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Thread: Execution Reporter: Michael Graczyk

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Execution Reporter: Michael Graczyk

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    Over the last 28 years, Associated Press reporter Micheal Graczyk has made the trek to tiny Huntsville Texas, home to co-eds, convicts and those on death row. And hundreds of times, Michael Graczyk has stood in the death chamber and watched, listened and taken notes at a state execution. Today, as the fate of a Canadian on death row in Montana continues to play out, we're asking Michael Graczyk about the insights he's gained in the one state that executes more people than any other.

    Ronald Allen Smith's fate is in the hands of the Montana parole board. The Canadian has been on that state's death row for decades, and yesterday he made his final plea for clemency. The board will issue its decision the week of May 21st.

    Had Ronald Smith murdered someone in Connecticut, he'd certainly have lots more time; the state has just announced it will abolish the death penalty. Had he killed in California, he'd have hope since a former warden at San Quentin prison is spearheading a bid to stop executions.

    But if he'd killed in Texas, he would likely already be dead. Texas hanged, shot, electrocuted, and now lethally injects its criminals with a unique zeal. When it switched on its first electric chair in 1924, it killed five men on the same day.

    So far this year, 5 convicted criminals felt the executioner's needle. Michael Graczyk watched as they took their last breath. The reporter from the Associated Press has witnessed more than 300 executions. It's believed he's seen more men and women put to death than anyone else in the United States. Michael Graczyk joined us from Houston.

    http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode...chael-graczyk/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Senior Member Frequent Poster PATRICK5's Avatar
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    I don't think reporters should make themselves part of a story. Furthermore, last time Graczyk did an interview like this, the antiDP crowd went nuts - especially the weenies overseas, and he became a focus of their hatred and attacks.
    Obama ate my dad

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    The anti death penalty crowd would rather the media didn't cover executions. Then they could say anything they wanted and pass it off as truths.

    I thought it was a good interview. Graczyk remained neutral.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    Why doesn't someone from Cncpunishment.com get official media credentials to attend an execution?

  5. #5
    jaycube
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    What is this site all about, is it related to the crime world.

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    Michael Graczyk, AP Reporter, Reflects On Hundreds Of Texas Executions He's Seen



    About once every three weeks, I watch someone die.

    Beginning in 1984 when I arrived in Texas for The Associated Press, I've been just a few feet away as one convicted killer after another took a final breath in the Texas death chamber in Huntsville, where the state's 500th execution in modern times took place Wednesday.

    I really don't know how many I've seen. I lost count years ago and have no desire to reconstruct a tally.

    While death penalty cases are not the only assignments I cover, those certainly leave the strongest impressions.

    One inmate, Jonathan Nobles, sang "Silent Night" as his last words as he was receiving the lethal injection. He got to "Round yon virgin, mother and child" before gasping and losing consciousness. Christmas, for me, never has been the same.

    When I walked into the death chamber to witness Bob Black's execution, he called my name, said hello and asked how I was doing. What do you say to an otherwise healthy man seconds away from death?

    J.D. "Cowboy" Autry was the first lethal injection I saw, in March 1984. A female friend of his who was a witness loudly sobbed about his "pretty brown eyes." Moments later, Autry's eyelids popped open as he died, revealing for a final time his brown eyes.

    Autry's case was a memorable one. Six months earlier he was on the gurney with the needles in his arms when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a last-minute reprieve. To make sure no one had to make the final walk twice again, the prison stopped taking inmates to the death chamber until all appeals were resolved.

    I remember Charles Rumbaugh's mangled hand, the result of being shot by a federal marshal he attacked in a courtroom. Henry Lee Lucas, who avoided execution when it was determined he hadn't really committed the hundreds of murders he had copped to, always had orange-tinged fingertips from rolling his own cigarettes. The arms of Angel Resendiz, the notorious "Railroad Killer," were scarred by repeated self-inflicted razor cuts. Markham Duff-Smith, who insisted he didn't kill four relatives, made a death chamber confession.

    The death chamber, for 50 years home to the electric chair, has undergone its own changes. The gurney, once on wheels, is a permanent pedestal-like structure bolted to the tile floor. The simple horizontal bar between the inmate and the viewing area was replaced by a thick transparent plastic wall after a needle popped out of Raymond Landry's arm, spraying the lethal drugs toward me and other witnesses.

    The first executions were carried out just after midnight. Years later, death warrants were set to take effect at 6 p.m., more convenient for lawyers and judges and less costly in prison overtime.

    Some executions came with raucous public demonstrations outside. When Ronald Clark O'Bryan, known as "The Candy Man," was executed for lacing his son's Halloween candy – a Pixy Stick – with cyanide so he could collect on an insurance policy, dozens of students dressed in Halloween costumes filled the streets. One carried a giant Pixy Stick replica that looked like a barber pole.

