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  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Condemned inmates' last words telling

    ST. LOUIS (AP) - John Clayton Smith was a killer, and he didn't claim otherwise. The Missouri man broke into the home of a former girlfriend in 1995, stabbed her 11 times, then took the knife to her stepfather and killed him, too.

    But in eight years on death row, Smith found God and felt remorse. He used his last words to reach out to the victims' relatives.

    "I only ask that somewhere down life's road, you can find it in your hearts to forgive me," Smith said. "I know my death can never bring back your loved ones, but I pray my death may give you some sort of peace."

    For as long as people have been executed, they've been offered a chance at one final statement, and many don't take the opportunity lightly. Their statements often express love for family or God. They vary from the defiant to the contrite, from the sweet to the silly.

    "They are using this opportunity to demonstrate that they are human beings, that they have moral values, that they have families they love, that they're good people in a sense," said Janelle Ward, assistant professor of media and communications at Erasmuf University in The Netherlands who in 2008 published a study of the final words of Texas inmates.

    "I think this is their last chance to speak their minds," Ward said. "I do think it's cathartic for them."

    The process of actually making those final statements varies from state to state. In many states such as Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state with 464 executions since it resumed capital punishment in 1982, inmates make their final statements from the gurney in the moments before lethal injection.

    In Missouri, where the state is preparing to execute Richard Clay on Wednesday, the "last words" aren't really last words. Inmates are offered the opportunity to make a final statement the day before the scheduled execution. They can either write it themselves or dictate to a staff member, corrections department spokesman Chris Cline said. A public information officer reads the statement to the media after the execution is complete.

    Some prisoners have tried to use the final statements to delay the inevitable. For that reason, states such as Texas and Ohio now have time limits.

    In 1994, Texas inmate Raymond Kinnamon spoke for more than a half hour to the approach of dawn - when the death warrant was set to expire. The warden finally ordered the drugs to start and Kinnamon was executed. Now, Texas inmates have about two minutes to speak.

    What comes out in those last words is often telling about where the inmate's life has gone since his arrival on death row. Often, they seek to provide some closure to a troubled life.

    Remorse is a common theme. Gary Lee Roll was an atypical death row inmate - a college graduate from a respected family in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Yet he killed three people during a 1992 robbery. He used his final words to apologize - not only to the family of the victims, but to his own relatives.

    "I failed my family," Roll said.

    Many, like Michael Owsley, turn to religion in prison and use their final words to express their faith. "I hope for salvation," Owsley said. "I hope that the mercy and forgiveness that I have asked for will suffice. Praise Allah."

    The Rev. Larry Rice of St. Louis ministers to prison inmates, including those on death row, and has watched 16 Missouri men die by injection.

    "There is remorse, you see that, and I think they're preparing to face God," Rice said. "I think they're really concerned about their families."

    Some are philosophical.

    "You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper," Robert Alton Harris, executed in California in 1992, said.

    Some inmates go down fighting, using their final words as one last chance to proclaim their innocence.

    "You're killing an innocent man and you can all kiss my ass," Roy "Hog" Michael Roberts said in 1999 before he was executed for killing a Missouri prison guard 16 years earlier.

    Then there are some that are just bizarre.

    "Please tell the media, I did not get my Spaghetti-Os, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know," Thomas Grasso said before he was executed in Oklahoma in 1995.

    "How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? French fries," James French said as he was about to be electrocuted in Oklahoma in 1966.

    Inmates have used their final words to tell jokes, pray, cry, recite poetry, recite from the Bible, spout obscenities. Or sing.

    Jonathan Nobles sang "Silent Night" as his injection began in Texas in 1998. He made it to "round yon virgin, mother and child" before the first of the drugs knocked him unconscious.

    http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news...ds/?news&texas
    Last edited by PITA; 05-09-2012 at 10:50 AM. Reason: Factual error in one of the lines of this post has been spotted.

  2. #2
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    True story of how the Ohio death row warden actually said jokes are common among some inmates in the hours before their death. He told of how one inmate said he'd quit smoking in a couple hours!

