking sign Just to the right of the door

smoking. Staff call

it,

I

is

modern, clean,

and

hospital,

is

bright.

is fitted

with

three gurneys.

''Only

two people have keys

chamber," Gary

to the death

told

me.

"Paul and myself."

Gary

directly opposite the nurse's station.

quickly behind him. left

room was a

led the way. Adjacent to the treatment

Gary pulled

it

It

and held the door as

was standing

hospital block.

made

it

I

entered, then closed

a room

The only

to convert

by twelve

in

it

was marked out of bounds. Paul

rocked on his heels while Gary unlocked the door.

I

back and closed

We were standing in a short, dark corridor, and to the

was a door numbered A-025.

light

folding door,

difference

was

that

everywhere

switched on the

behind us.

was

like

any other

in the

minor modifications had been

to the purpose of executions.

feet and, like

it

that, at first glance,

He

It

measured about eighteen

else in the prison,

had white-painted

cinder-block walls, a linoleum-tiled floor, and fluorescent lights overhead.

There were windows on three sides of the room, looking out onto the corridors.

They were covered on

the inside by roller blinds.

On

the outside

we

one corner of the room was a small entered, a gray steel

blinds,

the wall opposite the door

entered the death chamber was another door, In

by Venetian

sink.

fitted

and on

by which

I'd

with a one-way mirror.

Opposite the door by which

box was mounted on the

wall: the delivery

module

of the lethal injection machine. The locked box had a handle on the front

150

of

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

it,

and a small brass

Boston

MA." On

amber, green, and red in the wall,

plate that said

"Fred A. Leuchter Associates,

the right-hand side of the machine

were three

Beneath the delivery module there was a hole

lights.

about two inches

corner opposite the sink,

in diameter. In the

draped with a pink bed sheet, stood the control module of Missouri's injection machine.

use. Inside

Next

to

were various

machine, and spare IV

was a red

it

tool cart,

lethal

such as car mechanics

tools required to maintain the lethal injection

and clamps.

lines

room was

In the middle of the

Inc.,

sets of

the gurney which had been used in the

executions of Gerald Smith, Leonard Laws, George Gilmore, Winford Stokes, and Maurice Byrd.

It

was a basic-model

hospital gurney that

been customized for the purpose of executions. In the top near where the executed man's head would

The condemned man same

lies

I

looked

rest,

was an IV

drip stand.

hospital blanket folded lengthwise.

had been used for

hospital blanket

Potosi.

on a gray

at the coarse fabric

all

had

right corner,

The

five executions to date at

and noticed that

it

was

stained. I

looked away.

A set of four nylon-webbed restraints with Velcro fastenings was rolled And a more recent addition, two stout leather straps with buckles, to ensure maximum restraint. During an execution at Potosi, witnesses never see the restraints. The condemned man neatly at either side of the gurney.

is

draped

in

a white sheet which covers

his feet

and

is

folded back under

his chin, leaving only his face visible.

"On

execution night," Gary explained, "I'm responsible for getting

everything ready.

He

began to describe

death warrant that looks

his part in the Missouri Protocol. like it's

a good one,

I start

machine, make sure everything's functioning smoothly. all

three of them, and

make

sure

we

"When we

to prepare. I

I

get a

check the

check the drugs,

have enough, and that they haven't

passed their expiration date. About forty-eight hours before the execution, we'll

have a

full

rehearsal.

I

set

up the machine, and everyone who

ipates in the execution goes through the

gurney, an officer, sure everything

chance.

On

is

who

is

drill.

We

about the same size as the inmate.

functioning smoothly.

We

partic-

put someone on the

We

make

don't leave anything to

the day of the execution, I'm here from about seven-fifteen in

the morning. I'm making sure everything's ready to go.

We

have various

Fred Leuchter in the basement of his

home

in

Maiden,

Massachusetts,

with the control

module of his

lethal

injection machine.

(Photo: Stephen

Trombley.)

The gas chamber Fred A. Leuchter Associates'

state

of the art electric chair at River

Maximum

Security Institution,

Bend

at

Penitentiary. Inside

Missouri State is

the gurney on

which Tiny Mercer was

laid for the first

ever lethal injection execution using Fred

Nashville, Tennessee.

Leuchter' s machine, on January

(Photo: Stephen Trombley.)

(Photo: Stephen Trombley.)

6,

1989.

m

—

Mark

Schreiber,

coauthor of the

Missouri Protocol the state's execution plan.

He

is

seen here

in the yard at Jefferson

City Correctional

Center (formerly Missouri State Penitentiary), talking

with inmates. (Photo:

Stephen Trombley.)

Bobby Shaw, CP#7. Convicted

in the

officer at Missouri State Penitentiary, for nearly twelve years.

1980 murder of a corrections

Shaw

has been on death row

Diagnosed as having organic brain damage,

questions have been raised about his competency to face execution. (Photo: Stephen Trombley.)

Stephen Trombley (right)

with A.

J.

Bannister at the

door of his

cell in

Housing Unit

5,

Potosi Correctional Center. (Photo:

Lukasz

Potosi Correctional Center. Located sixty-five miles southwest of

St.

Jogalla.)

Louis,

all

three

hundred general population inmates are convicted of capital murder. Nearly one hundred have the death sentence. The remainder have possibility of parole for fifty years. (Photo:

life

Lukasz

without parole or

Jogalla.)

life

without the

;

Walter Blair being led

back 1

V

to administrative

segregation, or "the hole," after

an interview with the

author. In the three years

Blair has been at Potosi,

he has spent the majority of his time in solitary

confinement. (Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

Paul Delo, superintendent of Potosi Correctional Center. After a distinguished military career, Delo

worked

at

Missouri State

Penitentiary before opening Potosi. (Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

\

right: Bill Armontrout

with the old gas chamber at

Missouri State Penitentiary

(Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

center: Potosi Correctional Center Chaplain, Gary Tune. (Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

below: Typical cell on Missouri's old death

row

at Jefferson

City

Correctional Center (formerly

Missouri State Penitentiary).

Cramped,

squalid, cold in the

winter and hot in the summer,

death row inmates described as hell

on

earth. (Photo:

Jogalla.)

na

it

Lukasz

right: Doyle Williams,

CP#14. Sentenced in 1981,

to death

Williams came

within three hours of being

executed in March 1990. (Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

left: Joe Amrine,

CP#48. Amrine

thirty-six years old

and has served

is

six

years on death row. (Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

below: Lloyd Schlup, CP#42. Thirty-one-year-old Schlup was

sentenced to death in 1986. This

photo was taken hours after he received a stay of execution while

on deathwatch. (Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

i The death chamber

at

Potosi Correctional Center.

It is

located in the hospital block.

doctor monitors the dying inmate's heart from behind the screen officer stands in the corner of the

radio headset.

He can watch

machine mounted on the

wall,

injection

machine

is

lethal

placed in

the dental storage area in the

room next

to the execution

chamber. Mounted on the wall (top right) are the

manual

override pulls, in the event that the automatic or electric

modes

manual

fail.

(Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

(front right)

and coordinates the execution via a

on the delivery module of the

which signify

(Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

The control panel of the

room

the lights

that

The

The operations

(left).

each of the three drugs

lethal injection

is

being injected.

Illli

k Gary

Sutterfield, in charge of plant

maintenance

ensures that the lethal injection machine

is

at

Potosi Correctional Center.

maintained and functional.

of the execution, he prepares and arms the machine. Here he

chemicals into the delivery module. (Photo: Lukasz Jogalla.)

right: Tiny and Christy

Mercer. They married

at

Missouri State Penitentiary. Christy Mercer was present at

her husband's execution

on January

6,

1989. (Photo:

By

permission of Christy Mercer.)

is

On

He

the night

loading the lethal

Labor Day meetings in the afternoon, and then

I

have some of

my

staff set

151

/

up the

witness areas."

Gary showed me the three witness areas, each of which specially made two-tiered bleachers, on which are mounted

is

up with

set

plastic chairs.

who

In Missouri, there are usually twelve state witnesses, including press,

are seated in the door.

two connecting areas

Under

in front

of the windows to the right of

may

the Missouri capital punishment statute, the inmate

invite five witnesses to his execution.

These are escorted

into the prison

through a different entrance than the state witnesses, and they are kept

The inmate

segregated throughout the evening.

witnesses'

mounted behind the head of the condemned man, so each has of the other

Gary showed it

He

works.

is

me how the machine is

set up,

module and pulled

thick, black cable

off the dust sheet.

clinic.

He

Gary wheeled

placed

chamber from the dental

it

in the

near the hole in

area.

He

unfurled a

followed him around to the other side and watched

I

while he screwed the

fitting in place.

He showed me how

the twelve- volt

was connected.

"I built this special tray to hold the syringes,"

me

in detail

connected to the bottom of the control module and fed

through the wall.

battery

view

how window and we

and explained

unlocked the door with the one-way-mirror

the wall separating the death

it

that the last

upside down.

entered the storage cupboard of the dental control

are

seats

a piece of

syringes

and

wood

laid

filled

We

was loaded.

Gary climbed up on a

it.

carefully onto the tray.

of saline solution and neatly the machine

He unwrapped six fat plastic He then opened some bags syringes in order to demonstrate how

with six grooves in

them

Gary explained, showing

the

returned to the execution chamber, where

pair of gray-painted

door of the delivery module.

It

wooden

swung open

steps

and unlocked the

to reveal the business

end of

Fred's machine, the part that no one ever sees while an execution progress. Inside either side to flush the

were the

six

weighted pistons Fred had told

were the two syringes machine clean

after

filled

As

I

to the

it

to

He

it,

fitted

in

On

each of

pulled out one of the pistons

me. "Feel the weight of that," he

was holding

is

about.

with saline solution which are used

an execution. Gary delicately

the six syringes into the machine.

handed

me

and

said.

he explained that he had made

many

modifications

machine Missouri had acquired from Fred. "I replaced

his steel

152

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

He

pistons with these stainless steel ones," he told me.

also detailed other

changes he'd made to Fred's timing system, so that each syringe pressed argues

much more

is

designed to respond to the aqueous pressure

Instead of Fred's tration of

there thal

de-

is

quickly than in the original specification, which Fred

recommended one-minute

each of the three

lethal drugs,

inmate's body.

between the adminis-

interval

Gary has

in the

set the

machine so

that

a thirty-second interval between the injection of the sodium pento-

is

and the pancuronium bromide, and a sixty-second

interval before the

release of the final drug, potassium chloride.

'The one thing you've got to be careful of when loading the syringes fitting them into the machine," he told me, "is to make sure there are no air bubbles in the syringes or in the IV line. You get air in there, it'll kill and

a man.

"Before the execution begins," Gary continued, "I remove these safety

which hold the pistons

pins

in place."

He removed

the six steel pins and

placed them in the pocket of his Western-cut corduroy jacket. "Then close the cabinet and lock the door. Only Paul and

I

have the keys," he

I

reminded me.

He showed me how "About

chine.

who

in the

inmate's arm. If

he does

is

attached to the lethal injection ma-

an expert

in anesthetics,

we need

to

and he comes

in

do an IV cutdown

We take the IV line from the

that.

comes out of

we have

forty minutes before the execution,

nurse

is

the inmate

in the

saline drip,

the bottom of the delivery module, and

a contract

and places the IV neck or groin,

and the IV

we hook

line that

these to-

gether with a Y-joint to the IV line coming out of the inmate's body.

clamp

off the

ready to begin,

IV I

leading from the machine, and

take that

off,

when

which allows the drugs

the execution

I is

to flow through the

line."

Having prepared the machine and the inmate, Gary waits

when

his next task is to raise the blinds inside the execution

"Paul then reads the death warrant, and execution I

is

we go

chamber.

behind the door and the

ready to begin."

looked around the room.

what

until midnight,

It

was a cold

space.

It

was

the essence of

lethal injection is about. Sanitized. Impersonal. Clean.

At

least,

on

the surface.

Gary and Paul took me through led to the dental storage area.

the door with the

one-way mirror which

Labor Day

"On

"we remove

execution nights," Gary told me,

this

I

153

door here."

He

placed his hand on a door which separated the storage area from the small dental clinic I

itself.

nodded, and walked into the dental

There were two

clinic.

dentist's

On the instrument tray over one of them was a cast for a set of false

chairs. teeth.

"So," Gary continued, anxious

that

look at the operation of the machine I

itself."

stood next to him in front of the control module.

"I don't actually press the button. the machine, I

should pay close attention. "Let's

I

arm

it's

ready to go.

the machine.

I

I

just

arm

the machine.

When

I

arm

place a key in each of these switches, and

The machine decides which of

the button pressers

actually performs the execution."

Gary checked "Okay.

Now

to see

if I

was following

the executioners,

if

you

his explanation. will,

depress the buttons simulta-

neously on a count of three."

"Who does "One

He

the counting?"

I

asked.

of the button pushers," Gary replied.

stood behind the machine, so that

each button.

He showed how

I

"And

they do

it

like this."

could see, and placed a thumb on

the buttons are not simply pressed; the

buttons are depressed, and the executioners slide their thumbs off the buttons so that they snap back with a loud report.

"Once the machine is activated," Gary told me, "everything is automatic. The light will come on. The first piston will drop. When all three lights come on, the second piston will kick in, and so forth. Any questions?" I

shook

my

head.

"Okay. Now, go to the

if

anything goes wrong with the automatic sequence,

electrical

stopwatch, and

if

You see, I'm don't come on at

backup.

the lights

timing the sequence with a the right time, to

any of the syringes have not been activated, then electrical

we

we know

tell

to

me

that

go to the

backup."

Paul explained that the operations officer in the death chamber with the

inmate also has a stopwatch and the delivery module. Also, log in the area

"To go

Mark

is

monitoring the sequence of lights on

Schreiber holds a stopwatch and keeps a

where the control module

to the electrical

is.

backup system," Gary continued, "we use these

154

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

He

three switches here."

demonstrated the two sets of three toggle

switches, one for each executioner.

"We

count off the thirty-second and

command, the switches are thrown. Now, if there's some kind of problem with the electrical

sixty-second intervals, and on that doesn't

system

—

work

—we go

if

manual backup."

to the

Gary reached up

to a rectangular

wooden box mounted on

the wall

above the hole through which the cable connected the control module the delivery module.

was

It

box swung down

the front of the

an oversize manual choke on a 'This

to reveal six pull rods, with handles like

car.

our third backup system, and

is

takes place even

if all

the other systems

it

fail.

will

ensure that the execution

Once

with our stopwatches, and each of the pull rods

again, is

by the two persons." He grasped two of the handles be done.

"Any

to

sealed with a padlock, which he opened, and

we

count

down

it

pulled simultaneously to

show how

it

would

questions?"

"Not so

far,"

"Okay,

let's

I said.

run

through one time. I've armed the machine and

it

it's

Now I'll press the buttons."

ready to go.

Gary depressed the buttons simultaneously with both of his thumbs. As they snapped back into place, there was a brief interval in which Gary's tension

was

evident.

switched on, and

I

Then

the lights for the sodium pentothal sequence

could hear a surprisingly loud report, even through the

thick concrete walls, as the piston

the plunger of the

we

first

was loosed from

Gary kept

syringe.

his

its

cradle and

The

third

that everything

is

and the

lights

sequence was completed, and Gary

"When you're waiting for these and hoping

onto

eye on the dentist's clock as

waited for the second sequence, and he nodded as the

piston performed.

fell

sequences to happen,

when you're

said:

waiting

going to go smoothly, a minute seems like a

lifetime." It

was

clear that

seriously. In fact,

Gary took

it

was

his responsibility for the

machine extremely

clear that his responsibility for the lethal injection

machine singled Gary out as unique among any other employee "I

am

told

at Potosi.

the only one in the state of Missouri trained on this machine," he

me. "I haven't trained anyone

"I've got two

manual

pulls

full

work," Gary

you'll get the idea."

else.

sets of syringes

told

up

there, so

I

can show you

how

the

me. "I don't have a stopwatch on me, but

Labor Day

Gary stood

of the manual override panel. His white

in front

He

boots were planted square to the wall.

I

155

cowboy

shrugged his shoulders and

loosened the sleeves of his jacket so that his clothing did not restrict his

movements.

I

grasp the pull style glasses

was standing alongside him, and as his hands moved in to rods I could see them reflected in the photosensitive aviator-

he wore, and

in the glint of his jewelry.

He wore an expensive

gold watch which glittered madly in his glasses, and on the

wore two chunky gold rods,

rings set with diamonds.

He

same hand he

pulled the

two

first

and two sounds followed almost simultaneously: the loud clunk of

the pulled rods and the punchy, metallic sound of the piston falling in the

box on the other

side of the wall.

"What happens when

the execution

is

over?"

I

asked.

"What do you

do then?"

"As soon

as the doctor signals to the operations officer that the execu-

tion is complete, the blinds are

the area.

As soon

drawn and the witnesses are escorted from

as the order goes out to stand

down,

I

reverse the

process," said Gary. "I flush the machine out with saline to clean put everything away. store

them

I

tidy

for next time.

What passed

up the room, take down the bleachers, and

Then

I

go

and

upstairs,

for professionalism in

military-inspired feeling of a chain of that

and

it,

that's it."

Gary gave clues

command and

to the almost

a set of procedures

ensured that an execution went smoothly, but only partly took account

of the feelings of the people but Paul

was looking

at his

who conducted

watch, and

it

it.

was

I

wanted to ask about

clear that everyone felt

that,

it

was

time to leave the death chamber.

Gary was keen

to

show me

the engineering department of the prison,

and Paul said good-bye for the afternoon. "Whatever you want to do tomorrow, just

let

us know, and we'll set

it

up

for you," he told

me.

I

thanked him while Gary finished locking up the death chamber. As soon as everything

was squared away, he suggested we go outside and smoke a

cigarette.

We joined the nurses and officers who were smoking outside the hospital entrance.

"Sure

is

a beautiful day," said Gary.

G

ARY AND

I

walked over

to the

maintenance area.

He

explained the

He

extent of his operation, that he had twenty people working under him.

took a great deal of pride in his responsibility for maintaining the sophisticated air-handling and security systems at Potosi.

"Security here, the

is

everything," he told me. 'These are dangerous criminals

most dangerous

in the state.

you drop your guard

the time. If

You've got

for a

to

be security-minded

moment, you're

all

in trouble. They'll

We don't leave any tools out in the shop, we don't let inmates handle tools. We have make a weapon to stay right

make their

out of anything, and somebody'll get

on top of any outside contractors who come

killed.

to

work

here,

sure they don't leave tools lying around, and that they take

garbage when they're done. All

blade, and

some

it

takes

is

a

little

and

away

all

piece of metal for a

tape for a handle, and you've got a knife that will

kill

a

man."

We

entered the maintenance shop, and two of Gary's

ing a large coffee urn. 156

men were

repair-

Labor Day "I

want

to

show you something," Gary

men working on

my

the coffee urn, "Is

said.

He

machine

The maintenance man looked confused

for a

called out to

still

157

I

one of the

down here?"

moment. "Oh, your ma-

chine? That machine."

"Yeah,"

"My

said Gary.

machine."

"I think so."