    One convict, Ponchai Wilkerson, spit out a hidden handcuff key in his mouth as he was about to die. A Houston judge added a smiley face to his signature on Robert Drew's execution warrant. Carl Kinnamon gave a long final statement in hopes of delaying the procedure until his death warrant expired. He thanked me and others for covering his case, then tried to wriggle out of the leather restraints.

    The final statements – which some victims' relatives have criticized as providing prisoners with an opportunity their slain loved ones never had – have included songs, poems, prayers and Bible verses. Some inmates have spouted profanity. At least two prisoners thanked the Dallas Cowboys for brightening their lives.

    Patrick Knight held a contest dubbed "Dead Man Laughing," encouraging people to send him a joke to tell from the chamber. He said he got 1,300 responses. The "joke" turned out to be Knight's claim that the person being executed wasn't really Patrick Knight. But fingerprints confirmed it was.

    Richard Hinojosa repeatedly invoked "Yahweh" during his final words as thunder boomed and lightning crackled outside, adding an eerie backdrop to the proceeding.

    Johnny Frank Garrett thanked his family for loving and caring for him, then added: "And the rest of the world can kiss my ass."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3506564.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Senior Member CnCP Addict Stro07's Avatar
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    Strange, according to TDCJ he didn't attend the milestone McCarthy execution.

  8. #8
    CaliHornia
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    Quote Originally Posted by PATRICK5 View Post
    I don't think reporters should make themselves part of a story. Furthermore, last time Graczyk did an interview like this, the antiDP crowd went nuts - especially the weenies overseas, and he became a focus of their hatred and attacks.
    Graczyk's job is a little different than that of the average reporter. Your average reporter reports on things that happened that other people saw, based on interviews with them. Graczyk is a witness to the event. So he's automatically part of the story.

    I think what frustrates the anti-DP crowd about him is that he has witnessed so many executions, period. Not just reported on them. Witnessed them. And he his stomach hasn't turned to the point that he's come out against it. He might be against it. But he hasn't publicly stated so. Which in a way is a kind of silent endorsement.

  9. #9
    time2prtee
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    I think he is silently ProDp. I think his reporting has always been even-handed and factual. I once emailed him about an error, and he got back to me, with a question about my source, the article was fixed within minutes. Lee

  10. #10
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    Covering capital punishment and death row execution: 8 tips from a reporter who’s covered them

    Before retiring in 2018, Michael Graczyk covered capital punishment for more than 35 years as a criminal justice reporter for the Associated Press. He has observed more than 400 prison executions in Texas, which leads the country for the number of people executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Today, Graczyk still writes about death row inmates as a freelancer.

    “He built a reputation for accuracy and fairness with death row inmates, their families, their victims’ families and their lawyers, as well as prison officials and advocates on both sides of capital punishment,” AP reporter Nomaan Merchant wrote in an article about Graczyk’s retirement. “He made a point of visiting and photographing every condemned inmate willing to be interviewed and talking to relatives of their victims.”

    Nationwide, there were 2,814 men and women on death row at the end of 2016, the most recent year for which the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics has released data. Although more than half of U.S. states and the federal government allow capital punishment, the vast majority of executions in 2017 occurred in four states — Texas, Florida, Arkansas and Alabama, according to a preliminary federal report.

    Later this month, four prisoners are scheduled to die by lethal injection in Alabama, Florida and Tennessee. The governor of California instituted a moratorium on the death penalty in March, but prosecutors there are still seeking a death sentence for a former police officer accused of being the notorious Golden State Killer.

    Journalist’s Resource called Graczyk at home in Texas to ask him about his work and for tips to share with other journalists who are reporting on capital punishment, death row or executions. Here are the eight tips he gave us to pass along:

    1. Get experience covering the criminal justice system.

    “Some reporters are so isolated, they’ve never actually covered cops or courts or crime,” Graczyk said. “They show up at an execution and they’ve never seen a dead body …

    “My advice is: Get familiar with the courts. Get some real-world experience. See a dead body. Cover the cops. Cover the courts. Read the court opinions. All these capital cases are going to wind up in federal courts — at least 99% of them. You need to understand how judges write and how to read court opinions and how supreme courts and circuit courts of appeals work. Talk to the appeals attorneys … (and) prosecutors who actually put this person in a courtroom and tried them.”

    2. Know the facts of the case you’re covering.

    “It sounds pretty basic, but know the case — know what this person is accused of, know what this person is convicted of, know who the players are,” Graczyk said.