    As you might guess his execution was a couple hours away! It's nice that they let him smoke since they knew he'd be dying soon.

  3. #3
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    Charles William Bass #662


    I deserve this. Tell everyone I said goodbye.

  4. #4
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    Kenneth A. Brock #522

    Last Statement:

    I have no last words. I am ready.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Member chris35721's Avatar
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    George Rivas, #999394

    Last Statement:

    Yes, I do. First of all for the Aubrey Hawkins family, I do apologize for everything that happened. Not because I am here, but for closure in your hearts. I really believe that you deserve that. To my wife, Cheri, I am so grateful you're in my life. I love you so dearly. Thank you to my sister and dear friend Katherine Cox, my son and family, friends and family. I love you so dearly. To my friends, all the guys on the row, you have my courtesy and respect. Thank you to the people involved and to the courtesy of the officers. I am grateful for everything in my life. To my wife, take care of yourself. I will be waiting for you. I love you. God Bless. I am ready to go.

  6. #6
    Senior Member Member chris35721's Avatar
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    Cleve Foster, #999470

    Last Statement:

    Yes, you know I sat in my cell many days wondering what my last words would be: love for my family, grandson, friends. I love you very much. Tonight when I close my eyes, I'll be with my Father. Some time ago I got a letter, I read it, and stuck it in with a bunch of stuff; and I thought to myself, what a cold-hearted person. I was asked about the letter, I spent half the night looking for the letter. A little part of the letter touched me. Over the years I have learned to love. God is everything. God is my life. Tonight, I will be with Him. I am a parent myself. I have so much for this dear lady. I understand where they're coming from, I thought every person was cruel. I love you so, Susan. You know what it is girl, love ya. Maurie, appreciate it girl. Much love to you all. Mrs. Cox, love you. Momma, you are my hero. I wish this world was just like you. Another mother got hurt, as a parent I understand the pain. That letter she wrote wasn't wrong, she was just hurting. She showed God's love for letting me know that love will be there to welcome me home. I love you all. I don't know what you are going to feel after tonight. I love you. I pray one day we will all meet in heaven. A man told me 11 years ago the hardest thing to say is, "I forgive you." Hope one day we all be together again. I love you all: Susan, Mrs. Cox, momma, Maurie, Michael. Grandbabies make the world go around. I love you all. Warden, I am looking to leave this place on wings of a homesick angel. Ready to go home to meet my maker. What a friend we have in Jesus, oh my God, I lay in awe 'cause I love you God. I love you momma. I love you Susan.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Member chris35721's Avatar
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    Jonathan Green, #999421

    Last Statement:

    I'm an innocent man. I did not kill anyone. Ya'll are killing an innocent man. My left arm is killing me. It hurts bad.

  8. #8
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Killer’s final words – “Kiss my ass” – not original among executed.

    Just before the Commonwealth of Virginia electrocuted 42-year-old Robert Charles Gleason, Jr. Wednesday night, the three-time murderer’s last words were “kiss my ass” in Gaelic and then “God Bless.”

    Among the 16,000-some executions in this nation’s history, his was among the many unrepentant and defiant exit statements.

    And it wasn’t original.

    “Kiss my ass” was also the final statement of extreme serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr., an amateur clown who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 boys and young men during the 1970s. He was executed in Illinois, one of the most reviled humans in history.

    Virginia, with the second highest rate of executions in the land in modern history, has heard a wide variety of final statements.

    “Tell my family and friends I love them. Tell the governor he just lost my vote. Y’all hurry this along. I’m dying to get out of here,” said robber and murderer Christopher Scott Emmett, executed here in 2008.

    “Today is a good day to die,” began the final statement of contract murderer Mario Benjamin Murphy, executed in Virginia in 1997. “I forgive all of you. I hope God does, too.”

    Linwood Briley, among the worst serial killers in Richmond history, simply said “I am innocent” before he was executed in the old state pen in Richmond in 1984.