While the maintenance explained what

"Last year,

it

I

lems there

it

off to look for "the

to Illinois

and helped them with an execution.

machine," Gary

was.

went up

They hadn't had one machines, but

man went

They had bought one of Fred's

for a long time.

needed

know that Fred had some probhad me come up on a contract and do it for and

servicing,

in Illinois, so they

I

them."

was aware of the background to the Charles Walker execution, but not of the fact that Gary Sutterfield had traveled from Missouri to do it. After I

the fallout from the Carnes

canceled

its

memo

and The Leuchter Report,

contract with Fred. Fred explained to

of "Jewish legislators

The Walker

who wanted

to

keep

me

me

Illinois

had

he was a victim

that

out of their state."

execution, which took place on September 12, 1990, at

Stateville Correctional

Center near

though Walker had abandoned

Joliet,

was

controversial because even

his appeals, other

death row inmates

lawsuit against the state in which they argued that execution

filed

a

by Fred

Leuchter's lethal injection machine was a cruel and unusual punishment.

They claimed

that the Illinois lethal injection statute authorized the use of

two chemical agents, a

barbiturate and a paralytic agent.

Because the

Leuchter machine employs three chemicals, the inmates claimed,

would be affidavit

in violation

its

use

of the state statute. The inmates also presented an

from Dr. Edward Brunner, chairman of the Department of Anes-

thesia at Northwestern University Medical School,

who

Leuchter machine and protocol "create the substantial will strangle

claimed that the

risk that plaintiffs

or suffer excruciating pain during the three-chemical injection,

but will be prevented by the paralytic agent from communicating their distress." I

told

had discussed the Brunner

affidavit with

Fred over Labor Day, and he

me: "As to whether or not the potassium chloride causes pain, I'm

not a physiologist and

I

don't

know

that.

But

I will

say this

much

—

that

by

158

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

the time the potassium chloride

age so that

there would be no

chloride causes pain

But

it

may

if

the person

well cause pain

introduced there

is

pain.

if it

is

So

I

is

sufficient brain

do not believe

either

dam-

that the potassium

brain-damaged or

totally asleep.

were administered without the other chem-

icals."

When

Fred, the press

Illinois fired

jumped on

the story

and

left state

prison officials feeling exposed and anxious. Since the only other state that

had used Fred's machine was Missouri, the superintendent of State ville contacted Potosi. Gary received a contract from the Corrections, effective from August 25, 1990, to

was paid a

daily rate of five

hundred

Illinois

Department of

November

dollars plus

25, 1990.

expenses for his

He

partici-

pation in the execution of Charles Walker.

The maintenance man brought in a machine of wood, Plexiglas, and steel and set it up on the workbench next to the broken coffee urn. "This

is

my

there

Illinois,

baby," Gary told me.

me

and of course we

didn't

five

they had that problem up in

was some question about whether Fred's machine could be

used. Paul asked

fully

"When

manual, but

it

whether that problem could happen here

know. So,

would

to be safe,

get the job done.

in Missouri,

my own machine. It's my twenty-nine ninety-

I built

I call it

machine, as opposed to Fred's twenty-nine ninety-five machine."

"You mean,

$29.95 as opposed to $29,095.00?"

'That's right."

Gary looked

at his

watch. "Four-thirty. Quittin' time."

back through central control and past Paul's

office.

"You

around for a while?" he asked. I

said

I

would

be.

"How about we drink some beer tomorrow night?" I

said that

After

I

would be

said

good

fine.

night to Paul,

Paul called out, "Get that

"No

problem," Red

Greg Wilson came by.

X ray you wanted?"

replied.

"Find what you were looking for?"

"Yes

sir."

He

escorted

me

going to be

T

Jlh HE NEXT

little

I

morning,

apprehension.

had requested

that

I

room

said.

arrived early at the prison, and not without a

be allowed to speak with them

the door closed so that

what was

I

My plan was to begin interviewing death row inmates. no corrections

in

a room alone, with

officers or prison staff

Paul Delo had agreed to this and offered to

in the building

where the caseworkers'

yard just next door to Housing Unit

offices

could hear

let

me

were located,

use a in the

5.

One of the caseworkers, Fred Johnson, came up

to escort

me

inside.

A

rosy-cheeked good oY boy with a college education and a slow drawl, he

asked

me who

I

wanted

to see.

condemned inmates would make them would want I'd

been given

to talk to

I

had no way of knowing which of the

for a strong interview, or

me. Having studied the

in Jefferson City, I

had decided to

list

start

even

if

any of

of condemned

men

with two extremes,

youth and age. Missouri has the oldest States,

man and woman on

Ray and Faye Copeland. Ray was born 159

death row in the United

in 1914,

Faye

in 1921.

They

160

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

had been sentenced

months previously,

to death three

about their case, which involved the murders of lured to

work on

All

with bad checks drawn on the workers' accounts, then

were shot with a

.22-caliber

sixteen

read

where bank

The Copelands would buy

in the five men's names.

kill

the men.

rifle.

Missouri also had one of the youngest

Age

in June. I'd

men who had been

the Copeland farm in Chillicothe, Missouri,

accounts were set up cattle

five

when he committed

men on death row, Heath Wilkins. him the death

the crime that brought

sentence, he had turned twenty-two just before Labor Day.

Fred Johnson had made a thought

I

some other death row inmates he including some who were getting close of

list

might wish to interview,

He was also concerned that he introduce a selection inmates. He cleared his desk to make room for me and

to an execution date.

of black and white

my to

tape recorder, and called over to

Ray Copeland' s housing

Ray Copeland

Despite his age, in prison grays I

asked him

and wore a

hat,

how he was

is

a

tall

and sturdy man.

which he took

doing.

He

him

he was very hard of hearing, and that

ear.

I

came around from behind

the desk and pulled

asked the question again, and he told

husky and

frail

he said he was. that, as I

that I

he was

fine. I

asked him

if

and then he

have to

I'd

me

asked him

in if

He was

dressed

when he shook my hand.

off

didn't respond,

that

I

unit for

be sent down.

told

talk into his

up a chair next

me

good

to him.

a voice that was at once

he was

settling in

okay and

he'd been in prison before, and he told

me

a young man, he had been.

asked

if

he had heard from

his wife,

and he began

idea of this interview seemed to be a bad one, as

wipe the tears with

to

watched the old man

I

his sleeve.

"I'm innocent," he

"What happened?"

told I

me.

asked.

He handed me a grubby manila envelope and asked papers inside. He said they proved his innocence. In the envelope

weep. The whole

was a

pile

if I

would read the

of papers in disarray. There were old pages

of court transcript and other items relating to his case,

all in

an

unintelligible

jumble.

"I'm innocent," he I

had

told

said.

myself before

"And I

that proves it."

arrived at Potosi that

it

would be unwise

to

Labor Day focus I

my

attention

on the

details of

anyone's case. There was no

could assume responsibility to assist in anyone's- appeal. there

I felt, if

may

161

that

important,

an ultimate objection to be made to the death penalty,

is

does not rest on the argument that the death penalty the state

More

way

/

execute an innocent person;

if

is

it

a bad thing because

executions are undesirable in

a civilized society, they are undesirable in relation to the guilty as well as the innocent.

The

Missouri makes

life

it

and

fifty

or

life

without parole sentence as applied in

nearly 100 percent certain that the inmate will never

reenter society. I

asked Ray

if

he was feeling

fit,

hundred ninety pounds yesterday. place.

I

told

them Fd

and he I

told

me: "I bench-pressed two

can take just about any

man

in this

like to be put to work, but they don't have any jobs

forme."

When

the interview

commented

that

it

was

over,

I

mentioned

this to

Fred Johnson,

who

might make people nervous for Ray to be seen with a

shovel in his hand.

"Hey," he added. "Did you hear "No,

I

"Yeah.

didn't It's

know

called

that

Mr. Copeland

is

writing a

that."

How to Run a Farm on a Skeleton Crew"

book?"

H is

EATH WELKINS has

in Missouri). v.

achieved a dubious fame in his short

one of the youngest men on death row

And

life.

He

United States (the youngest

he was the subject of a landmark court decision, Wilkins

Missouri (1989),

tion of sixteen-

in the

in

which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled

and seventeen-year-old offenders

is

that the execu-

permissible under the

Constitution of the United States.

He

my

sat

down and

presented a bundle of contradictions.

hand, there was a boyish quality about him, though

a wariness that no adult

who

lightly tanned,

and shorts and was

trying, with

Heath was dressed

modest success,

circumstances of our meeting had been

as

different,

number of American

someone considered by

was mixed with

to it

in

a muscle

grow a beard. would be

shirt

If the

difficult to

kids of similar appearance

the state to be too dangerous to live.

A man-child who had been raised in various institutions eight,

he shook

has not spent years in prison ever learns.

Blond, slender, and

pick Heath out from any

it

When

Heath had experienced only

six

162

months of

since the age of

liberty in his short life

Labor Day

163

I

before being convicted of capital murder. Raised in Little Rock, Arkansas,

Heath was severely beaten by both of

was two,

his father left

from infancy.

his parents

When

he

home. His mother, who was then a regular drug

user, continued the beatings. Heath's mother's brother lived with the family,

and Heath

testified at his

from the time he was and

own trial

six years old.

that the brother

had given him drugs

The mother's boyfriend

also beat

Heath

his brother.

As a

Heath was caught vandalizing a

child,

and committing petty

murder son.

his

thefts.

When

tractor, starting small fires,

he was ten years old, he attempted to

mother and her boyfriend by lacing Tylenol capsules with

He was

he made the

sent to a mental institution for six months.

poi-

At the age of ten,

of three suicide attempts by throwing himself off a bridge

first

into the path of an

oncoming

truck,

which avoided him. His next three

years were spent in another institution in which he

a "schizotypal personality" and was placed on third failed suicide attempts involved drugs

was diagnosed

Mellaril.

and alcohol.

as having

His second and

He was moved

to

a foster home, then another institution (where he was placed on Thorazine),

and yet another

foster

home. In

er's care, but she refused to let

From May

him

1985, he

was returned

moth-

1985 until he committed murder in July 1985, Heath lived

the streets in

Kansas

friends called

Bo and Shades

City, Missouri.

He,

his girlfriend

lived in Penguin Park, a

attraction featuring three-story-high concrete animals grass.

to his

with her.

live

Heath and

on

Midget, and two

run-down children's

on an acre of scrubby

his girlfriend lived in the concrete penguin's

pouch. They

passed the time drinking peach schnapps and taking black dragon, a home-

made

LSD

substitute.

and take turns

They would hang out

shoplifting food

Heath had got motorcycle, his

it

life

into his

at

a nearby shopping center,

when they were hungry.

head that

would change.

if

he had enough

He and

his friend

money

Bo went

to

buy a

to a conve-

nience store in Avondale, Missouri, shortly before 11:00 p.m. on July 27, 1985.

Heath had planned the murder

in

advance.

Bo would

hide in the

When Heath pulled a doubleNancy Allen, Bo emerged from

bathroom while Heath ordered a sandwich. edge "butterfly" knife on the store clerk, the

bathroom and held her arms. Midget and Shades were waiting nearby

with a change of clothes. Heath stabbed

Then, while

Bo

Nancy

Allen while

Bo

held her.

cleaned out the cash register, Heath stabbed her in the

164

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

back, chest, and heart. While she pleaded in vain for her

stabbed her a further four times

He

neck.

in the

later said

life,

Heath

he had stabbed

her in the neck to stop the sound of her pleas.

"When you committed

asked Heath,

I

your crime, did you have any

thoughts about the consequences in terms of going to prison?"

"Yeah,

thought I'd die, though.

I did. I

thought they'd

I

kill

me."

"But were you surprised when the court handed down a death sentence on someone as young as you were Heath was

patient with

my

at the

time?"

When

obvious lack of understanding.

he

spoke, his voice was soft and boyish, but the words he had to say were

beyond the experience of most people. "No," he I

was

to

kill

So I

I

concerned about

real

myself and

thought,

thought,

I'll

I

living the rest of

my life

me. "I asked for

in pri. in. I

was

it.

trying

kept chickening out just before I'd lose consciousness.

push myself.

It's like

walking closer to the edge of a

got the death penalty, then

if I

told

could get out of it. Then

"You'd made other

I

could do

I

would know

there's

cliff.

no way

I

it."

suicide attempts in the past,

and they failed?"

Heath nodded.

"And by

taking

Heath

said that

Heath

told

me

was

life,

you were putting yourself

in

a

the case.

about

how he was

living in state facilities

feeling at the

"I always carried a

had some boots on.

I

from early childhood, and

time of the murder.

weapon on me.

could buy a motorcycle, so thing. I

else's

where you hoped yours would be taken?"

position

about

someone

I

thought I'd get some

money

so

I

could at least get out of there, go do some-

I'd

walked holes through these boots looking

for a job."

As he lodged in

told

my

me

the story, small details rose out of his drugged past and

mind

like objects in

a weird

still life.

The

knife.

The

boots.

The old Harley-Davidson owned by a friend, which Heath viewed as a means of leaving his miserable existence behind. The ordinary significance of these objects was transformed by circumstance and the confusion of an injured

come I

and frightened adolescent mind, and an innocent

woman had

be-

the opportunity for that nightmarish transformation to occur.

didn't ask

Heath about

"When I was arrested,

his

they took

mental condition, but he explained how,

me and they certified me."

one came up with the idea of pleading

guilty

Then, "Some-

and everything."

Labor Day But Heath was not to be deterred from

He

his suicidal plan.

165

I

fired his

attorney and, at the age of sixteen, represented himself on a capital murder charge.

"How long did the trial

last?"

I

asked.

no jury," Heath replied, jumping ahead to the heart of the

"There was story. "I didn't

want a jury

"How long did

trial."

take?"

it

over, but they did the bulk of it in a day." "They I wondered how a judge could allow a minor to demand stretched

it

penalty without legal representation.

any

effort to dissuade

"At

first

asked Heath

they were concerned, and

Heath's face was twisted

many

I

his

if

made

the judge had

life.

saw

it.

But

knew

I

."

that

.

.

He was He didn't say,

a confused and painful expression.

in

frustrated, at a loss for words. 'Listen,' too

I

him from abandoning

the death

times, 'uh,

"You know what I'm

saying?

don't think you should, uh

I

"He was

voice trailed off as he thought of the judge.

.

doing

" Heath's

.'

.

because he

it

thought he had to."

Heath was taken

MSP.

to death

row

now.

used to be

at

I

asked him what that had been

like.

"It's cells.

a

lot better

We

had very few

terrorized. I

asked

Here

how

"This place

I

visits.

this

is

a

gift

in

young, skinny kid, and

other month.

in

our

I

was

these huge guys."

MSP.

my

tea at

MSP." Looking back

at the

I

nightmare of

voice assumed a bright, boyish tone, and he grinned

bright,

told

all

were locked

of God," he said without hesitation. "It's clean.

me

my face.

open smile disappeared

with a painful look. "Jefferson City

Heath

We

Maybe once every

broadly. "I used to have mice jump on

But the

real bad.

he found Potosi compared with

used to get bugs

MSP, Heath's

was

It

that he'd

after

was a

a

They'd

live in

your TV."

moment and was

real negative

replaced

atmosphere."

changed a great deal from the adolescent

who

had committed a murder. "I used to think that being cruel was a strength," he

said.

Potosi

was

and inmates it

full

alike

of cruel people, Heath reflected.

—

"One

people

—

officers

thrive in prison because of the opportunities for cruelty

presents; others are

in.

Some

made

cruel

by the environment they

time," he recalled, "a guard

told him, 'Get yourself

came

a job someplace

to

else.

MSP to Even

find

work

if it

themselves there,

pays

less.

and

I

You

166

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

don't want this job.

"

life.'

He

shook

ruin your personal character,

It'll

his head. "Is

it

possible for guys to

way on

it'll

ruin

come

your family

work

here and

And even when you're here, you know what I'm saying, things happen? You get mad. You react. You start dealing with it. And that's the way you deal with it under a cruel and be so cruel and not be

environment,

to

is

that

the streets?

be cruel."

"What happened to that officer?" I asked. "The man's still working. He's moved from now. He's

lost his wife

Heath went on Potosi.

Working

so stressful that

Domestic

try.

in

and he's down here

and everything."

to explain something

I

would hear

later

from

staff at

a prison, particularly in a maximum-security prison,

is

often difficult to relate to people outside of that indus-

it is

life

MSP

often suffers. Current divorces are a major topic of

conversation at Potosi. Since coming to death row, Heath said, he had become a Christian, and spent I

much

of his time studying the Bible.

asked him about the chapel

"Believe

many

or not, not

it

twenty people. There's a

at Potosi.

lot

go.

Only about ten or twelve,

of guys though,

who God's

at tops,

dealt with, but

they're back-slipping."

kind of man

"What "He's

is

the prison chaplain?"

an administrator. He's one of them. He's like the guards."

"Isn't the chaplain in an

odd

position, having to participate in executions

here?" Heath's face showed no expression. "Like you say, he's

in

an odd

position."

For years, when

how to

it

was

be taken

I

had thought about the death penalty,

possible to structure time in the foreseeable future.

but doing time

when

there

was very

if

you knew

Doing time little

that

had wondered

I

your

in prison

life

was going

was one

thing;

chance of ever getting out, and

every chance that you would be executed, seemed an impossibility.

have started a death sentence as a

"At

first,"

Heath

said,

child

To

seemed doubly impossible.

"you separate yourself from

reality. All

of a '

sudden one day

I

woke up and

Heath sought pen

friends

I

said,

T have done four

and had intimate correspondence with two

women, one from New York and one from Los married the

years in prison.'

woman from Los

Angeles, and she

Angeles.

visits

him

He

eventually

at Potosi.

Labor Day of how the guards can be cruel," Heath started to

"An example

"Man. You know, sometimes they

come

you have

in here,

search.

When

I

you agree

to sign a paper that says

that happens, they take

you

all

To

a

in

little

to a strip

room, and you take

behind your ears,

hair,

your

in

nodded.

"That's a violation, man. ahead. But in.'

me.

tell

strip-search visitors to this place?

your clothes. They check in your mouth, and in your, you know ..." off

167

I

if

I

told

my wife,

said,

Babe, you sign

that,

they ever want to strip-search you for any reason, don't

They can do anything they want

couldn't stand visiting

4

I

And

it.

to

me. But

if

they try to do

had guards go up and

I've

insult

my

it

go

come

to her,

I

wife in the

room."

The caseworker had told me that Heath's wife is a very attractive woman, and that "ol' Heath likes to get his hand up her skirt." "The visiting room is a privilege. And the guys that get a lot of visits are really in the

We

palms of their hands," Heath

said.

talked about the physical environment at Potosi.

come back from

the

gym, and

"Yeah, compared

At moments, or that Potosi

it

I

remarked how

to Jeff City

The

definition of comfort is

left

MSP,

depends very much on an

the closest thing to a

home

known.

"There's a window

mean?" "What can you

what

he looked.

.

seems as though Heath can hardly believe he

is real.

just

." .

experience of comfort. For Heath, Potosi that he's

fit

Heath had

in

your

cell,

which makes a big difference, you know

I

see from your

window?"

"There's trees and lakes and everything on the other side of the fence." I

asked

if

anyone ever thought about

trying to escape

Heath laughed. "Have you seen the fence around

nobody going anywhere. It'd

be a helicopter

If

anybody got out of this

right into the courtyard.

this

from Potosi. place? There ain't

place, it'd be obvious.

They used

to use

barbed wire.

But then they started using razor wire. And now they don't even use razor wire.

That

stuff out there's concertina wire.

what I'm saying, there's

it

won't

two perimeter

with sensors on

let

It'll

grab ahold of you,

go of you. The yard has a fence around

know it

plus

fences, plus they're putting a third perimeter fence

it."

We talked about Heath's appeals, and what his chances of success were.

168

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

For some time, he hadn't bothered with Christianity

and

his appeals.

had altered

his marriage

his

But

view of

pursues his appeals, but he takes a hard moral

his

conversion to

own life. He now about how they are

his

line

pursued, based on his view of Christianity.

"In the past, they would

Heath looked me

you

Heath's

a

belief in

He was

tolerant of

all

the time. Cut

say I'm not I

all

my

left

you

was innocent."

I

lie

in

an appeal and

me

which would be deter-

silent.

lack of response, and reiterated his point. "I the appeals. I'd say, 'No, man, you're lying

file

You guys can

that stuff out.

say anything, but don't

" guilty.'

wondered how Heath regarded

were

said: "If

after death, the quality of

them

to let

appeals and say

.

.

life

mined by how he behaved now,

would refuse

my

in

eyes and

."

and you die

lose,

lie

straight in the

at Jeff City,"

I

his death sentence

now.

"When you

began, "and you were satisfied that you'd got the

death penalty ..." I

was searching

Heath

let

for the right

way

to ask a very difficult question.

out a terrible sigh and said,

"Did you worry about

"Yeah

." .

.

it?"

"About being executed?" "Yes."

"Oh, man about

it.

.

.

.

Some

The guys

of the guys here

who have

it

now

don't even think

you know what I'm

in here that, if they thought that,

saying?"

"No."

"Some If,

uh, for

some reason a

somebody, they'd

You

know what

of them really aren't altogether there, you

still

do

came up and they

situation it.

Even

if

they were told

.

felt .

.

I

mean?

they had to

kill

they'd just do

it.

don't think about your death penalty until they're taking you into that

little cell

and locking you

in there,

and they're going to strap you to the

table."

"Do you think about that?" "Do I think about the death

penalty?"

"I mean, in relation to you."

"No."

"Do you

think they might

come

for

you one day?"

Labor Day

"No." He paused and then asked himself the know.

will? I really don't

I

question.

don't believe so. But, you

169

I

"Do I think they know what I'm

saying, time will tell."

Heath steered the conversation away from himself death penalty

in general.

He

kind of hypocritical saying

of

my

But

position.

makes prosecutors

.

They

.

because

this,

wrong.

it's .

to talk about the

prefaced his thoughts by telling me, "I feel it

doesn't really matter, because

vengeance

It's

really think

form.

in its purest

really

It

a big deal. They get off on

it's

the death penalty."

Heath

told

me

that,

on the other hand, he could see why people sup-

ported the death penalty. "If somebody killed

my mom

my

or

wife

— you

know what I'm saying, and killed them horribly? Man, I'd just ... I could how they'd feel. I'd want that person dead, I'd be so upset. Maybe by the grace of God I'd be able to forgive that person. But still, just because I forgive that person doesn't mean I want them back out on the understand

streets either. So, life without parole, I

can see

that,

but not the death

penalty."

"What if you'd received life without instead of the death sentence?" "You know, if you get a life sentence, that means you go for parole every year. That doesn't mean they have to let you out. They can keep you

in prison for the rest of

your

they can keep you in there. But

So

life.

life

if

you're a menace to society,

without parole

is

basically saying,

We

dont care whether you change or not." "If you have to be executed," lethal injection as the

I

asked Heath, "what do you think about

method?"

down on

"I don't like the idea of being laid

have to be

laid

down.

I'd rather

be

sitting

the table.

I

don't want to

up."

Lying down to be executed seemed to Heath the

final indignity.

"Another thing

said, "is that

that really distresses

you a shot before they take you it's,

you know,

if

in

me," Heath

and execute you.

they have to force

it

Heath

told

me

mind when

it is

"Believe

this

that, if

Some guys

I

don't

know

if

on you or what. But they put you

out so that you don't fight and everything like that.

mandatory, though, or not.

And

they give

say

it's

not,

I

don't

know

and some say

if it

that's

is."

he has to face execution, he wants to have a clear

happening to him. or not," Heath told me, stroking the fuzzy growth on his

—T

170

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

chin, "this I

may sound

kind of corny, and people do think

my

don't want to die. For

was nobody out

there

are a lot of people out

asked Heath what

I

it's

my mom's

wife's sake, or for

corny

—but

sake. If there

who would care, then I wouldn't mind. But there there who care, and that's why I don't want to die." effect executions

had on other death row inmates

at

Potosi. 4

bothers me, personally. First of

'It

know

all, I

these guys. I've lived

with these guys. I've seen these guys do funny things. I've laughed with

Of course, you

these guys. I've seen these guys be angry.

them for years, you get

to

know them. And,

with them." Heath gave out a

little

laugh.

sit

around with

uh, not necessarily sympathize

"But you get

to

know them."

"How do the officers act around the time of an execution?" "A lot of the guards, they say the strangest things. A lot of these guards

—and — but

you know, they're

that's not the white shirts,

this

all

they look for any weakness in a guard,

fact,

totally

detached from

As a matter of and then they try to weed

the guards feel real bad about the executions.

out. Any guard that is against the death penalty. I've had guards come by and ask me how I was doing, and I say, 'Look, are you serious?'

them

He's one of the ones who's going

Heath

me

told

to execute this last guy."

participation of corrections officers in executions

"There's a guy

somebody was going

to stab

And

shook

kill

him.

know he was

his

— head "a guard

Heath knows cutions,

.

.

.

this is

not

tell

to killing.

shirts,

He knew the guy was going to beat him

me

that. I

once,

heard a"

Tou

me just

special dislike for

many

He didn't know if the guy

going to whip out a shank and stab him.

that the "white shirts" are

to'

know,

more

talking about

can't wait to execute that guy.

When

this isn't personal,

closely involved in exe-

them.

of them actually enjoy

—

— Heath laughed and

"

saying this or making this up

one time, T can't wait

there.'

killed him.

we're just holding you.'

and he reserves a

"The white and

him and

and

he got the death penalty for

we're not really

— as accessories

the

here who's on death row for holding a guard, and

in

else stabbed the guard

up. But he didn't

how he views

a story, intended as an analogy of

me,

they do,

I

because they are

it

—

had a guard

I

tell

telling

another guard

want

be standing

to

me

—

right

"

Heath

told

me

that he notices a party

atmosphere among some

officers

Labor Day

/

171

on the day of an execution. In Missouri, as elsewhere, executions may be less of

Roman

a

holiday than a public hanging would be, but they are

nevertheless a public event, put on by the state.

"What do they do?" I asked. 'They have a table. What they do

is,

you know the

visiting

room?"

"Yes."

'They

pull in

a long table so they can put coffee and drinks

holic drinks, of course

everything. Because

— but coffee and

stuff.

come and they

these bigwigs

all

they need refreshments.

turns into a

It

little

Were you there when Byrd was executed?" "No." "You ought to try and come by one time, you around. I'm pretty sure they look at their faces and see.

stand around and

get-together, a

see what

it's like.

a bummer. But that's the

"How do people feel about going to the hospital here?" that place.

we have

Guys do not have any good If you went over there, and it cost him ..."

"First of

all,

.

.

alco-

little

party.

If they'll let

And

Just check out the atmosphere.

will.

It's really

— not

And, you know, snacks and

.

I

way

is."

it

asked.

feelings

towards

to help

you out

"Him?" "... you know, the doctor.

Do you know what "No."

...

"If

you have an

you stay

in

If

it

cost

lay-in is?"

you know

injury,

your unit and they bring you food. But what they use

locked in your

cell.

say, 'Well, we're going to

You can't come

out.' It's like, I

problems, and they were going to keep

you

can't run or

hypocritical the

we go

problems

keeps you from playing sports,

that

you complain about something, they

'Well,

him something

way

work

they describe

there with.

me

out.' Well,

And

it,

also,

"Does everyone here know where

a

I

locked in

can

still

it

as, is if

keep you

was having back

my

cell.

They

said,

go out to chapel.

It's

so we're real leery about which lot

of times they won't treat you."

the death

chamber

is?"

"Yes."

"Does

that

seem a

little

Heath laughs. "No,

it

insensitive to

doesn't.

you?"

Because you got to think that every time

we want to go visit our wife and our family, a

strip

search."

they can

make them go through

172

I

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

thought that probably no one can spend

reflecting

on

their execution

all

their time

and the circumstances

Daily indignities loom larger. But

I

repeated

people thought of the death chamber being

my

in

which

on death row it

will

happen.

question, about

what

in the prison hospital.

Heath's face clouded over with exasperation and helplessness.

"That It's

is

kind of

." .

.

a question to which Heath didn't

furrowed and

his

.

ones

.

.

they

have an answer. His brow

eyes were glazed with incomprehension.

in there, you know what I'm saying? I don't know. I guess know something more than we will. Even though we're the

"The nurses it's

really

that's being killed."

w

HAT ABOUT

oV Heath?" one of the caseworkers said as

walked across the yard and back up to Paul Delo's

office.

we

"Ain't he a

beaut?"

A

parade of inmates from

five

houses streamed out of the door next to

the caseworkers' office at 11:30 precisely, heading for lunch.

"Do you know how

to

tell

when an

inmate's lying?" the caseworker

asked. I

took the question seriously. "I think so,"

"You can

My first office.

tell

sight of

He

I

said.

he's lying," said the caseworker, "if his

A.

J.

Bannister was from the

entered the waiting

room

in

lips

are moving."

window of the caseworkers'

a slow, deliberate way.

My

first

impression was of impressive physical bulk. His walk spelled arrogance

and defiance.

When

he

sat

down on 173

the

molded

plastic seating in the

174

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

waiting room, thirty-four.

thought his expression was one of fixed disdain.

I

He

The caseworkers' and a

pervert,

came

A.J.

He

is

looks older. brief

violent,

into the

summary of A.

Bannister was that he

J.

was a

dangerous inmate.

room and we shook

hands. Standing about six foot

one, and weighing enough to play tight end for the Chicago Bears, he

seemed both curious and wary about why dressed in a prison-issue gray

shirt

I'd

asked to see him.

He was

with his number, CP24, written in faded

black Magic Marker over his heart, and a pair of shorts and training shoes.

'Take a A.

J.

seat,"

I

offered.

Bannister's physical presence

was more powerful than

other person I'd encountered at Potosi.

He

by any means. Nor did he have the sculpted physique inmates cultivated. told

me

that he

He was move

the kind of

several stools

"What's

rowed and in

He was

was

fleshy, with

potentially

a

man many

slight

that

my

paunch, but

one of the most dangerous men

man who, if you met him on the down the bar to accommodate.

any

that of

wasn't the largest

there,

of the

instincts

at Potosi.

you might

outside,

for?" he asked, referring to our interview. His eyes nar-

this

fixed

on

me

in

a naked challenge.

One eye was

slightly

closed

a permanent squint.

When

he spoke,

I

was astonished

at the contrast

whelming physical presence and the deep and

between

his over-

cultivated tone of his speech.

was

His accent wasn't the broad drawl of Missouri or Arkansas, though

it

unmistakably midwestern. His voice was an

depth

intelligent one,

and

its

was not simply a matter of pitch. It was full of a quiet anger tinged with sadness. The contrast was overwhelming and confusing. A.J. had been advertised as a violent criminal, a cold-blooded contract just as

soon

gave the I

ask.

told

lie

kill

you as look

at you.

killer

who would

But even half a dozen words from him

to so glib a dismissal.

him why

He liked

I

was

at Potosi,

and the kinds of questions

the idea of using a focus

I

wanted

on process and procedure

to

to get the

administration to talk openly about the death penalty and about carrying

out executions.

We

looked

much he

at

each other, and

could afford to

tell

I

how me to

thought that A.J. was weighing up

me; how much he could afford

represent accurately and fairly what he said.

to trust

My assumption was

right.

Labor Day

"A lot of reporters come down here, "Looking

I

175

looking for a story," he said slowly.

And we're never represented fairly. We're always And it just isn't like that."

for headlines.

portrayed as monsters.

know whether or not I was familiar with his case, and he knew nothing about him except that he was described by the

A.J. didn't didn't ask.

I

administration as a "contract killer." For reasons of his own, A.J. decided

would

that he

tell

me

part of his story,

and the moment of decision was

apparent. His face relaxed, his eyes lost

much

of their suspicion, and he

began in a deep, clear voice: "I was arrested August twenty-first, 1982.

I

was sentenced on March fourteenth, 1983. I was twenty-four years old when I was arrested. I was assigned a public defender, and he didn't put up much of a defense. The trial lasted five days. I was six years at MSP."

"How did you find MSP?" "It leaves a great deal to

I

asked.

be desired."

"At the time of committing your crime, on death row

at

did

you think you might end up

MSP?"

"I hadn't even considered that I'd ever be sent there."

"And when you were?" "I

was expecting

to see

all

these murderers scowling and skulking

around corners and looking for something to

heavy with

"And

irony.

City were deplorable. dirt,

it

We

had water on the

cockroaches. The food was cold.

hall, like

regated.

the rest of the people there.

And we were

kill,"

just wasn't like that.

generally ...

he said

in

a soft voice,

The conditions

floors

any time

it

at Jefferson

rained. Dust,

We didn't have access to our dining We were completely isolated, segwe were

basement, and

in the

for-

gotten."

"Since Missouri wasn't executing people

were serious? Did

"At

it

seem

real to

at that time, did

you think they

you?"

that point, no."

"When

did that change?"

He was my next-door neighbor." of who Tiny Mercer was and noted it.

"Before George Mercer's execution. A.J. looked to

me for recognition

Later, as our relationship developed, his answers to

become

lengthy, and

marked by pauses of ten or

my

fifteen

questions would

seconds

in

which

he would consider what he was saying, and give narrative shape to the events of his

life

on death row. At our

first

meeting,

I

didn't

know

A.J.

176

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

enough

well

to let those silences happen.

wanted

I

to

about his relationship with Tiny Mercer, but the look

me

Mercer's name was mentioned told area, tell

and

me.

I

resolved to

I

was a

it

A.J. take the lead about

steered the Tiny Mercer story onto a

"Did the I

let

that

know much more on his face when and sensitive

painful

how much he wanted

more impersonal

setting of Tiny Mercer's execution date

come

to

level.

out of the blue?"

asked. A.J. explained that a

when

stays given. But

Mercer, knew

"We

was

it

had thought

number of death warrants had been

woke a

the end. "It

turned

lot

and

of people up," A.J. told me.

would drag on forever.

that these appeals

that. In fact, I just got

issued,

the last warrant came, everyone, including Tiny

down

last

It isn't like

month, and I'm not

real

happy

about that." A.J. explained that he's had eight appeals, and that very few

now remain open to him. "My lawyer just told me that the

avenues

between twelve and eighteen months I

on death row

calculated that A.J. had been

years.

His time was growing

worst-case scenario

for nearly eight

you don't get the death

from the

your station I

asked

if

start.

And when

of

line, that can't afford legal

and

represen-

the quality of your defense depends

on

Missouri's decision to switch from gas to lethal injection as a great effect

nodded and looked

this thing."

tattoo

said A.J. "If

in life, that's inherently unfair."

means of execution had a A.J.

money,"

penalty. It's basically the blacks

people that are at or below the poverty tation

and a half

He had already been waiting for the average man on death row in America.

"Justice just doesn't happen unless you have the that,

that I've got

short.

executioner a year longer than the

you have

is

left to live."

He

at

me

as

that said

if

on

rested one foot

on the other knee

on death row inmates to say,

"Okay, and

his knee,

"A. J.,"

like

a

I

let's

at

MSP.

get to the

meat

could see a jailhouse

monogram on a

shirt

or a

handkerchief.

"There was a

lot that built

up

to that.

Tiny and

debates over lethal injection as opposed to gas.

some of their friends, were over to

lethal injection.

that while the gas that

come

A

chamber

out following

And

I

had a number of

he and his wife, and

supportive of the Missouri legislature switching painless is

this.

way

to die,

I

suppose.

It

was thought

being used, there's going to be horror stories

And

the public gets to hear of

how someone

Labor Day gagged for

on

And

capital

because

that's

gruesome.

punishment,

them against it. But, that

twelve minutes; tongue swollen, eyes popping out,

eight, ten,

things like that. feelings

it's like

177

I

the

way

if

it is

putting a

And

now, with

dog

they're borderline

if

they read about

this, that

on

their

could sway

lethal injection, the state

wants

to sleep at the veterinarian's."

A.J. delivered the last line in a long drawl and ended in a sigh that

summed up

own

the state's intention and his

frustration.

in the air-conditioned room, and the only sound

fluorescent lights and the distant

hum

was

His words hung

the buzzing of the

of the air-handling plant on the roof

of the prison.

"You get the first shot, you drift off to sleep," he continued after a pause. "You get the second one, your lungs stop. Third one, your heart stops. People witness executions that are

was

A.J. face as

if

phrase to the air ".

.

at

.

held his enormous hands in front of his

he were trying to grab hold of an understanding, or

make

his frustration

and hand .

He

a loss for words.

." .

to

me, so

I

something tangible that he could pull out of

"They're going to sleep. That's

all

letting

his

hands

And

they also don't

know about

particularly cares for,

They put a

ing for a vein beforehand.

your ass so you don't

the

room made

sense.

It

this is

lap.

the

going to take

And

there's a doctor here

him an examination, search-

gives

catheter in your penis and a plug in

over yourself

shit all

because that would just ruin the

The expression of fixed

who

his

the fact that, before a man's exe-

cuted, he's being held in that hospital over there.

who nobody

into

fall

They don't see

these people see.

mental anguish that goes on beforehand, knowing that place.

a

could understand.

impersonal," he said,

it's

at least

in front

of their witnesses,

sterile effect

of execution."

disdain which A.J.

wore when he

was permanent.

It

was how

I

first

would

came

into

feel if I lived

at Potosi, facing execution.

"I just wanted to see the gas

a pleasant

know

it's

way

go

—

I

down

in effect.

don't think there's any easy

happening months and months

the time right effect,

to

chamber kept

in

some of us might have

lived.

And

way

to die

it

was

when you

advance, and you're watching

to the last minute. If the gas

between us and some of the groups

Not because

it

that are

chamber was kept

caused a

lot

in

of bad feelings

working to abolish the death

penalty, because their feeling was, they supported lethal injection because

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

178

/

it's

an easier way for the man to go, and for

his family.

And

I

just could

not understand this thinking. You're equally dead. At least have

some come out of it for the rest of us who don't support this. And yet they did. And they just lost credibility with us. If you're against the death benefit

you cannot support a method. That's

penalty,

just a contradiction in

terms."

We

discussed

killing

how

was a

lethal injection

particularly

modern method of

someone: "clean," "humane." Relatively quick. Painless, perhaps;

though no one would ever be able to say with certainty.

"What do inmates hospital?"

I

think about the fact that the death house

is in

A. J. laughed

"Not much.

bitterly.

MSP,

In past years at

they had a

... a death chamber, where the gas chamber was located, and two tion cells. I

It

was

it's

.

.

."

been

He shook

there.

facility

here to

.

.

symbol to have a death house. To put

same

significance.

building until that time their

way

We

to

sure

talked about

or, indeed,

A.J.

make

how

.

.

.

head grimly.

have over

Because

that.

sort of

it's

in the hospital,

a

doesn't

it

And

you're put to death.

they go out of

you don't."

how

Potosi

was a showcase prison compared

worked from the point of view of men

row and

to

United States.

built prisons in the

the mainstreaming of death

this.

.

it

You're not allowed to see that part of the

until

most of the recently

A.J. smiled at

his

He took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. "They

simply don't have the

carry the

little

isola-

a separate building."

in

told A.J. that I'd

"Here,

the

asked.

life

and

fifty

I

MSP asked

inmates had

with the death sentence.