    Not long before his execution, Briley, his brother James and Lem Tuggle led a bold death row escape, the only in state history. When Tuggle was executed on December 12, 1996, his final words were a cheery and loud “Merry Christmas!”

    Beltway Sniper John Allen Muhammad said not one word when he was killed by lethal injection here in 2009.

    Teresa Lewis, the first woman executed in Virginia since 1912, apologized to her victim’s daughter just before she died by lethal injection in 2010. Lewis had hired someone to kill her husband and stepson. “I want Kathy to know I love her and I’m very sorry.”

    Gleason, the unrepentant “kiss my ass” killer, fought hard to be executed, choosing electrocution over lethal injection. He began his final statement with: “Can they hear me out there? Well, I hope Percy ain’t going to wet the sponge. Put me on the highway going to Jackson and call my Irish buddies.”

    http://wtvr.com/2013/01/17/holmberg-...mong-executed/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  9. #9
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Gallows humour from the past that isn’t for the faint of heart

    Gallows humour might well have begun with Maria Antoinette, the pompous and extravagant Queen of France who was executed for treason during the French Revolution.

    Known as the epitome of arrogance, it was therefore a shock to all who heard her final words: “Pardon me, Sir, I meant not to do it.”

    As it turns out, Marie Antoinette was not apologizing for provoking the revolution in which approximately 56,000 French citizens were killed with one-third of them beheaded. She was in fact apologizing to her executioner as she staggered toward the guillotine and accidently stepped on his foot.

    Although the blade has long since been replaced by the noose, the firing squad, the electric chair and now a chemical injection — the last words of those condemned to die by the proverbial sword still sometimes leans to levity.

    James D. French was the last person executed before Oklahoma rescinded the death penalty. A career criminal who wanted to die, he murdered his cell mate to force the state to end his own life.

    Looking at the ghoulish faces of reporters gathered to witness the event, French’s last words were: “How’s this for a headline? French Fries!”

    Carl Panzram was not a nice or even a patient man, not when he was a serial killer or about to be terminated himself in Indiana. “Hurry up, you Hoosier bastard, I could kill 10 men while you’re fooling around.” Somehow, I don’t think Carl would have been a very good candidate for rehabilitation.

    Some last words like those of domestic killer David Martinez are downright poetic: “Only the sky and the green grass goes on forever and today is a good day to die.” On the contrary, it had not been a good day to die for Martinez’s live-in girlfriend and her son.

    Prior to being chemically put to death in Maryland, triple murderer John Frederick Thanos got his farewell speech down to one word. “Adios.” A man of many murders and very few words. About 20% of inmates choose to say even less than John Thanos which is nothing whatsoever. By far the most common last statement heard by execution witnesses is: “I’m ready, warden.”

    Naturally Texas, where they have executed 484 death-row inmates since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 and four times as many convicts as any other state, would have the largest selection of peculiar last words.

    Just before murderer and rapist Johnny Frank Garrett was given a lethal injection by Texas authorities, he solemnly said: “I’d like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. And the rest of the world can kiss my ass.”

    Garrett may have had a very good reason to be angry at the world. A documentary titled The Last Word makes a very strong case for his innocence.

    Back in the 1880s it was difficult to punish someone with death who believed in world destruction. Said union activist and founder of the Socialistic Labor Party George Engel just before they hanged him: “Hurrah for anarchy! This is the happiest moment of my life.”

    It all began with Marie Antoinette and the guillotine, the beheading device which consisted of a heavy blade dropping at the speed of death between two upright posts.

    In order to provide a more humane way of killing citizens during the French Revolution, this head chopper was designed by a physician. The year was 1792 and gallows humour was created almost immediately.

    As the story goes, a condemned aristocrat was standing on the death platform with his head over the chopping block when a sudden gust of wind rocked the stage and shook the posts on either side of him.

    Jerking his head up and looking at his executioner he yelled: “Good Lord man, is this thing safe?”

    http://www.wellandtribune.ca/2012/12...faint-of-heart
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #10
    Senior Member Member ted75601's Avatar
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    Expressing remorse? The only thing that they are sorry for is that they got caught

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