"When we moved up

here,

away. That came

we

weren't incorporated

earlier this year. It

wasn't

brought about by any compassion on the administration's or the

state's

in the general population right

part.

We

hit

them over

without admitting

We were And

guilt,

the head with a consent decree.

change conditions. Which

MSP

were

as soon as

we

got here, they started changing

it.

we were

But, as long as

there weren't enough of us to in their infinite

wisdom

fill

up one

it.

to,

real bad.

supposed to come here with some of those same elements

weren't bound by

decided

at

They had

intact.

They decided they

kept segregated, even here,

entire housing unit.

So they

that we're going to incorporate these peo-

ple with general population and, that

way, we can make use of every

cell

Labor Day we've got here. And they Correctional Center

built this place

— and

this is

through 1995, don't worry about

B

and

And

going to solve

it.'

And now

it's

we

just spent a

prison overcrowding

all

1991 and they're out of

Now they're having to change the statutes to where Class A

felonies are getting their sentences shortened

it

179

— Western Missouri

'Look,

told the taxpayers,

hundred million dollars but

space. Again.

and Cameron

I

by way of good time.

has an effect on the taxpayers, which affects the politicians that get

into office.

Because they use the platform, 'Get Tough on Crime.' And

that

impresses some people, because people are scared. They don't go on to explain that we're tying up your tax dollars for years and years to come.

And now a

from the highways,

it's

coming

it's

getting to the point

and

life

fifty

in

it's

where they're

sentence, or natural

coming from the schools. And realizing that these

guys with

they're going to be here, under

life,

And as these men get older, you're going to end up with an old folks' home. And now they want to alter that. But they're not sure how to do that and keep the death penalty. And with the these current statutes, for

tax dollars coming

life.

away from

the schools, and the highways and every-

our system of education

thing,

rapidly. If

you ask school

United States

in the

kids, they think

is

going downhill

your Neville Chamberlain

is

a

And

a

miniseries." I

asked A.J. about the level of illiteracy among inmates.

"It's not like that lot

on death row.

of these guys that have natural

It's life,

there in general population.

a

lot

of them plead guilty to escape

the death penalty. Prosecutors use that as leverage.

young men, they unless

you plead

say,

'Come

guilty.'

And

They

threaten these

on, we're going to give you the death penalty it

scares the hell out of them. Because

some

of them are first-time offenders. They haven't got the slightest idea what's

going on. They're just awestruck by the judicial process. There's a sixteenyear-old seven cells

got a

life

A.J.

and

down from me. He's been

here for two years. He's

fifty."

made no attempt

to suggest he wasn't guilty of a murder.

objected strongly to the arbitrary

way

in

which two men who commit a

very similar crime can receive either a death sentence or

spoke with contempt of an inmate he'd known charges and who, in exchange for buried the bodies, received a

life

telling the

sentence.

But he

who

life

and

fifty.

He

faced five murder

prosecutor where he had

180

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

"You cant But

—

it's

would want

to

put a value on one murder against five

how

could understand

I

the prosecutor

because of how the families of those victims

felt.

and know where they were. Not have

to rest,

years what field they're lying start bartering like that,

in,

equally bad.

make a

They wanted to

wonder

what ditch they're

lying in.

deal

them

to put

for years

and

But when you

sends a message to the next man. 'Well, you

it

hide your victims, and you don't

make a deal on

that.'

" 'We'll go for

it.'

I

plead guilty,

life

tell us where they're at, and you can " A. J. slaps his knee and throws his hands in the air.

And and

in

my

fifty. I

case, initially they brought a plea bargain. If

thought,

twenty-four years old at the time.

I

No,

I

can't

basically got the death sentence because

I

constitutional right to a

Much

trial

that,

because

I

was

don't think I'm going to see seventy-

me to trial. Went to trial,

four in prison, so you're just going to have to take

and

do

I

exercised

my

so-called

by jury."

of the research work that anti-death penalty groups had done

tended to focus heavily on race as a key factor

in the capricious

or arbitrary

down of death sentences. A.J.'s case was different. He was white, white victim. He came from a working-class background, but not

handing with a

one of abject poverty.

"What

sentence you get depends on

upon what time of year

it is.

one. Is there an incumbent? politics affects capital

all

kinds of things.

If it's election year.

Do

punishment

Oh

It

yeah, that's the big

The way

they have a challenger? in

America

even depends

is tragic.

that

Bush appointees

to

the federal courts are conservative. These federal judges, and even Su-

preme Court

They vote

justices,

do not necessarily vote

the conscience of the party that put

position. They're there for

life,

American justice. In the past ten

and

Now

No

place in America

it

is

conscience anymore.

them

into that prestigious

changes the entire complexion of

years, there's

the L.A. gangs, the Jamaican posses to death.

their

been the drive-by shootings,

— the American public

safe

from

this.

they've got this war on drugs, and they're fighting

they have to build more prisons.

is

just scared

Drugs are everywhere. it.

But to do

that,

Now they're going to introduce the death

penalty on the federal level for drug trafficking of major proportions.

Noriega's in prison

down

in Florida. Sure,

ing drugs through channels into the States

they don't

tell

the

American public

that

he was running Panama, siphon-

and making a

we

lot

put him in

of money. But

power

basically,

Labor Day funded him, coddled him for years and years. They don't

tell

them

/

181

that.

But we're getting off the track here," said A.J. I

to return to the question of what effect executions

wanted

had on other

inmates.

"In Mercer's execution, the

we were

one,

first

City. In different wings, where the

CPs and

at

all

MSP.

Jefferson

the general population didn't

have contact with each other. That evening, they ran a number of videos

on the

closed-circuit channel.

of people would be watching

was

sex video, right at midnight; so a

this,

Here

at Potosi,

it

I

had known him for years.

always happens

at 12:01.

the dirty deed in the middle of the night.

everyone knows

tion,

hoping that a court

much

.

.

.

Odds

meal between

is

are

five

patrol,

testers if

they

was respected by It was a sense of

mean, you have to do

I

the day preceding the execu-

And

everyone's sort of

But everyone knows

in.

that's pretty

going to take place. They take us to the evening

six,

And

On

going to take place.

and once we come back to our housing

that's so they

and make a big show of

show up out

we were

it's

and

we're locked down.

and

it's

going to step

number

and wouldn't be thinking about what

taking place, a couple of hundred yards away. Tiny

nearly everyone over there. loss.

A

in the

parking

lot.

can free up

it

for

their

units,

guards and go out

what few supporters and pro-

And I can

understand their fear that

out at the time, somebody might just go off the deep end. But

show videos

here, too. Till three, four, five o'clock in the morning,

hoping to take the men's minds off of what's taking place seventy-five yards

our hospital,

in

away."

A.J.'s face darkened

and he looked long and hard

at

me, and then down

at the floor.

"You wonder

what's going on at that very moment,

be you over there. isolated.

You have

You wonder what

it

must be

when

like,

it's

because you're

a guard watching over you twenty-four hours a day for

the four or five days preceding your execution.

And

here, this so-called

deterrent effect, because they couldn't counter the fact that the rate rises after

going to

an execution.

they're basically saying that

I

mean, they just can't explain

it's retaliation. It's

that.

murder

And now,

society fighting back against

violent crime."

The caseworkers were gathered

in the lobby,

pointing at his watch and mouthing through the

and one of them was

window

that

it

was time

to

—

182

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

go. A.J. said he

and

was

surprised that

in total confidence. I said I

The caseworker gave us a cigarette. A.J. and that

it

slightly

keep an eye on

to

cigarettes, but he preferred to

to talk with

him alone

smoke

his

odd

that

we were

us. I offered A.J.

own brand

—generic

to

smoke

left

alone,

one of

my

nonfilters.

I

depends on the luck of the draw. What three-judge panel

I

his next appeal.

"It basically

get assigned to.

my life

was allowed

I

too.

more minutes, so we went outside

five

both found

I

no one stood by

asked about

was

Whether they were appointed by

depends on

who put them

Carter, Nixon,

Ford

in office. Republicans. That's not

a good

sign."

A.J. to

let

out a massive sigh.

someone focus hard

for

strange experience for me.

way.

When

it

was time

probably have a

lot

exhausted from the interview.

two hours on I

said. "I

their

couldn't imagine

to go,

we shook

of questions after

could put them to him in a

"Sure," he

I felt

I

listen

own impending death was a how it would be to live that

hands.

I

told A.J. that I

would

returned to London, and asked

letter.

look forward to

To

it."

if I

T

JLh HAT NIGHT,

me

Paul Delo and some of his staff had arranged to take

out for the evening. Gary Sutterfield met

me

at

my

hotel,

and

we went

over to the local Elks Lodge. "There's not too "if

you

just

many

places to go drinking around here," said Gary,

want to have a quiet

drink.

Most of

the bars around here,

I

don't go in unless I'm carrying. Otherwise you're likely to have to fight

your way out."

The Elks Lodge was a bunkerlike structure with a big parking lot. There was a big oval-shaped bar with tables around it. Off the bar were two rooms. One had a crowded bingo game in progress. The other had a pool table.

Paul Delo and his wife, Sharon, were there, along with a couple of the

maintenance people and some other prison pool until

late.

183

staff.

We drank beer and played

184

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

"Well, Steve," Paul asked me, "did you get what you wanted?" I

said

I

to look at

had made a

start. I

was on my way

Fred Leuchter's newest

Paul asked

if

I'd

be too long," he

morning

electric chair.

be coming back, and

I

be there for Missouri's next execution. "It shouldn't

to Nashville in the

told

me.

said

it

looked as though

I

would

PART TWO/THANKSGIVING

R

ETURNING TO London

from Missouri was a strange experience.

After twenty years of traveling back and forth between the United States

and England, the differences between the two, while well appreciated, didn't take

much

adjusting to. After returning from

my

first

journey inside

America's execution industry, England had a weird shimmer of normality

when

that I'd experienced

working

in

returning from difficult assignments, such as

South African townships

in the

mid-1980s, or in the favelas of

Salvador, Bahia, in the northeast of Brazil. visited

bit

return,

about

my

21,1 received a

I

wrote to A.J. with a long

life

letter

posted on October script

that I'd just

was an unknown country.

On my little

The America

and

my

from him

16.

that

full

A.

J.

of questions.

I

told

him a

New York. On October

was dated October 4 and

The envelope was

and carried A.J.'s

list

childhood in upstate

that

had been

written in a beautiful copperplate

mailing address in the upper left-hand corner:

Bannister C.P.#24 5B-37

Potosi Correctional Center

Rte 2 Box 2222 Mineral Point, Missouri 63660

USA 187

188

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

The

on a sunny day, and

letter arrived

world from which

number

it

had been

in line to die,

The ten-page

letter

and

on very

written

two other documents: a copy of a

cell

to adjust to the is

paper and included

from

his attorney,

August

District Court, dated

and a

23.

was on a standard form which had been typed in by It was headed "Alan J. Bannister, Petitioner, v.

clerk of the court.

Armontrout, dict"

the Bill

Respondents." The form had two boxes, "Jury Ver-

et al.,

carried the

news of what was very

read: "Decision

Court.

The

likely A.J.'s

by Court. This action came

pus Petition In her

is

to consideration before the

me

Amended Habeas Cor-

denied."

letter, A.J.'s

surprise to

penultimate appeal.

issues have been considered and a decision has been rendered.

ordered and adjudged that Bannister's Second

It is

The

and "Decision by Court." The second box had been marked with an

X and I

his

number.

fine airmail

letter to A.J.

copy of a judgment from the U.S. court judgment

moment

where part of an inmate's name

sent,

housing unit and

his

was

took a

it

attorney wrote that the denial

as I'm sure

it

does to you." The

letter

"came

as quite a

ends, "Try not to get

too discouraged." I

put the legal documents aside and began to read.

"Dear Stephen, "Greetings from the colonies!

been looking forward

to hearing

postage, they confiscated

it

within 30 days or 'donate'

means

their billfolds, so

I

received your letter this evening. I've

from you. As for the $5 you enclosed for

me

and are requiring have

it

my

sent to

out to someone

it

to a charity of their choice,

it

I'll

to send

mother.

which generally appreciate the

I

thought.

"So, you have two thousand questions you'd difficult

from a distance. But, while you're

documentary, please

this

and

I'll

my

do

"Your

first

level

me and

when

I

it is

many

questions as you'd like ability.

question was about George Tiny' Mercer, what kind of

was moved

as a rather

ask as

best to answer them to the best of my

person he was and what 1983

feel free to

like to ask. I agree,

getting the funding together for

odd

his entire cell

I

remember of him.

into cell 15

individual.

He

—he was

slept

on the

I

met Tiny

in cell 16.

and several

Bibles.

May/June of

initially

floor rather than in his

was decorated with religious artifacts

wall, paintings of Jesus

in

He

He had

struck

bunk,

—crosses on the

married a gal by the

Thanksgiving

name of Christy He'd

lift

Bible.

1980 or 1981, and she lived right there in Jefferson City.

in

weights every morning, get a

afternoon, and in

from

visit

But

fool the authorities. in his beliefs.

His wife

fanatical. It is

only

my

'Christianity'

in all the years I is

every

his wife nearly

the evening would write her, do

A number of people thought his

knew him,

sit

ups and read his

was a ruse I

to possibly

never saw him

falter

equally religious, nearly to the point of being

opinion, but

However, over the years

religion.

189

I

I

was

believe he

I've seen a

sincere about his

number of men

turn to

religion as a form of mentally escaping the reality of 'prison' or their crime.

Some men immerse tilt

themselves into learning about the law, others go

into lifting weights

and improving

full

their physiques, yet others 'do' their

time by trying to circumvent every rule. Tiny's escape was religion and lifting

this

weights.

He was

way and would

a very giving person.

help any of us any

were not allowed to have TVs Tiny and pull

it

I

shared a

back and

TV — made

forth to

Tiny was that he and times

—

it

I

our

in

way

He and

his wife

we

they could. At that time,

only on the

cells,

were both

a table with wheels on

change channels. One of

walkway it

outside.

and a tether to

my fondest

memories of

had a favorite movie that we must've watched 50

was Mel Gibson's 'Road

Warrior.' Both of us

would get

to

laughing hysterically at the one scene with the small boy and the boomer-

To this day I don't know 'why,' but it always struck us funny. "Your next question was about the day and night he was executed, and how the procedures were different that day, and what I know of the execution itself. To start with, he was taken off the walk 4 or 5 days prior to his execution. I recall how I was back in the weightroom at the time. He ang.

packed

his stuff

weightroom.

and came back to say 'goodbye'

He knew,

this is the last

as did

spirits.

one guy saying

ya

and

of us, that

we'd see of him.

manufactured good

just smiled

all

'see

We

later'

all

and

was an

Having spent better than 6 years

to the 4 or 5 of us in the

was going eerie

to take place

It

was a

in close

how out moment

I

in

remember

of place that was. Tiny like

no other, Stephen.

proximity to him, there was a

and helplessness, and there was also a sense of pride.

Tiny showed no fear and had come to terms with

his fate.

you're familiar with his case, but, the short and quick of it biker.

and

moment. He was

shook hands with him, and

realizing

said 'in Heaven.'

feeling of frustration

It

it

Supposedly a friend of his brought him a

I

is

don't that

know

if

he was a

gal for his birthday

and he

—

190

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

choked her

to death during the course of having sex with her. It's entirely

possible that Tiny

was innocent of this,

but, he

knew who had committed him

the crime and his code of principles wouldn't allow

He told me

of the crime, and

and who's not when

lying

media portrayed the victim

I

it

to

to point the finger.

consider myself afairly good judge of who's

comes

to proclaiming their innocence.

be an upstanding citizen and pure as driven

snow [...]. Of course, her lifestyle is irrelevant. The bottom was the victim of a heinous crime and somebody had to pay.

—

who

defendant,

testified against

him

for a lighter sentence,

Jan 5th 1989,

Tiny's co-

was coinciden-

we were all kept on lockdown status all day long,

precaution. Tiny

was

visibly troubled

by

well liked by the guards at

On

light

porno movie.

It

it

circuit channel.

was

clear to

was

taking place.

take our minds off what

news and

MSP too,

as a security

and they were

pending execution. At 7 p.m. that evening they

his

began showing movies on the closed

the

she

line is

released from prison only a few months after Tiny's execution.

tally

a

The

all

At

11

p.m. they aired

of us that they thought this would It

was

quiet that night.

watched

I

reported at 12:20 a.m. that Missouri had held

its

first

execution in nearly 24 years, that Tiny Mercer had been put to death. for the execution it.

As

itself, his wife

and a friend of theirs were there

As

to witness

they injected the sodium pentothal he mouthed the words

T

love

you' to her, and went unconscious. There was some twitching as the other

drugs were injected. I'm not supposed to

know

this,

but they added 3

straps to the execution gurney following his execution to keep the twitching to a

minimum. He had requested

that

and was refused. What I'm about Christy dug up his casket to put his It

was kept

is

to

fit

the

he be buried

in his leather jacket

commonly known, but leather jacket on him and was caught.

to

you

tell

—

quiet. Also, I believe I'd told

condemned man with a

isn't

you how one of their procedures

rectal plug

and catheter (so as not to

upset the witnesses to an execution). Well, rather than remove the catheter

they broke

it

off.

"Your third question was how this initial execution affected me, and the row in light of how it hadn't been carried out in this state

others on death

and what,

for so long,

sentence?

I

executions.

if

anything,

have always known the I

it

caused

state is

me

to think of

my own

very serious about carrying out

had thought they were going to execute him from that pre-

vious October.

He was

prepared for

it

then also.

A great many of my peers

Thanksgiving

were snapped

to reality that night.

It

it.

They'd convinced themselves that

somehow

wasn't going to take place, that

was a rude awakening. Not only

the state

191

/

it

just

was just kidding about

did they have to accept that

had

it

taken place, but also had to rethink their contrived 'can't happen to me'

Many

false sense of securities.

of them were

a daze for weeks

in

after. All

of a sudden there was a renewed effort on their parts to get involved in their appellate litigation. This didn't last long.

for

what

his execution

me

caused

Couple of months

my own

sentence. In the aftermath of his execution the media really portrayed in the

worst possible

about

me

light,

my

following

waiting to

kill

I

wonder what they'd say

couldn't help but

The media and

state

would have

to be frothing at the mouth,

all

To hear them tell

them!

him

execution? The general public wasn't given an

accurate portrayal of him. public believe us

and

As

at best.

to think about in regards to

it,

we're

all

the voting

all

beady eyed

killers just

blathering idiots, psycho-

paths that must be put to death to save the public at large from our mur-

derous rampages.

It

troubles

me

deeply

indirectly in this fashion. It's not at

prised they allowed

with

my

you and

I

all

to talk.

when

The

me even

they portray

accurate. I'm

still

somewhat

administration here

is

sur-

familiar

outspoken ways. They generally handpick those inmates for the

various media outlets to interview

ones who'll continue to profess

preponderance of evidence.

— and they innocence

their

We

select the 'snivelers'^

in spite

and

of an overwhelming

have several individuals here that only

lend credence to the state's version of

'us,'

but they've

uncertain terms not to agree to any interview that

may

all

been

cast us

told in

all

in

no

a poor

light.

"Your fourth

question

was about

the other 5

men who've been executed

how things have changed with executions being more frequent. The second man executed was Gerald Smith. He and I were pinochle partners for many years. Gerald was innocent of the crime he was put to death for. and

His brother actually committed brother.

it.

Gerald was protecting his younger

But he and another C.P. murdered an inmate

at

MSP in

1985, for

which they both received an additional death sentence. Gerald was very easily manipulated.

aimed.

I

believe he

I

compare him

was manic identical to

be

He'd waived, and resumed

his

depressive.

appeals several times in the years

The procedure was

to a guided missile just waiting to

I

knew

him. Finally, he ran out of time.

Tiny Mercer's

—they removed him several

192

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

days

advance and placed him

in

and ran movies on the eve of locked

down

an

in

succession.

13th

punishment. Then,

capital

On

Stokes, he

was

Sure, he wasn't liked, but he his execution

is

was

still

a

me

me

the one that affected

with his death

—

for a

life

broke

It

his spirit.

found

I

this

He was

the most.

let

very tacky.

a very back.

shirt off his

soft

What

that a couple years earlier the courts

is

had

sentence, and the state appealed this and got

a higher court to reverse the favorable ruling penalty.

May

quick

human being. With Leonard Laws,

spoken individual, and would give a person the

ruled in his favor

in

in

by everyone here, and we were

disliked

off lockdown status 10 minutes after his execution.

troubled

was

Rumanian govern-

the

— Winford Stokes and Leonard Laws went

&

12th

the entire prison

same day

the

is

ment which ousted Ceausescu outlawed

—

And

his execution.

in the hospital,

immediately after the evening meal. Gerald was put to death

Jan 18th, 1990, which coincidentally,

1990

room over

isolation

He

— and

reinstate the death

simply gave up. The night of his death

actually cried in frustration as I thought of

how

man had

this

I

trudged

through the rice paddies of Vietnam, survived the densest of jungles, only to return to the United States

and be put

dog

to death like a

and begged and pleaded

for his

life

fire

He

to try

robbed the

elderly,

to the brutal nature of his

murdered them and

and cover the crime. George struggled

rumors that several of the guards continued

at the end,

I

fistfight,

but outside of here, with a gun in his hand

ous.

And

then there's Maurice Byrd

have been innocent,

I

really don't

couldn't help but think of just a

to

little

differently,

it

how

he

is

after

he was

got along, but he, for

was dangerous.

on

and I've heard

him even

to strike

securely strapped to the gurney. George and

knew him

set their residence

timidity,

I

end

at the

be spared. Next was George Gilmore.

to

There was no public sympathy for him due crimes.

at the veteri-

down

narian's being 'put to sleep.' Oh, Winford Stokes broke

all

his

be the type that would run from a

this past

—thoroughly danger-

August 23rd. Maurice

know. The night of C.P.#21 and how

could' ve just as easily been

me

if

may

his execution, I

things

had gone

that night. There's

not a great deal of difference timewise between #21 and

my

#24. I'd been

4 years at one stage in the appellate process, and unfortunately that same

day

— August

it till

23rd,

August 24th

my

Writ of Habeas was denied.

—got a

large manila envelope

wasn't expecting anything,

I

opened

it

right

I

from

away. All

didn't

my I

even learn of

lawyer, and as

I

had to do was read

Thanksgiving the cover letter. Suffice

a

visit

to say,

it

I'll

enclose a copy of

and the

it

wasn't good news. The day before

it

my

from a lawyer working on

we

when we

I

spoke, that was

still

good

usually a very tripping over

"Now,

trial

my

talking about

report

sat there

my mind,

and

given you. I'm

could hear myself

I

come

start

all.

Got

case, not because

state's presentation

what

you,

tell

I

I feel

I'll

am

not

a

man

for

money.

very uncomfortable

attempt to explain." is

summed up by a

1989

Louis Post-Dispatch: "Alan

in the St.

was convicted of the

I

have anything to hide, but because

I've done.

of the Bannister case

on Missouri's death row

the death

was embellished by the author-

guilt

to

me

with Stephen,

state, I allegedly assassinated

to terms with

Jeffrey Bannister

offense that got

and ensuing appeals. To

This was not the case at

The

The

question.

fifth

According to the

I've not

I

that I've got

a worst-case sce-

in

may have

I

ruling.

words and such.

However, the degree of my

innocent. ities.

conversationalist, but as

as for your

my

penalty,

me

weighing heavily on

apologize for any distracted impressions

193

spoke, I'd gotten

case and he had told

approximately 12-18 months before I'm put to death nario. So,

page of the

first

I

contract killing of Darrell

Ruestman

of Joplin in August 1982. Bannister was paid $4,000 for the murder by a

man who

had

said his wife

left

him

Ruestman. Bannister had

for

earlier

convictions for rape, armed robbery, deviate sexual assault and burglary."

me

In his letter, A.J. told "It

quick

began

him up on the to

June 1982.

in

money by

but

Phoenix arose, and

the

guy

him

—and

to return left.

it

(I

felt

took

I

Well, the

hadn't).

was

it

man

it

I

how

he

killed Darrell

offered the opportunity to for a

uneasy about

to him, so

week long drunk, and drugs

I

some drugs

selling

offer,

his version of

—

still

I

gave

it

guy it.

I'd

known

I

took

Well, the opportunity to travel

—couldn't

find

mutual friend of ours to give to

I'd entrusted to return the drugs,

appeared to everyone that

They were

make some

for years.

had some cocaine

to a

Ruestman.

I'd

went on a

run off with these

eventually returned to the guy, but not before

me in a big way, and at this time I'm unaware of any of this When I do hear of it I called him immediately, and it had been

he'd slandered confusion.

straightened out already

about

me

9th, 1982

—or so

I

thought. Turns out he'd talked so badly

that he couldn't bring himself to admit his mistake, I

was attacked by

Paradise City, Arizona.

I

3

men

in the

parking

was stabbed 6 times

lot

in the

and on July

of the Cactus Club in

back and

left

for dead.

194

I

a

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

vaguely recognized one of them, and they thought 4

comment about he won't

to the hospital

On

to Illinois.

knew

rifle

as

else involved.

was abuzz with at that time, but

returned

I felt. I

realize

how

it

he'd misled me, and

still,

Upon my

arrival

back

in

anticipation of a confrontation I

was more con-

someone took a shot

on a seawall along the banks of the

sat

I

But

and the tension was unmistakable.

I,

cerned with recuperating a

I

had time to cool off and

somebody

the entire area

Illinois,

I

else off.'

cannot express the anger

I'd stolen those drugs.

if

there had to be

between him and

I

way back

the

could've looked as I

nobody

rip

—and survived.

was done and made was taken by helicopter I

Illinois

me

at

River.

with

Enough

He insisted he had nothing to do with my being shot at, and then he went on to tell me how bad he felt over my being stabbed, how his supplier had set it up and he didn't know about it till it was too late to warn me. It all seemed was enough so

asked him

of a

man

heard

tell

I

this supplier

knew he was

make

this

this,

guy

my

but

and decided

wasn't hiding

I

feel the first

I

this

me

name and address guy had moved when he the

thought about

same pain

anger or plans

him

at

and decided

it

all,

kneecaps and cripple

in the

and

quickly discarded

I

left

for Missouri.

moved

here and located the man, and confirmed that he'd just Illinois.

sat at the trailer next to his

I

was

I

gone through. I'm ashamed

I'd

to shoot

burden of guilt. So

shifting the

thought was to stab him.

was going

my

for that evening.

was, and he gave

His story was that

in Missouri.

you

this idea,

him.

who

I

hadn't died and was returning.

I

going to to

up a meeting with the guy

set

me, even though

plausible to I

I

and he drove up.

It

I

got

here from

was a tense

me and panic. He didn't. Walked right moment as past me and even said 'hello,' and he didn't look to me to be any drug dealer. So I returned to my motel, called the guy who'd given me his name, and he assured me it was this guy. I had a .22-caliber revolver that had I

thought he'd recognize

been given to me. So, about everything.

image of a

TV

I

I

returned to this

realized

series flashed through

the leg, and bled to death. baseball bat, to beat

spot and did solution

—

to

I

some tell this

and address by

him

So

trailer park,

I

my mind

sat there thinking

went through

this trailer I

guy the whole story and how I

I'd

figured this

in

park looking for a

returned to

and came up with what

his so called partner.

The

—where a man was shot

with. Couldn't find one, so

thinking,

and

couldn't shoot this guy in the kneecaps.

I

my

little

thought was the his

name

would create

strife

been given

I

Thanksgiving

between them, and into the front of

I'd

my

be

pants.

in the clear. I I

moved

case he tried to knee me, and

answered, and

I

froze. All

I

had been carrying

my

around to

it

left

gun tucked

this

rear pocket, just in

went up and knocked

I

195

I

He

at the door.

Tm from Illinois and

could think of to say was

He was on me instantly. He was 40-50 pounds heavier than me, and I was only 6 weeks out of ICU and in no shape to be fighting. I cupped the revolver in my left hand and swung it at his jaw. He had a good hold on me with his right arm. As I swung, he tried to block it and want to know why.'

—

and to

did,

hand it

all

day

this

don't

know

hammer causing

that hit the

happened

I

slow motion.

in

if it

the

It's

was

gun

his

to

But

fire.

forever etched in

on me, there was no look of pain on

his hold

forearm or the heel of it

did,

and

it

was

my like

my mind. He loosened

his face, quite the opposite,

almost a peaceful expression as he calmly turned around and walked back

panicked and ran as

in the trailer. I

wasn't even sure going to go. the

power

morning

I

was

was

hit. I

trying to figure out

for a gun.

where

me down in Arizona from Illinois. At 5:10 a.m.

sitting in

being murdered I

he'd been

was sure he was going

I

was

was

I

a bus station when

I

heard a

the night before in this trailer park.

knew

TV It

the next

report of a

was a

arrested 20 minutes later.

I

was

familiar

man

sick feeling

they were talking about Darrell Ruestman, and

it

me. Yet, there was also a feeling of relief that he wouldn't be coming me.

I

firmly believed he'd be coming for me, and obviously had

to track

I

Stephen.

if

I

froze after

enough with the law not

—

when I heard they were calling it a contract killing couldn't believe it. As it turned out, the slug had entered about 4 inches above his right nipple and traveled at a 60° downward angle piercing his pericardial sac. It didn't take me long to find out some things that really

to say anything, but

—

Ruestman was no drug

leveled me. Turns out that Darrell

absolutely nothing to Illinois.

my

do with

mistaken identities imaginable. son hassling him, and

I

to assault him.

He

It

must've thought

thought he was the

man

was I

We both lost. He lost his life and I've lost my freedom, life.

Even though

sibility in

I'd gladly

his death

the loss of his

do

so.

As

for

life.

my

If I

left

hassling

the worst case of

was

behind

and had

he had just

Why? Because the estranged husband of his girlfriend was

them and had been paying people

my

dealer,

getting stabbed. Yes,

yet another per-

my

being stabbed.

and, quite possibly

my

respon-

could bring him back by forfeiting

my life,

was

trial, it

accidental,

was a

farce.

I

can't discard

Even

as

it

was, there was

—

196

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

no physical evidence against me. The

up

he pursued

it

as

To

were.

if it

took the stand and

perjury wasn't well thought out.

as

I

made

incriminating remarks. Truth

to believe?! Their local

was

drive

by

sheriff testified

to confirm the

Problem

slowly.'

positively identified

26 blocks away

The

highway

bluff overlooking the

meatwagon

is, I

same

how 'hit'

him

to it

Even

I'd told

their

him

I

sat

by 'watching the

time!

state's witnesses as

being

pointed out this flaw to

I

court appointed attorney, and he simply glossed right over

that

is, I

law enforcement

couldn't possibly have done this

by another of the

at virtually the

county was

wasn't a contract murder,

or a long haired criminal type from another state!

officials

on a

it

get the conviction, several police officers

testified that I

But who's a jury going

didn't.

state's attorney for that

and even though he knew

for re-election,

it.

I

also

my

wanted

emphasize to the jury that the angle of the gunshot was not such could be done intentionally.

prosecutor told the jury

didn't say a word. Instead, the

was 'ambidextrous'

I

And

handed.

strictly right

He

not one

word was

to explain this. Truth

said about

my

is,

I'm

being stabbed,

or of the drug deal. This would've muddled their theory of a contract Yet,

killing. Illinois.

refute,

All in

it

was common knowledge

There's a great

many

and prove by documentation all,

I'm not

to literally

guilty of capital

their

Eventually,

I will

murder, but

be executed Stephen. But

it is, is

I

difficult subject for

this

nothing by comparison to the

of a tortured conscience.

me

all

of which

documentation. But

degree murder or manslaughter, neither of which

excessive as

hundreds of people

other inconsistencies,

am

is

its

I

in

can

moot.

guilty of either

2nd

punishable with death.

punishment by the self-inflicted

state,

punishment

Maybe now you can understand why

this is

a

to discuss."

AJ. went on to talk about disparity of sentencing in murder cases, and closed with some pages about his childhood, finding some humor in the fact that I

had been a truant and he a regular school attender.

He

talked

about the British television programs he enjoyed watching, and ended,

"I'll

be looking forward to your return to good of Potosi. Please don't hesitate to ask I

in

any questions. Take care."

answered A.J.'s

letter,

preparation for the film

I

and meanwhile there was business to conduct

was making. TV2

financial support to the project. In the

resistance to

it.

Some

in

Sweden was

first

to lend

United Kingdom, there was a great

television executives

found a focus on the execution-

Thanksgiving

good

ers themselves a violation of

and

taste.

I

Others took a harder moral

197

line

moand two

found the project voyeuristic, appealing to an audience's basest

tives for watching.

The United

channels bid for the

film.

sum

ably larger

One, a

more

States proved large

pay-TV

service, offered a consider-

than the other channel. Intense telephone negotiations took

place during October, and before Thanksgiving States,

on

my way to Potosi,

uncomfortable

receptive,

in

traveled to the United

I

to finalize the contract.

many ways,

The

negotiations

were

but were concluded on a handshake.

I

re-

turned to the broadcaster's office the next day to sign the heads of agree-

ment, and found that a

new

clause had been added, saying that

I

would

guarantee that an execution in Missouri would take place by a certain date; otherwise I

I

would be

in

patiently explained

breach of contract.

an obvious

and

sets execution dates,

fact: that the

was impossible

it

Missouri Supreme Court

how any man's decision might be. Of

to predict

appeal would go in advance, and what the court's course, delivery of the film the film

was unusual

was an important

in that

it

contractual issue.

dealt with issues of

life

However,

and death as they

happened, and the film schedule would have to follow that of the judicial process.

To my astonishment,

the issue could not be resolved.

We resumed

successful negotiations with another broadcaster able to square

its

com-

mercial needs with an understanding of the subject, and a belief in the

importance of the debate. I

He made a experience. He

kept thinking of something that Paul Delo had told me.

comparison between

his role in executions

and

his military

talked about being in a state of "battle preparedness."

between war and a

knows

in

advance

state execution, of course,

who

will

do the

killing

is

The

that in the latter,

and who

will die.

difference

everyone

However,

it

is

the certainty of that event for which one must prepare psychologically, in the

most private depths of one's

the

war on crime,

victims.

were

to

passed,

It

the

was a war

war on in

self.

In a way, there

drugs. There were

was a war going on:

many

casualties,

many

which prisoners were taken, and some of them

be executed. Waiting was the name of the game, and as each day I

found myself more and more a part of it.

w

T Thi HILE I WAS in New York, Fred Leuchter hit the headlines again. On September 27, the Jewish Chronicle in London had carried a front-page story headed "NUS Backs Call to Ban Leuchter." (NUS stands for the

National Union of Students.) series of meetings in

I

knew

that

Germany, France, and

David Irving was planning a Britain at

which Fred was to

speak about The Leuchter Report. The Jewish Chronicle article said that a number of groups and the chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs had appealed to the Home Secretary to ban Fred from entering the United Kingdom. The following week, Fred was

"Home Secretary Bans HoloThe then Home Secretary, Ken-

the main headline in the Jewish Chronicle:

caust Revisionist from Entering Britain."

neth Baker, said that he had decided to keep Leuchter out because his

"deeply repugnant" views were an offense to British Jews and "his pres-

ence here would not be conducive to the public good." I

called Fred to ask

the whole thing

Home

what was happening, and he

was a hoax.

Office advising

him

I

asked

that he

if

told

that he thought

he'd received a notice from the

was banned. He 198

me

said that a

document

Thanksgiving

had arrived, but had been sent to

He

his father's address.

thought

it

199

I

suspi-

cious.

"Why?"

I

"Because

asked. it's

got no reference

number on

it.

That part of the form

letter

isn't filled in." I

asked Fred to fax

"Dear

am

"I

me a copy.

It

was dated October

1

,

1991

,

and

it

read:

Mr Leuchter directed

by the

Home

Secretary to inform you that he has given to the United

Kingdom on

would not be conducive

to the public

you should not be given entry

directions that

the grounds that your presence here

good.

"As in

these directions have been given by the

accordance with Section 13

(5)

Home Secretary personally,

of the Immigration Act 1971, you are not

entitled to exercise the right of appeal that

would otherwise be available

under Section 13 of that Act. "If

you attempt

to travel to the United

Kingdom you

will therefore

be

refused entry."

The

letter

gration

was signed by a Home

and Nationality Department

whether, as Fred suspected,

The

Office official.

Home

it

was

to find out

Office confirmed that the order

telephoned the Immi-

if it

work of a

the

I

was a

valid order or

"radical Jewish group."

was genuine, and

I

told

Fred of

my conversation. "Well,

it

doesn't stop

me

going to Germany," he said.

Fred did go to Germany, where he addressed right-wing ings.

Then, driving a German

Britain undetected, illegal

by

entry to Britain

reporters

how

meet-

he and Caroline managed to enter

rental car,

sea, through the port of

was planned by

he smuggled Fred into

political

Irving,

Dover. The successful

who

later refused to tell

Britain, saying that

"he planned to

use the same route in future."

On November

15,

Fred turned up with Irving and the French revisionist

Robert Faurisson to address a meeting Irving introduced Fred as

shook

his

his talk

hand as he welcomed him

when

Irving

at

Chelsea

Town

"an American gas chamber to the platform.

Hall in London. specialist"

and

Fred had just started

remounted the platform and whispered

into his ear:

"There's a gentleman here to see you." The gentleman turned out to be

an inspector from the Metropolitan Police.

Fred was arrested, and he and Caroline were taken to a police

station.

200

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Fred was held

in

a

cell for

fourteen hours, while Caroline waited in the

lobby of the police station. Fred claimed that he had entered Britain

He

holding up his stamped passport as evidence.

been banned from the United Kingdom, but had. Fred's

illegal

entry caused a minor

row

legally,

claimed that he had not

that, apparently, his father

after

it

had been reported to

Home Office by John Marshall, the Member of Parliament for Hendon He told reporters: "It is very worrying that an individual against whom an exclusion order has been issued can waltz in without any subter-

the

South.

fuge.

It

raises very grave questions about the conscientiousness of

officials."

up,

it

A Home Office spokesman responded:

worked

the U.S.

correctly.

Embassy

in

He was

'The system

some

didn't balls

not here for long." Fred sought help from

London, but

his appeal fell

on deaf ears.

Fred said that the police who arrested and detained him were "only doing their job," but he complained that he was given only a single cup of coffee and

no food during

his fourteen

hours in the police

cell.

Leaving the

police station en route to the airport, Fred released a statement to the press

which

said: "I

was

incarcerated in a frigid cell with

gerous and potentially

lethal place for

felons (a dan-

a maker of execution equipment)."

At Heathrow, he was handed a one-way of Her Majesty's Government.

known

ticket

back to Boston, courtesy

w

HEN I returned to Potosi the week before Thanksgiving,

the tem-

perature had plunged to freezing and the leaves had fallen from the trees.

I

returned to a different landscape. Significant landmarks of St. Francis and

Washington counties were etched

now

in

my memory

from the summer; but

they were framed against a hard, gray sky. The trees, water towers,

abandoned lead mines, had a the rich ore through which

flat,

stark appearance; but in the gray light,

Highway

8 had been cut

showed blue and green,

and glistened with the water that ran off the scrubby

hills

and down the

rock face.

me on my arrival at the prison. I said hello to the other execution team I'd met on my first visit, and the main

Paul Delo greeted

members of

the

topic of conversation in the prison

was deer

hunting. Paul

had been out

with his muzzle loader and spotted a deer, but couldn't get a clean shot.

Throughout the prison greeting was,

that morning, as the shifts arrived for

work, the

"Get Bambi?"

Paul introduced his two assistant superintendents, 201

Don Roper and

Phil

202

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

Banks. Both were key members of the execution team,

between two

roles. Phil

was

who

currently the operations officer,

switched

which meant

from the doctor and the condemned inmate, he was the only

that apart

other person in the death chamber while the execution took place; he

was

also the only other person, apart from the inmate, visible to the witnesses.

The other

role, currently

Don Roper, was to escort the state who came down from Jefferson City for

performed by

witnesses and look after the brass

an execution.

Don Roper he

is

is

a native of southern Missouri. Stocky, with a

an ebullient character with an easy smile and a

jokes.

Known

has behind

it

for his brightly colored shirts

a deadly seriousness. His creed

you've got to remember where you

you or me

He

in

took

a

me

moment

if

into his office

points the

was

is

limitless stock

of

easygoing manner

would be

killers.

They'd

kill

to their advantage."

coffee.

Don

is

an experi-

relaxed and comfortable in his job. attention to the embroidered sleeve

Each represented a deer

board.

and

kill,

buck had. There were snapshots of him antlers in the other.

Bow

very popular in southeastern Missouri, and I'd heard that

Don

standing with his prey, hunting

hunting

it

is

drew

I

filled his bulletin

how many

indicated

ties, his

beard,

''Every time you go inside,

and poured some

put his feet on the desk and

patches which

is,

These guys are

are.

they thought

enced corrections administrator, and

He

and

full

bow

in

one hand,

nationally ranked as an archer.

"Did you get one

this

Don scowled and

said he hadn't

year?"

I

asked.

had any luck so

far.

"First year ever

I

haven't had one yet."

We began to talk about the kind of inmates housed at Potosi, and he told me: "Let's face baby-sitting

comes

—

it.

them

either

The guys we

got out here,

for the rest of their lives,

by execution, or

years old, there's no

way

if

it's

too late for them. We're

whenever the end of

the guy's got

life

and

fifty,

that

and he's

life

fifty

he's going to live to be a hundred years old.

So

we're just going to have to put up with them and baby-sit them, whatever that takes.

And

there's aspects of the

program

that's going to create its

own problems as we go down the line." "You mean, it'll turn into an old folks' home?" I asked. "That's right. And we'll have all kinds of problems. intensive,

and medical's going to go sky high."

It'll

be

staff-

Thanksgiving

"So," years,

and

it's

ter, spelling

set to

double again. What's the answer?" "I don't know.

You

we

took them and said, 'We're going to

you the best food, the best recreation the and the

conditioning. It's like the carrot this

me."

out in a simple form. "These guys are classified C-Five, our

it

stick.

We're going

can provide. Air-

state

and

stick,

semi-freedom. But right across the

we've got the

segregation,

tell

philosophy behind Potosi Correctional Cen-

highest security classification. But

can have

203

asked, "Missouri's prison population doubled in the past ten

I

He shrugged his shoulders. He began talking about the

give

I

You

that's the carrot.

hall here, in administrative

to leave

up

it

to you. If

you

choose to be a butthole, an aggressive, assaultive-behaviored inmate, then

we've got the

stick.' I

think that's got their attention. Certainly, the capital

punishment inmates."

"What was ment inmates

like

it

when

the prison

first

opened, and the capital punish-

started to arrive?"

Don poured out some more When we opened them up the

coffee and said, first

"You know,

it

was

time and allowed them to have Fourth

of July without restraints, and these guys were playing volleyball,

them

for the

couldn't

first

move." He leaned forward and

I

stick

wondered

and the

Don

life

was

and

said,

"They

some of them

life

"It's library.

initial

difference

He

it.

shuffled. So, they

knew

tension between the

condemned men

were both

at Potosi for the

same

between those with the death sentence

fifty is that some of them had good lawyers, and Or one of them had a super prosecutor, and got death

shrugged his shoulders. said.

installed cable

that can't afford

Because

and

didn't.

worked," he

We

shuffled.

inmates.

fifty

rather than life."

flick

was any

"The only

and those with

still

still

about."

said there wasn't, because they

type of crime.

a

all

there

if

some of

time in ten years without leg irons and restraints, they

they'd learned to walk with leg irons on, they

what the

ironic.

Hey,

"We

spent over forty thousand dollars on a law

TV. And

there's a lot of people in this

I'd rather see this

guy laying

in his cell

county

watching

than out fighting, digging tunnels, or trying to scale the fences. I'd

rather see

them watching an X-rated movie on

TV and

taking care of their

way than raping some little punk out here." Don reminded me how little violence had occurred at Potosi since

sexual problems that

the

204

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

some wood

prison opened, and looked about for the old adage, Tf

extend that to humans.

and

and

life

fifty

to

knock on. "You know

you chain a dog, you make him mean'?

And

I

think you can

been no cross-violence between death

there's

inmates. There have been stabbings within the groups.

many we have." I asked Don if he had been involved in the execution of Tiny Mercer at MSP. He told me that he was part of the original execution team trained by Fred Leuchter, but at the Mercer execution he was an observer. He told me that, since the death penalty had been moved to Potosi, it had But, hey, you put five hundred sailors on a ship and you'll have as

fights as

become a

He

proud.

which everyone was

flawlessly functioning procedure, about said the

key to successful executions

at Potosi rested

on the

made by the head office to let Paul Delo run the prison without "The upper echelons said, 'We're giving you the responsibil-

decision

interference. ity

and the authority

And

way.'

it's

management

to take care of

been done

level.

that

it,

way.

and we're going to stay out of your

It's

been done by the people

We keep the bigwigs out of Leave

sible directly to the politicians.

it

it,

guys

to the

mid-

at

the ones that are respon-

who

are hands-on in

middle management." I

Don

asked

sibility

about his role

in executions,

as the operations officer

the operation are taken care of.

Before

we

make

to

Me or Phil

and he

was

He

told

He

assignment.

went to a seminar about

me

respon-

Don

raised a question

had put to him, about whether carrying out executions

difficult, stressful

until I

"My

Banks."

said,

"I'm a Vietnam

don't suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. it

me:

told

sure that the nuts and bolts of

got further into his role in executions,

that other people

was a

is

I

didn't really

vet, but

know what

it."

about a Department of Corrections stress seminar he

tended with the prison psychologist, Betty Weber, and some other

from

Potosi.

There were

"There was a worry it,"

he

said.

"So

priority, the six

group, the

first

groups

from prisons around the

that people involved in executions

at this seminar,

most

in all,

stressful

would

each of the groups had to

work

list,

suffer in

at-

staff

state.

from

order of

situations they could think of. In

my

one was being taken hostage by inmates. The second was

watching a fellow

And we

six

I

staff member get killed or raped.

couldn't figure out

number

six,

so

we

There were a few more.

put down, going through an

Thanksgiving

execution.

Out of the

Potosi, there's very

one. But none of

When

had any experience.

going through an

six groups, the other five felt that

execution was number

little

them were from

Potosi,

done as professionally as we do

it's

There's

stress.

much more

205

I

and none

when

stress

here at

it

there's a

stay."

you

"It doesn't bother

He

me

looked

in the

at all?" I asked.

eye and said

it

calloused individuals in us, or what.

didn't. "I don't I

you're right there in the execution chamber with them. last

person to see them draw breath. You're the

a cigarette and

him smoke. Does

lets

doesn't bother me. Sure,

And

I

We

killed

somebody.

I

mean, you're the

person that gives him

last

And

bother you?'

your toes it

fighters

it

I

for

what

didn't. All

I'm doing

is

a job that the state

And

all

in dealing

officers is

I

is

Not a crude

used by inmates. "If you ever shifted in his chair

very high.

let

And

if

it,

but a fear of being

they are going to do

.

."

he

and leaned forward to explain. "These

it.

And

they are good at

it

shorts.

it.

way

to circum-

Their byline

They don't have

over the next ten years and do

kind of like the bullfrog in boiling water:

realize he's in boiling

.

they can use you as a correctional officer to do

immediately; they can do

got

think

I

fear of physical assault, although

your guard down, one time

and yeah, they can con you out of your

in corrections.

fire

that lurked inside

inmates are in here twenty-four hours a day, figuring out a

easily. It's

and

because you have high stress."

he pointed out that you would be crazy not to have

vent the system.

what

think that's

in corrections

and law enforcement overall

Potosi spilled over into fear.

He

me,

told

with the inmates you have to be on

the time, one hundred percent of the time.

and police

Don

They have committed

are the worst of the worst.

Don's healthy respect for the ever-present danger

and so

it

it is.

a high-stress job. Probably the divorce rate

the reason for that

that,

And

say no.

I

talked about stress and working in corrections, and

very hideous crimes.

began.

that's the

should do."

"Our general population

makes

if

And I know where I'm at. Department of Corrections, I know my duty.

take

as a professional in the

These people says

I

it

know

don't know. People say, 'Well,

water

until he's

dead.

And

that

it

is

to

con,

do

it

so slowly,

He doesn't even

same

thing

happens

These guys are so smooth, and over a period of time they've

you doing things

for

them."

206

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

"What about

own physical safety?" I asked. Don. "You know, people ask me, 'Well,

fear for your

"Absolutely," said

And

ever scared?'

say, 'Yes

I

the control of fear that

it's

not a good

Some

officer.

I'm scared every time

sir.

makes

the difference between a

and a good

officer,

makes

to control

fear create anger?

"Sure.

We

flare,

it.

So

mind

that

if

just in the last

officers

someone

and spits

And I'm

knocked out of them.

might be

me

that

that lead to difficult situations?"

because I'm a human being.

the crap

on

Does

being thrown on

my

in

you

and

the difference between a mediocre or a bad

had an incident here

fluids

no doubt

officer

tell

He knows that he's scared, and he knows how knows how to keep himself out of a bad situation."

"Does had some is

But

officer.

And he

it.

you

good control of

think they have

I

aren't

in there.'

good

of the officers probably wouldn't

they fear. They have fear at times, but their fear. I think that

go

I

It

You

I'm just that type of guy.

officers being spat on.

on me,

afraid

me

my

anger

somebody

but, hey,

don't spit on

my mind,

certainly those officers, in

month or so where we

have the

if

is

is

There

going to

going to get

somebody

me and right to

spits

away with be angry when get

someone throws body

fluids or spits

when

an excessive use of force because of an incident

possibly there

where an inmate asked

I

be

Don

is

built in their

there's times

on someone."

spits

about

on them. And, yeah,

why

the local people

community.

He

told

me

were so eager for the prison

he'd been involved in setting up

three different prisons during his tenure in corrections. "I can

my first experience,

Farmington and helped

But when

I

was it

remember

they burned the sign at Missouri Eastern Correctional

Center 'cause they didn't want the prison there.

tional Center,

to

set that up,

invited to

was a

come

And

then

I

came

and there was some opposition

to the

totally different

ground breaking

at Potosi

to

there.

Correc-

atmosphere. They had brass bands,

they had the high school band playing, and they had politicians making speeches. People were wearing hats that said 'Yes to Potosi Prison.'

time

the

first

ing

body

I

had actually seen a community bonded together

to get a prison in their

community.

It

was a

different

in

It

was

a lobby-

atmosphere

altogether."

"But,"

I

asked, "even though Washington County

depressed parts of the

state,

is

one of the most

why would anyone want a maximum-security

prison designed to house people for

life

or execute them?"

""

Thanksgiving

"It's

told

a nonconsumptive industry, a nonpolluting type of industry,"

me. "You're not putting chemicals

particular county

around. So

it

of

rate

207

Don This

counties

all

step in the direction that they needed to improve their

was a

economy and

in the air or into the streams.

had the highest unemployment

I

get something here for the local

community

to

be able to

have employment."

"What about your

role in executions,"

I

"How

asked.

do you

into

fit

the Missouri Protocol?"

"Protocol in regard to executions. The execution warrant

down from

the Missouri

Supreme Court, then

it's

whether

it's

calls

myself and the other assistant

some

got

potential.

and

validity the execution warrant has.

have some will

real

sound

be carried out,

validity,

then we

and there

start

is

Mr.

that time,

and we evaluate

on the telephone

what kind of substantiation

When we is

At

in,

Normally, Mr. Delo

quite a bit to the attorney general's office to see

handed

usually faxed to us via

the attorney general's office to Mr. Delo's secretary.

Delo usually

is

determine that

it

does

the possibility that the execution

according to our post orders and according

to the execution procedures."

"What's the next step

in the

procedure?"

"Mr. Delo, myself, and the other warrant to the individual and hand

assistant superintendent take the death it

to

him

personally.

At

normally give the inmate the option of going into the holding out.

That depends on the inmate.

gist to

determine

if

that time, cell

we

or staying

We also depend highly on our psycholo-

the guy's of the mental state to be able to handle being

number of people that we talk to. We talk to the And Mr. Delo and myself and Mr. Banks evaluate the information that we receive. We then make the determination at what point or at what stage we should put the condemned inmate in the holding cell. One of the inmates we put in as long as a week prior to "Why?" "Okay. Because he was quite unstable, and he let us know that he was. So we felt for our staff's protection, as well as his own, that we should put him in the holding cell. The past one we just done still

out. So, there are a

caseworkers.

—

—

"Maurice Byrd?"

Don nodded.

"Basically, a pretty

good inmate.

We didn't put him in the

holding cell until approximately forty-eight hours prior to the execution."

208

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

"Once

the inmate

in the holding cell,"

is

I

asked, "what happens to

him?"

"We take

allow him to take

of his legal documents.

all

ited access,

whereby he can

He

By

We

with him at least every twenty-four

visit

allow him pretty well free access to the canteen and the items

he needs

make

check on any kind of

rulings.

Mr. Delo and myself or Mr. Banks, the

policy,

other assistant superintendent, hours.

Supreme Court

watched continuously, under twenty-four-hour supervision by

is

correctional officers.

that

allow him to

has free access to the telephone; unlim-

talk to his attorney to

last-minute appeals, or any kind of

"He

we

of his property. In particular,

all

—those

snacks or soda

in regard to

sorts of things.

We try to

as professional and as comfortable as possible in those last

it

hours of his

me

"Tell

few

life."

about the location of the holding

chamber. Where

"The holding the actual death

is it

cell, in relation

to the death

geographically within the institution?"

cell is in

proximity to the medical unit and

chamber

itself. It's

to Housing Unit One, which

just a

a

is

total

few

feet

away.

lock-down

is

quite close to

It's in

unit.

proximity

So he

is

fairly

isolated within the unit."

"What

are the deathwatch officer's responsibilities while he's in the

holding cell?" "It's

an open room subdivided down the middle with a wire mesh. The

on one

officer sits

side of

documents everything

it

everything. Every telephone thing

is

with a typewriter and telephone, and he

happens

that

call,

put on the chronological.

in chronological order.

what he's

And

eating, his attitude

And Mr. Delo and

myself are

mean

I

— every-

in constant

contact with the officer and the inmate."

"So,"

I said.

"From

"You've got the inmate

that point

we go

eight hours prior to the execution,

We

do everything, step by

dotted, to

we

happen

take

it all

dot the

/.

way down

also check our ter security.

step.

We go

that night. This

the

machine

in the holding cell.

into the execution

it

barrel. If it's

and say, 'Hey,

what we are going

to

do

this is

an

i

to be

what's going

that night.'

And we

even putting an individual on the gurney.

security.

We

We do all the exterior perimeWe do all the operations posts, all the

in that run-through.

We do internal

forty-

we do a complete thorough run-through.

Lock, stock, and

through

is

to

What next?"

mode. Approximately

Thanksgiving

We

security posts.

run through the witnesses

the press witnesses, and

think the key to

know

making

witnesses as well as

staff

make people aware of what's going run as smoothly as

this thing

what's going to happen. They

situation

—

know

exactly

209

I

it

does

how

to happen.

is

I

that people

to react

when a

comes, and they act very professionally."

4

'And on the day of the execution?" "The morning of the execution, we gradually. start

the

We

start closing

making places

lot

so

front parking

all

happens that's

also

office staff, witnesses,

and

We have our staff park in the lower end of the

the dignitaries and folks that are coming can have up-

—those

The operations

head

down

We

the institution.

traffic into

in the parking lot for

news media who come.

parking

down any

start closing the institution

sort of issues are

covered

right

away

that morning.

a morning chronological of everything that

officer starts

in regards to the execution itself, in addition to the chronological

ongoing with the officer

paper people that

call

—

this is

Any

in the holding cell.

what the chronological

oddity,

any news-

is for. It's

to record

what's transpiring in regards to the news media and the press."

"When do

people

start to

man

their posts?"

"The bulk of the people don't come on

asked.

I

until

approximately three-thirty

on the afternoon prior to the execution, which

We

have our

first

another briefing at briefing

is

held at twelve oh-one.

briefing for those individuals at three, six.

and post those

individuals.

During

uals to call the news, individuals to call

nected with the execution.

all this

all

process,

is

we have individ-

law enforcement agencies con-

We have other emergency

other institutions, and they are set up in the main outside in case there

we have we do that

and then

Outside security comes on at three, and

squads coming from

command

headquarters

something out of the norm that transpires, such as

an enormous amount of protesters, or an enormous amount of people that are for the execution.

We've had a few of both, so we have people on hand

to take care of any situation that might exist.

down

gradually to where

it

is

We start closing the institution

real tight. In fact, as

you come under the

viaduct, into the institutional grounds, you're challenged at that point. if

you have no reason

stopped. All outside

to be here, you're turned

traffic is

stopped.

And

away. All deliveries are

The only people

that are allowed

on

the institution grounds at that time are people that are directly involved

with the execution or have a

work assignment

for the evening shift.

—

210

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

"At

we have our

six

briefing for

of the security posts, and those

all

individuals that are involved directly in the proximity of the execution

chamber. Everyone receives

badge for the particular post

and they

their post orders,

will receive the

that they are assigned to."

A top-secret part of the Missouri Protocol is the security system whereby each key execution-duty post has a color-coded badge.

"What happens "Everybody

is

after that final briefing?"

dismissed, and shortly after that briefing

where anybody can volunteer,

lain service

message by the chaplain, a prayer

body

is

service. That's for

we have

a chap-

like, to

hear a

all staff.

Then every-

little

assigned to their post and they shortly thereafter go to that partic-

ular post,

The

inside security

buttoned up real

is

doesn't allow anyone to enter

or

they

if

if

tight.

The

control center

they don't have the right color badge on,

they're not in the right position."

if

"What is happening down in the execution chamber at this point?" "The area is blocked off from the actual medical unit itself with curtains.

We don't want to interfere with the medical unit, still

running. So,

care of them.

body

if

We

we have

because the

institution is

medical problems, they have to be able to take

have one exterior door operator who makes sure any-

that goes in behind the curtain itself

cleared to be there.

is

We

have

three individuals that are technicians, that are sergeants and lieutenants, that

make

sure the internal security

very professional individuals that

and press witnesses his entourage is all

We

be

to.

in contact

Once

again, they are

with state witnesses

itself,

the plant maintenance engineer and

making sure once again that the machine

of the vials are

chemical.

will

adhered

in that particular area.

"Inside the actual chamber

and

is

filled

correctly with the right

have two or three individuals

is

operational,

amount and the proper

that are in that area

making

sure that the telephones work, that the manual systems are in operation,

making sure

that the blinds are operational.

the machines and checking to

IVs, tubes, and everything

—

make

is

The doctor

sure that

all

is

there, checking

the proper equipment

there and ready to go.

We

also

have on

contract a nurse that does the actual setting of the IV. That individual there to

make

ready to be that area,

the

if

sure,

once again,

that the proper

equipment

is

available

is

and

The psychologist and the chaplain are on hand also in someone needs to talk. They have free access to the inmate,

utilized.

condemned inmate,

at that time. So,

once again, we do

this in

a very

Thanksgiving professional manner, and

we

try to

/

211

keep everybody abreast of what's

transpiring." 4

'While

these preparations are going on, what

all

is

happening to the

inmate?"

"From about seven still

in process.

He's

things really start to speed up. All of the appeals are

in contact with his attorney.

the attorney general's office,

might be —

who

in contact

is

We

are in contact with

with wherever the appeal

either in the Eighth Circuit Court, or the U.S.

At seven, he

is

offered a sedative, and that sedative

not a forced sedative.

Once

again, he determines

Generally, they accept the sedative.

Supreme Court.

is

at his option. That's

if

he wants

it

or not.

We continue in the execution mode at

that time.

"Usually, Mr. Delo or myself

visits

with the inmate around that time.

We have made exceptions to the visiting policy and allowed visitors to stay with the inmate right up to nine or nine-thirty, but after nine-thirty, things really start to is

happen. Everything

open and ready to go

that time. All of the press

We

is

at that time.

and

set in the execution

Our

mode. Everything

director usually

comes on

state witnesses are called in for

site at

a briefing.

require approximately fourteen witnesses, whether they be press or

regular state witnesses.

They come

on what to expect. Then, stairs for

tions,

at

into the

assembly room and are briefed

approximately eleven, they are taken down-

a special briefing with the director of the Department of Correc-

Mr. Dick Moore, and George Lombardi, the director of Adult

Institutions.

They

are told to choose a

spokesman out of the group,

to relay

the turn of events that transpire in the next hour back to the rest of the

news media waiting

upstairs.

They have an opportunity

to

sit

around and

chitchat."

"And

the inmate?"

"Back

in

the holding

cell,

the inmate

is

constantly observed and

watched."

Don's voice was quiet and precise as he ence as a key

member

related,

from

his

demned man in the final forty-five minutes of his life. "At approximately eleven thirty-five, the inmate is taken execution chamber, where he thereafter, the

He

IV

is

own

experi-

of the execution team, what happens to a con-

is

strapped

down

into the actual

to the gurney. Shortly

placed in the arm."

leaned forward and looked directly at me. "That

last

twenty-five

212

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

minutes, officer,

when

you're standing in the execution chamber as an operations

documenting, logging the things that transpire

And

time. Seriously.

it's

very serious throughout the

take any of this execution procedure

minutes,

when

have to look

your

own

have a job to do, and

that will out.'

be carried out, and

it.

thereof.

we

never

I

And

life-

We do not

human

life

and say, 'I'm an instrument of the

chose to do

I

been convicted

a

killed

so this

is

are the instruments

—you

state. I

anybody, but

this

the ultimate penalty

whereby

it's

carried

"

Don had was

self

is

certainly, that last thirty

you're in preparation of actually taking a

into

individual has

But

lightly.

—a minute

institution.

turned his walkie-talkie off at the

quiet in his windowless office.

ing of a

word processor on

"In the chamber

itself,"

The

The only sound was

it

the muffled clatter-

the other side of the closed door.

he continued, "you have the operations

Mr. Banks or myself, actually transpires.

of our interview, so

start

in the

officer,

chamber documenting everything

plant maintenance engineer

is in

that

there in regard to any last-

minute preparations for the machine. There are four other individuals behind closed doors that do the actual pushing of the button per you're at the

few minutes of the execution mode. Mr.

last

Delo, Mr. Armontrout,

Mark

officer,

who

.

.

.

Sutterfield,

Mr.

that the proper information

word

the director to them, and they give the initiates the

when

Schreiber, those are the key individuals in

regard to making sure that everything

comes from

se,

command

to the operations

There are a couple of

for execution.

other individuals that are in constant telephone contact with the telephone

make

operator upstairs to last-minute stay.

We

guy clemency, or

if

even

sure that call the

Don

all

lines

open

if

in

appeals for clemency.

then went on to describe the chain of

one who

command

mansion

in Jefferson City,

in the final

itself, all

and described

the

mo-

way up

his role as the

actually orders the executioners to begin.

"At twelve,

all

chamber itself, we and the

there's ever a

Missouri in 1989, Governor John Ash-

ments before an execution, from the death chamber to the governor's

if

he's going to give the

he wants to stay the execution."

Since executions recommenced croft has denied

we have

governor to see

legal

systems are checked. All the talk to the director,

way from

the execution

who in turn talks to his legal counsel,

counsel for the governor, to see

if

there

is

any change

at all in

Thanksgiving

the

upcoming execution. At twelve midnight, the order

mence

the execution

itself,

and

is

/

213

given to com-

time the operations officer receives

at that

word through the protocol and chain of command, and gives the word to proceed. The machine is activated at that time. Then the buttons are pushed, and the execution commences. It takes approximately four and a half minutes

from the time

that the first chemical

is

dropped

until

perma-

nent death occurs. There's three chemicals that are dropped through tubes into the individual's body.

The

It's

basically very painless, very swift.

individual goes to sleep."

"What do you experience personally during an execution?" 44 As the operations officer, I am the last individual to be visible execution chamber. individual to say if

he would

I

any

take note of everything that transpires. last

At twelve, the

like.

in the

We offer the

requests or anything; he has that option to speak, individual normally looks at his visitors or

just kind of looks around. It's very anticlimactic, sions, screaming, or paranoia. There's basically

The

IV

and there's no convul-

never been any of

that.

individual, generally speaking, has accepted that they're sort of like a

terminally

ill

person, and they have accepted their fate.

ultimate penalty for the crimes that they committed.

Once

And

again,

it's

the

they basically

... the eyes just close, and they're dead."

"What do you hear?" "Quiet.

I

asked.

real quiet. Probably,

It is

more than anything

else that

I

my own

could hear

I'm conscious of

heart beating

in that last three, four, five

minutes after the execution warrant has been read, and the green

light

has

been given to proceed with the execution."

"What is the doctor doing?" "The doctor himself is behind a

screen and he's constantly watching the

heart monitor to pronounce the individual dead. utes, is

and as soon as

we

deceased, and

that time arrives,

It

takes about four min-

he gives the word that the individual

close the blinds at that time and disconnect the con-

demned inmate."

"And what

is

"Probably a

going on outside the death chamber?"

little bit

more involved than

to sign a notarized return warrant of execution.

the execution

itself,

The

state

their dismissal, they

have

just what's inside.

and press witnesses are dismissed, but prior to

and then they're dismissed

That takes place to

right after

go back upstairs and to

214

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

news media what

tell

the rest of the

up

to the press area

from the governor's

"What happens

office, in regard to

in the

"Within the chamber is

fingerprinted.

by law. And

comes

in

all

itself,

the inmate, the deceased inmate at that time,

and takes the body."

of the inmate,

why

"We are very where

was executed

those determinations are made, then the local coroner

"If the purpose of the fingerprinting

it is

is

to

make a

positive identification

don't you fingerprint him before you execute him?"

...

we know exactly who the inmate is prior to him going

But we need the

in there.

what's transpired."

death chamber after the execution?"

verified that this is the individual that

It is

after

Mr. Dick Moore also goes

transpired.

and gives a statement, usually from the governor or

fingerprints to

thereby verified that

inmate

this

go with the execution warrant, is

the

one

that's deceased.

They

are attached to the execution warrant, which goes to central office and then to the judicial system,

executed

in

whereby

accordance with Missouri

"What is it like after an members of the team?" "Very

Don

relieved.

on

it's filed. It's

was

that the inmate

file

state law."

execution? Not just for you, but for the other

Very calm,

cool,

and

leaned back in his chair and said,

Very professional."

collected.

"We

anticipated a lot of stress in

regard to executions. That has not been the case. People have met the challenge,

Very

along.

wife

my

is

you

will,

and have taken the

And once an

professionally.

go home. In regard

basically

close

if

office

about two

we

up, and

Don

While

goes

in the

after

is

and moved

right

over, people just

pack everything up and

morning, and go home. Normally,

talk

to sleep after

home

execution

to myself, I generally

down, we

sit

have a problem going

stress in stride

and discuss, and

my

go to

sleep. I don't

rest of the

team holds a

I

an execution."

an execution, the

party.

We

agreed

outside,

it

was a good moment

and Highway O, where

shrouded

in

a

light mist.

A

it

to

pause for a

cigarette. It

snaked off toward Mineral Point, was

freight train screeched

and clanked cautiously

along the tracks that cut through Mineral Point, blowing

When we went

back

inside,

I

was cold

asked

Don

to

tell

its

me

whistle.

about the five

executions that had taken place at Potosi.

"Okay. Our

first

execution at Potosi, done

in

January of 1990, was

Thanksgiving

Gerald Smith. The next execution was done

we done

Winford Stokes, and

in

215

May of 1990, which was in May of 1990, Leonard

in

another one also

Laws. Then, August of 1990 was George Gilmore, and our

done

/

August of 1991, was Maurice Byrd. Now,

all

last

execution,

of those executions

were done very professional." I

asked

any of the executions had made a particular impact on him.

if

'The one that I recall more so than Gerald Smith was Leonard Laws," said Don. "Leonard Laws was a past vet and there were a couple of last-

Laws

minute stays for Leonard

in regard to his military

on the crime

possibly his involvement in Vietnam had an impact

had committed. As

far as

was a veteran,

I

inmate, and he

was not

munity standpoint

good boy

pretty

feel that.

Leonard Laws

disruptive or destructive. staff.

raised; ironically,

the road

it

had burned

assisted in

— one being

in

The

murder," fact that

Don

It

was almost

the house

directly across

—

for a

all

told

died in

it.

He was

few

killing

of four elderly

and then burnt

dollars

Don whether

their

charged with four counts of

me.

Leonard Laws had been a Vietnam veteran,

ability to function

in getting

me

just like the

think of Paul Delo's meta-

ready to carry out an execution.

I

he thought his military experience contributed to his

smoothly as part of a group which deliberately set out to

life.

command,

"Certainly from the standpoint of protocol, of chain of certainly aligns itself with the military chain of command.

Paul numerous times refer to

behind that, even from there

was a job

my own

to do,

And I have

it

heard 1

it

as a battle, or possibly preparing for a

particular initiative, or a particular battle.

knew

— was a

which he had been

in

and was charged with the

phor of "battle preparedness"

take a

He had burned

Point.

key members of the execution team, made

asked

not assaultive or

community

this local

to the ground.

a wheelchair

home. Of course, they capital

was a good

from Paul Delo's house.

"Leonard people

He was

had seen the ruins of the house

I

basically

had went bad."

Leonard Laws was a native of Mineral of his victims.

he

Leonard Laws was probably, from the com-

— because he was from

that

that

a bond between Leonard and myself because he

never did

aggressive towards the

And

background.

And

I

standpoint, of

think there's

when

and knew what job

I

I

went

some

validity

to Vietnam. I

had to do.

And

I

knew

216

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

were going

that people

preparedness that

I

sciously think about

and

my

let

that

to

be

killed. I

knew

that

up

go through might be something

Vietnam because

I

command

con-

up a mental block

But, yeah,

it.

think the

I

similar. I don't

pretty well put

be past history, and to forget about

So

front.

know where

I

know what is expected of me. I've prepared And in order to make Mr. Delo look good, I'm going to do my job a hundred and ten percent. And I think all of that works for

chain of

it.

lies. I

I've practiced for

it.

together."

"What about

Does

the machine?

giving a lethal injection

by hand,

like

it

make a

compared

difference,

they do in Texas? Does

it

really

to

make

any difference to the button pressers which of them activated the machine?"

"Many is

people are familiar with the Texas

and they give the guy a

just a syringe,

computerized machine that

which pushes a

vial

the

first

chemical

cated machine. that,

is

It's

much more.

It

doubt

one

off of a

takes out almost

T

computer

in the individual's

don't

know

"But

if

it

a

passed into the IV tube. Once again, quite a complinot just a simple syringe and needle.

who

.

.

virtually all

human

mechanism whereby

rotating

mind

.

It's

more than

error.

And

actually pushes the button, because

that

there

is

it it

always a

pushed the button whether he was the

that started the lethal injection rolling or not.

doubt whereby

itself is

individual loses consciousness within seconds after

also takes out the doubt of

works

machine

of chemical into an IV tube that then flows into the

The

individual's veins.

of execution, which

by weighted pistons on a cylinder

triggered

is

mode

shot. This

So you have

that external

probably gives someone a protective mechanism to say, "

that

I did.'

you were pressing one of the buttons, would the dual control

system make any difference to you? Would

it

make any

difference to

you

whether you knew or not?"

"No. To me have made up

it

wouldn't

my

mind

make any

that

I

am

difference whatsoever.

a tool of the

state

and

I

as a penalty, the ultimate penalty being the death penalty.

not bother

me

once again,

perform these

And

it

would

whatsoever to push the button. These individuals have

been charged and convicted of capital,

I,

crimes."

capital,

and

in

many

instances, multi-

N MY FIRST visit, psychologist, Betty

Paul Delo had suggested that

Weber.

He

told

me

Potosi, she carried out a survey designed to effects

on

staff.

Betty was

she responded to a letter

I

away on a sent

I

talk to the prison

that after executions

had started

at

measure the psychological

fishing trip during

my

first visit,

but

from England, and enclosed a copy of her

questionnaire and the results. Thirty-four staff at Potosi responded to the survey, including twenty-

four corrections officers and six management.

The

survey, carried out in

June 1990, consisted of fourteen yes/no questions and was prefaced by a statement of purpose: order to

"The

more accurately

following questionnaire has been devised in

evaluate staff's thoughts and feelings related to

our execution process and procedure. The purpose of the questionnaire to allow us to better assess the total procedure

and to determine

if

is

staff

concerns and needs are being adequately addressed and met. Your input

would greatly enhance our to

ability to accurately assess

your concerns and

be able to plan for future executional procedures accordingly." 217

218

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

After collating the responses, Betty

Weber

reported that "the overall

consensus of opinion was that the problems expected,

i.e.

stress, guilt,

depression, etc. did not occur following the executions."

The survey

showed

had second thoughts about accepting a work assign-

that five staff

ment on execution problems as a

night (one did not answer);

two experienced family

result of their involvement; four staff said they

would not

volunteer for a specific execution assignment (one did not answer); eight said they did not understand the appeals process in death penalty cases

(two said they understood efit

from

answer

it

"somewhat"); eighteen

would ben-

said they

training relating to the appeals process (though thirteen did not

this question); five

had reservations about the

of

guilt

condemned

inmates; and four staff said they needed to talk with someone after an execution.

Betty circulated the results to

view of the

fact that

we

along with a note which read: "In

staff,

are interested in everyone's thoughts and feelings

concerning the execution procedure and the related responsibilities

have accepted, we

feel that

enhance our cooperative

open communication

efforts to

perform

manner. At the same time, our goal

is

in

is

we

necessary and will

a competent, professional

also to provide support for fellow

workers and to maintain empathy, compassion and concern for

all

in-

volved." Betty and

I

outgoing lady Bill

met

at Potosi during the

week

before Thanksgiving.

who wears flowing floral-print dresses,

she

like

is,

A large,

her mentor

Armontrout, a native of Oklahoma. She's had seventeen years experi-

ence

in corrections

trout

first

and has worked

hired her to

work

ever since. She was at

at

in

every type of prison.

MSP, and

Armon-

they have had a close relationship

MSP for the execution of Tiny Mercer,

Fred Leuchter when he came to

Bill

install his lethal injection

and she met

machine and to

train the Missouri execution team.

Betty

is

a key part of the execution team. While she

the chain of

command

machine, her presence

is

not involved in

or in the actual operation of the lethal injection

is

an essential part of Missouri's approach to carry-

ing out executions. Paul Delo and Bill Armontrout both feel that a psychologist arise,

be present to deal with any

staff

it

is

important

problems which

or to talk with the condemned inmate during his

last

hours,

if

may

he so

wishes. During the time of an execution, Betty works closely with Gary

Thanksgiving

Tune, the prison chaplain, and they share a pastoral or counseling

was

interested to

know, from her standpoint as a

Missouri Protocol meant

One of the most

for her.

/

219

role. I

what the

professional,

began by asking what her duties were.

I

she told me, was competency determinations.

difficult,

The purpose of a competency determination

is

"mentally competent" to be executed.

a controversial issue, and one

that piques abolitionists.

They argue

It is

that

if

to declare that the inmate

there

is

a question as to the

is

mental competence of a condemned person, he or she should not be on death

row

in the first place. If the

condemned person

insane, they argue,

is

he or she should not have been convicted of capital murder. Along with the execution of minors, or those given a death sentence while under the

age of eighteen, the execution of retarded or mentally incompetent persons is

from anti-death penalty groups and the

also the focus of fierce criticism

liberal press.

One of

the problems in competency determinations

is

who

should be

appointed to give a professional opinion. Betty told me: "If our person

does

it,

then the inmate's attorney

of view to

kill

saying, 'They're trying to get I

knew

that the

few weeks,

in the

saying,

They're promoting

him

1980,

it,

their point

why, everybody's

" off.'

competency issue had come case of

on death row since

him

is

that person.' If their attorney arranges

to a

Bobby Shaw. Bobby Shaw and most of the

head during the is

last

CP#7. He's been

staff at Potosi

were expecting

to be next in line for execution.

In July 1979,

Shaw was

serving a

life

sentence for murder at

MSP when

he stabbed a sixty-one-year-old corrections officer to death. The stabbing occurred in the prison kitchen, and

The order was given

Shaw was was struck While

I

to

an

Shaw was cornered in

officer in the

I

MSP.

eventually disarmed by an officer wielding a baseball bat, and in the head.

had yet to meet Bobby Shaw,

corrections officers had for an inmate

Most

the yard at

tower to shoot, but was refused.

stated baldly that they

I

was aware of

who had

were looking forward

killed

the feeling that

one of

their

own.

to the execution.

had spoken to Paul Delo about Bobby Shaw, and asked

if I

could

interview him.

"Sure.

You can

try," Paul said, "but

say to anybody for years."

Bobby Shaw

hasn't had

much

to

—

220

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

"What do you

think?"

asked Paul.

I

"Do you

think he's competent to

be executed?" Paul smiled, and answered the question the best don't think

Bobby Shaw's any

stupider

now

way he knew how. came

than the day he

"I to

prison." I

asked Betty whether she had been involved

tions in the case of

She

competency determina-

Bobby Shaw. and

said she had,

originally,

in

and even now

me: "I think the major contention there

told

—

mental retardation."

is

"Is he mentally retarded?"

"There's some there," she

asked.

I

"But how do we know

said.

that

was not

caused when they took the weapon away from him?"

"When

they used force to subdue him?"

"Yeah. There was a head problem." Betty sighed in resignation. "He,

you one

side,

him long enough I

like

which they want you to

know

so

to see.

many inmates And I've sat and .

.

they

.

show

talked with

that he's a depressed individual."

asked Betty whether,

in

her opinion,

Bobby Shaw would agree

to talk

tome.

when it happened, down and spend some time. Coach

"I think so," she said. She warned that conversation,

was very

difficult.

him a little

You

bit.

"So you have

sit

Listen to what he's saying. Allot whatever time

his

IQ?"

necessary.

asked.

I

"Probably borderline," Betty Granted, a

lot

replied.

"He

has organic brain damage.

of them do have organic brain damage. But a

out running around, a

lot

of the

staff,

have some. But

that

lot

of people

does not mean

you are incompetent or nonfunctional. But they're making a

out of 'This makes him incompetent.' I

is

don't jump in there."

"What's

that

to

big issue

"

asked Betty for more general impressions of Bobby Shaw.

"He

mostly just

"Has he been "Yes,"

sits

close to being executed?"

said Betty.

"Was he

fully

there with a hangdog expression," she said.

"He

got a stay the day before."

aware of what was going on?"

"Yes." I

pressed Betty for more. She said he was "a passive guy

who

kills."

Thanksgiving

"How do "For is

all

you

I

221

interpret that passivity?"

outward appearances, as

that passive, that

much

far as functioning here,

anybody who

of a loner on the surface, has got to be having a

of pent-up frustration, anger." She nodded her head to emphasize the "

lot

point. I

"Oh yeah

was

interested to hear Betty's view of A.

your meetings with him,"

"They've

all

I

Bannister. "Tell

J.

me

about

asked.

been congenial. Really, about the only time I've spent with

him has been kind of game

You know,

playing. Tennis.

bat the ball, see

what he can get out of you, and where you're coming from. Seldom a serious conversation." I

that

suggested that inmates might be wary of Betty, and

made her job

Betty was

They

think,

death.'

asked whether

difficult.

blunt.

"They

see

me

as the

'You want anything,

all

enemy

most

here, for the

she's going to

do

part.

put you to

is

"

The fact ment

I

that Potosi Correctional Center

facility

means

that

is

a purpose-built capital punish-

everyone working there

is

part of the execution

process. Betty finds that this does inhibit her ability to function. "It

sometimes makes

it

difficult to

do

my job,"

she told me. "There

is

always a worry, on their part, about confidentiality." Betty admitted that confidentiality was a problem for her also. If she learns of things that could affect the security of the institution, or pose a

make that As with the

threat to another inmate or staff, she feels a responsibility to

information known, so that appropriate action chaplain and the doctor, Betty's

first

may be

responsibility

is

taken.

to ensure the security

of the institution.

We

spoke about the

outside of prison.

What

difficulties in treating is

the state has already decided that the offender

be executed or incarcerated

until his

"With long-term offenders," lization. All I

do

is

who had no

future

lacked the opportunity to use

all

of her

and carry out research. "But," she

my own."

is

when

and

will either

not cure.

It's stabi-

incorrigible,

death?

said Betty,

fight fires, basically."

Ain't nobody's fault but

people

the point of working toward rehabilitation

"my

goal

is

She regretted the

skills to

said, "it

fact that she

design treatment programs

was

my

choice to

come

here.

222

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

"What about

problems?"

staff

I

asked.

"Do you

get very involved in

that?" "It has taken

There are a

lot

up a

lot

my

of

time," Betty told me. "It goes in spurts.

of problems at home."

"Caused by the job?" "It's

hard to say in a

lot

came

of these cases which

first,

the chicken or

the egg. Did the job cause the problems at home, or were there problems at

home initially; and when the job got to be an issue, you know,

just kind of came to a head. is

find a lot of problems with alcohol.

I

peer pressure that causes problems

at

asked

staff. I

if

them before they came sider

staff

usually

I

do

affecting their job

to

work

at Potosi.

is, I

check mental

it's

I

we can staff

outside the prison, Betty told me. "If

know

And

status.

might say, okay,

a situation

But treatment of very serious

this

in.

most of the people with violence problems had

if I

from the security point of view, then

supervisor. Otherwise

—and

among

problems ever become serious enough that you have to con-

their situation; or

I

of domestic violence

whether that person should continue to be employed

"What is

lot

she thought that was a direct result of the job they were

said that, in her view,

"Do

And there

home."

Betty also said that she came across a

She

everything

has happened

—

I

I

at the prison?"

see anything that get hold of their

I

think this person

is

dealing with

deal with in a couple of sessions."

problems would have to be referred I

were

to

have a long-term situation

might become a threat to that person because

too much."

We discussed Betty's role in the execution process, and she told me that from the time a death warrant

is

issued, she

forty-eight hours of a deathwatch, she

making herself available

to staff

is

on

call.

they are available

if

anyone would

approaches, Betty and the chaplain are

remain

until the

been much

in

procedure

demand. But

like to talk.

in the

completed.

is

their

final

works closely with the chaplain,

and the condemned inmate.

an execution, she and the chaplain tour the housing

know

During the

To

On the day

units, letting

of

inmates

As the execution itself

execution area, where they

date, their services

have not

presence seems to be an important part of

the ritual of the Missouri Protocol. I

wanted

to return to the survey that Betty

fined itself to yes/no answers,

I

wondered

if

had designed. Since

it

con-

she thought there were staff

concerns beyond what a brief questionnaire could address.

Thanksgiving

"Everybody says we ought no,

I

pate.

to

have

we can

don't think so. Because

all

I

223

these problems. I've always said

opt out at any time and not partici-

We are not made to do executions. And that security alone helps out

a whole lot."

"But wasn't there a

lot

of anxiety on the part of those

who had no

experience of executions?" "Curiosity overrides a lot of that

what's going on. This

is

"What about you?" really. I

they want to see

an unknown thing." I

asked.

"How

involved in the process of taking a

"Not

You know,

initially.

life?

did

Did

you react when you became it

have any

have a very clear-cut and secure

the decision to execute the inmate. there to provide what comfort

is

I

effect

feeling. I did

have nothing to do with

possible,

not

make

that. I

am

and support."

Betty had been present at the execution of Tiny Mercer at all

on you?"

MSP, and

at

of the executions carried out at Potosi. She said that Fred Leuchter's

machine and the Missouri Protocol do much associated with an execution.

The constant

to reduce the level of stress

practice, the breaking

the process into specific roles, the clear understanding precisely

what

their role

is,

competent, professional, and

all

made

on the part of

for a procedure

stress-free.

down

of

staff

which she called

A

FTER

MY interview with Betty

local restaurant.

When we

finishing their lunch at the next table.

came over and "I'm I

afraid

I

Also,

I

I

I

took her to lunch at the

Delo and some of

was

his staff

talking with Betty

were

when Paul

said hello.

won't be able to

was worried

transgressed

Weber,

arrived, Paul

that something

some

rule,

had arranged

meet Bobby Shaw.

I

and

you go

let

inside this afternoon,"

had gone wrong

that Paul

was

telling

—

that

that

I

said.

had inadvertently

me I would have to leave.

to talk with A.J. that afternoon,

was anxious

I

he

and

I

was hoping

to

wouldn't be able to get word to

them.

"You can you want

to.

"Okay,"

stop by the admin block this afternoon and talk to any staff

But most of them'll be

up

tied

in

a meeting

I said.

"All right," said Paul.

"Do you know what "Unh-uh," she

"I'll talk to

that's

said. "I

you

about?"

I

have no idea." 224

later."

asked Betty.

this

afternoon."

Thanksgiving

I

felt

uneasy throughout lunch, and when

prison, Paul

'Til

tell

was having a

you what

He

Steve."

looked

have to make an announcement to the afternoon. You'll have

drove Betty back to the

I

main entrance.

cigarette in front of the

it is,

at his

staff,

keep

to promise to

225

I

watch. "I'm going to

and then to the press,

this

this confidential until tomor-

row." I

said

I

would.

mainstream the HIV-positive

that we're going to

"I'm announcing

in-

in general population."

mates

"I see." "I'll

inform the inmates

we do have any I

"No

you

trouble, I'd rather

thanked Paul for

his explanation,

problem," he

And just

this afternoon.

didn't

and

told

as a precaution, in case

go inside

him

that

this I

afternoon."

had been worried.

''Come back tomorrow and do whatever you

said.

want."

That morning, there had been a concert

mate bands, and a

St.

That evening

story.

Potosi, but there

I

in the prison featuring the in-

Louis television station had come stayed in

my

was no mention of

down

to

do a

room, watching for news from

either the concert or the

new HIV

policy.

The next day,

I

went

to visit the caseworker

an interview with Bobby Shaw. consent; but to

Bobby Shaw grays. Unlike

my

surprise,

I

He

his hair in

I

I

hope

that

Shaw would

He was

dressed in prison

lent some Bobby was probably the poorest no TV, virtually no possessions at all.

had heard

had no

radio,

shook

that

an uncombed Afro that dated from the time of his

offense, ten years earlier. His eyes

When

little

my request for

most inmates, he had no item of clothing which

inmate at Potosi.

slow.

had very

taken

that of the caseworker, he did.

shuffled into the interview room.

personal style or identity.

He wore

and

who had

his hand,

it

were heavy-lidded and

was

record played at the wrong speed.

He

limp. sat

When

down

he spoke,

visit.

movements it

was

like

in the chair I offered,

he fixed his eyes at a forty-five-degree angle looking explained the purpose of my

his

a

and

at the ceiling while I

My first impression of Bobby Shaw was

226

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

that

he was severely withdrawn. However, he listened carefully to what

had to say, and he answered the questions I

asked about

had stepped 4

"Do

and he

told

me that the courts

in.

much

help from your lawyers?"

know," Bobby

they ever

"Not

put to him.

his previous execution date,

'Are you getting

"I don't

I

I

said. "I

come down

haven't heard from them."

to see

you?"

recently."

"Is there anyone here that you're particularly close to?"

"No. Not I

real close socially."

asked Bobby

how he

he

"It's cold out there,"

"Sure

spent most of his time. said.

is," I said.

Winter

in Potosi

could be brutally cold, and the design of the prison was

such that the wind whipped along the walls. There were very few inmates out in the yard.

Read sometimes. Papers and

"I don't know.

brochure from an organization

my I

asked Bobby

stuff like that. I just got

to the death penalty.

a

Read

he had been a Christian before coming to prison.

if

you come

to read the Bible?"

"I don't know. Chapel.

asked Bobby

He

He

had been raised as one, but hadn't been a churchgoer.

"How did

I

opposed

Bible."

said he

I

that's

how he

A Bible course." got along with the guards at Potosi.

looked at the ceiling and didn't answer.

asked

if

he thought he had a chance with

"I don't know.

couldn't

I

tell

you

his appeals.

that."

He

laughed. "I wouldn't

know."

When

I

responded

asked Bobby whether he would agree to a film interview, he in

a brighter and stronger voice, his speech quicker and more

animated than before.

"What you

going to do, try to

air

it

in

America, or over there

in

Lon-

don?" I

told

him the

film

would be shown

Bobby's decision was

Some

of them would."

in the

United States and

firm. "I really wouldn't like to

in

be on

Europe.

television.

A

J.

BANNISTER was

in

good

spirits

workers' building, and seemed glad to see me.

when he came

into the case-

We spent half an hour telling

each other more about ourselves and our personal

lives,

and discussing

He was amused about the story of Britain's director of prosecutions, who was caught by police soliciting a prostitute from

current affairs. public

a seedy London back

his car in

evaluating the police report

on

street.

his

own

Faced with the

difficult

job of

case and deciding whether he

should prosecute himself, he had no option but to resign. Less amusing to A.J.

was

the U.S.

the appointment of Clarence

Supreme Court.

We

Thomas as the newest member of how he had faced hundreds of

discussed

questions about his stand on abortion, and how, without giving a straight

answer to any of them, he nevertheless had had been asked one question on that

he did not think

it

was

capital

his

nomination confirmed.

unconstitutional.

Despite the cold weather, A.J. was dressed in a short-sleeved

asked him

why he

He

punishment, and promptly replied

wasn't wearing a coat, and he told 227

me

that,

shirt. I

some time

228

/

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

ago, a guard had

made him walk

across the yard without his coat, so

now

he refused to wear one, ever. I

why

explained

smiled.

asked

I

if

I

couldn't

make our meeting

the previous day,

and he

among

the in-

the decision had caused any problems

mates.

"Not

really.

A few years ago, the HIV inmates broke out of their locked

MSP, and

unit at

caused a

that

stir.

But we know who they are down

here." I

asked A.J.

news.

We

how

his appeal

was

going, and he told

me

there

how

began talking about the appeals process and stressed

game kept changing. said: "The Barefoot ruling

was no the

rules of the

A.J.

CP

[Barefoot v. Estelle, 1983] put an end to

inmates holding back points of appeal so that they always had a fresh

point to make. Winford Stokes

was doing

this,

and

Executions are set for one minute

after midnight.

evening, just prior to his execution.

The attorney

state

went and got

that lifted,

Friday evening. They is

knew

not a set time. That's just

locked us

back out

down

at

that they it

at six that evening,

had

got a stay that

general's office

from

that entire day.

this

on a

like nine-thirty

Twelve oh-one

can begin. But they got

his stay lifted,

executed him at nine-thirty, and

let

us

about nine forty-five."

A.J. spoke in an angry voice, and he wanted to be sure that his

on him.

backfired

He had

and they executed him

when

it

I

understood

anger over the Stokes execution, despite the fact that he had a personal

dislike for his fellow inmate.

"There were some

really bizarre things that

were being said

that night.

People talking about throwing a party afterwards, and that's just ple

had

that

much

dislike for him. Celebrating the death of

.

.

.

one of

Peotheir

peers." I

knew

that, in the

execution of Winford Stokes, his wife had driven

across the state to be at the prison.

When

the stay

was

granted, and

it

appeared as though the execution would not take place, she drove back to

Kansas

City.

Her husband was executed while she was

driving

home. She

learned of it on the car radio.

men at Potosi wasn't always gloomy, that there were humorous moments. He told me about how one of the larger officers was strolling down his walk, singing "Killing Me A.J.

said that the

Softly with His

Song"

life

in

of condemned

a falsetto voice.

Thanksgiving "I just heard that and

he wasn't

started laughing," A.J. said. ''And

I

229

I

why."

sure

some funny

A.J. told me, "There's

We

ments.

were

sitting at

things that

go on here,

little

mo-

dinner one night talking about computers and

And And it's moments like that, way we tease each other. When

Nintendo, and a guy talks about wanting to get some 'sloppy disks.'

he was dead that sort of

were 'sloppy

serious they

break the tension.

they had the gas chamber

—

I

And

mean

disks.'

the

this is sort

But

in jest.

among

that's teasing

humor

of morbid

And

of the big sayings back then was, 'Take a deep breath.'

ourselves. There's nothing

— but one

that

was

said

bad meant by

it." I

why

could see

A.J. laughed at the officer singing

wondered how he viewed

their attitude

"A few of them have that that

is

And

anyone I

unit,

to

it,

it.

The

think that's

thing I've noticed

they're given a position as far

staunch supporters of

it

something

But the vast majority of guards

else.

even though they're aware

anything about

I

toward executions.

how

that exercise in the perimeter that evening, or

housing

walk; but

his

sort of mentality that they're killing

socially unacceptable to

here are following orders.

on

they justify taking part in

watching over a locked

down

that they are powerless to

is

away

that the

ones

as possible.

who

do

are sensitive

The ones

are the ones that are strapping that

that are

man

to the

gurney."

was concerned

A.J.

that

I

should be clear about the arbitrary nature of

the death penalty and capital

murder appeals process.

is CP#5) had been granted a away been taken from him. "What about James Schnick?" I asked.

Martsay Bolder (who

He

told

reversal,

me

that

which had

later

A.J.

shook

his

James Schnick

head is

in resignation.

a dairy farmer from Elkland, Missouri. In 1987, he

was

charged with murdering his wife and six other members of his family.

was the worst mass

slaying in Missouri history.

penalty for three of the murders. Schnick said to

is

He was

It

given the death

a Vietnam veteran, and he was

have been suffering from post-traumatic

stress disorder. Earlier that

day, Schnick had been granted a reversal of his death sentence.

I

asked

Paul Delo what would happen to him next.

"Oh,

they'll take

that we'll see

him

to the county

jail.

him back here eventually."

But he's got enough murders

230

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

/

'The

thing about Schmidt," said A.J., "is that other people got angry

because he got a reversal on a past. It's

judge

He

down

all

denied to other inmates in the

makeup, and which

to the arbitrariness of the court

prepared to

is

legal point

listen to

what argument."

"Bobby Shaw is a case in point. Bobby Shaw killed a Bobby Shaw is black. He should have the same rights in the court same issues as everyone else. If a white man with a seventy IQ can

continued:

guard.

on the

man

get his case reduced for that reason, then a black

seventy should get A.J. told

me

doesn't have

it

that he

and a few other inmates look

much money,"

I

from a

large family, he'd

The A.J.

had almost no

was passing through

trating

we

after

him

give

Bobby. "He and

cigarettes

Bobby Shaw came arriving at Potosi. The

visits since

obsessed, since his

because

we

where we're

And

at.

life

know

all

complain and gripe about

lived in Califor-

Missouri.

disparity of sentencing in capital

is

"so

anyone could remember was from a brother who

visit

nia and

said A.J.,

learned from Paul and from Betty that while

soda."

only

with an IQ of

reduced."

depends upon

that this

it,

murder cases it.

He

explained: "It's frus-

taking place.

is

an issue with which

is

And

a

lot

of people

but then the outside world looks, and sees

make

they expect us to complain and gripe, to

things

up. Well, you're probably guilty anyway. "It's

used as a

identical crime

political tool

by prosecutors.

— murder, obviously.

Two people can commit the

In one county, the prosecutor might

decide, 'Oh, this doesn't warrant the death penalty,' and charge this

man

with second-degree murder. And, in doing so, knows that with the conviction

and the ultimate sentence, the

largest sentence available at

second

degree, that this man's going to be out in ten or eleven years. Whereas, in the next county,

same

set of circumstances, the

— maybe he doesn't have family charged with standing — man

in that area,

that

is

man, for whatever reason

or the victim

first-degree or capital

receives the death penalty. It's prosecutorial discretion individual with. There's

no uniform

is

set

murder, and

which

of rules governing

someone of to charge

this. It's at their

discretion

how

they charge, and

how

vigorously they pursue that.

they use

as a

means

name

in print in the

it

to get their

news when they pursue them a

lot

of lines.

It's

the death penalty, and they

a sad state of affairs here

newspapers.

know

in the

an

it's

And

It's

big

going to get

United States as far

Thanksgiving as capital punishment goes, because the rich people don't get

by competent attorneys.

that are represented

I

it

231

I

—those

had a public defender

who

was representing everyone in that county who couldn't afford an attorney. And he had no previous capital litigation experience. It's a rough way to go. What sort of tickled me is they told me beforehand that I was going to get the death penalty.

They made such a three-ring

invited the local high school civics class to

sit

circus out of it that they

on one day of the

in

trial."

the room.

A.J.'s anger

filled

"And once

you're convicted, and you're facing the appellate process,

the burden of proof that,

because

office

we

and the

investigators,

to ask

this

have

I

it.

had seen

it's

hard to prove

that the attorney general's

five million dollars to

devote to

paperwork and that."

made me aware of his

him about

1983, he

same resources

state does. I don't

and tracing down

A.J.'s anger

And

shifted onto the defendant.

is

don't have the

past record of violence, and

and between 1

9 78051 7"591 130

ISBN D-517-S1113-fl