    In Texas, inmates spend an average of 15 years and eight months on death row. For some, the wait is much longer. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the longest-serving inmates were David Lee Powell, executed in 2010 for killing a police officer during a traffic stop 32 years earlier, and Lester Leroy Bower, put to death in 2015 after serving 31 years behind bars.

    “In a lot of cases, reporters weren’t even alive when the crime occurred. Some of these cases are really, really old,” Graczyk said. “Know the case and get educated and understand how the courts work — or don’t work. … Stay away from legal jargon … people don’t understand that. I find it’s always good to just explain things. There is no need to make something more complicated than it already is.”

    3. Remember the victim.

    Coverage of capital punishment broadly and of executions specifically tends to focus on the men and women who are accused or convicted of killing and injuring people. Stories, especially those written years or decades after the crime, sometimes barely mention victims and their families.

    Graczyk says he tries to make sure victims and families remain a key part of his stories, although it can sometimes take a lot of extra work to track down those individuals.

    “If I make this concerted effort to talk to the inmate, I make a concerted effort to talk to the victims as well,” he said. “If no one is available, I say that … Remember that executions can happen decades after someone is sentenced and so lots of people may have moved or passed away or are unreachable.”

    4. Avoid asking victims’ families if an execution gives them “closure.”

    “One of the questions I really wince at when I hear it from reporters — especially when it’s said to a relative of a murder victim — is, ‘Does this give you closure?’ This is so cliché. It ranks up there with ‘How do you feel?’” Graczyk said.

    At an execution, he suggests approaching victims’ friends and family members in another way.

    “I usually ask them, ‘Why did you decide to be here?’ and ‘Are you disappointed this has taken so long?’ if it’s a particularly long case,” he said. “If the inmate ignored them, (ask) ‘How disappointed are you that they didn’t acknowledge you or express remorse?’ I’ve talked to enough people to understand there is no such thing as closure. I think it’s an inadequate question.”

    5. When you cover an execution in person, focus on your role in providing a factual account of the event. It will help you keep your feelings and opinions in check.

    “I don’t know how to phrase this without sounding insensitive, but if you go in there with the idea that this person was innocent, was the victim of a broken system, you’re not going to do a good story,” Graczyk said.

    “I tell myself, ‘You’re there to do a job. Your job is to tell the story of what happened in there. And if your emotions get the best of you, you can’t do your job.’ I can’t tell you what it’s like at an electrocution or gas chamber or hanging. … In Texas, here it has only been lethal injection. Essentially, someone is lying there and you’re watching them and they quickly go to sleep and they don’t wake up. I don’t mean to be insensitive, but that’s what happens.”

    6. Take notes.

    Graczyk said he has seen some journalists come to observe an execution but don’t write anything down. That doesn’t make much sense to him because there are so many details he said a journalist will need to remember — who came to witness the execution, for example, and what the prisoner said and did before dying. In Texas, recording devices and cameras are not allowed in the death chamber room where witnesses gather to watch, but journalists can bring in paper and something to write with.

    “If you’re not able to take notes, you’re not going to be any good in there,” Graczyk said. “I’ve seen reporters not take any notes and go back and talk about what they saw. You might have a photographic memory and be the exception, but I don’t know too many people like that.”

    7. Pay attention to key details.

    Graczyk said reporters should note the various things they see and hear while in the death chamber.

    “You listen for the final statement,” he said. “We report what’s the last thing this person decided to say and you want to get that right.”

    He added that reporters should include key details they probably could not get by calling a prison official.

    “I had an editor once who was going through a story I wrote and he told me, ‘The story is OK, but it doesn’t reflect that you were there.’ It was something we could get by calling the prison system and asking them what happened,” Graczyk said, offering examples of what to look for before, during and after an execution.

    “Movements they (the inmates) may have made or whether they took a breath or coughed when the drugs took effect. Whether they were looking at people as they came into the death chamber to watch them die. If you get a glimpse of where the needle went in, whether there was a tattoo there. It gives the reader more of a picture of what’s happening …

    “When you go in there, you want to tell people what you saw and what you heard. I’ve talked to people who’ve done electrocutions and gas chamber stuff and they can get into the fact that it doesn’t smell very good. But lethal injections are very, very clinical. … You don’t dwell on it, but drop something in to prove to the reader or the listener that you were there.”

    8. Have a plan for how to react if a prisoner addresses you personally inside the death chamber.

    Because Graczyk interviews inmates many times during the years and weeks leading up to their executions, they know him. To his surprise, a couple have tried to start conversations with him in the death chamber.

    “A couple of things happened in there that I didn’t expect and you learn from that. First of all, it’s happened to me at least twice now … When I walked in, they looked up and said hello to me. You need to be prepared for that. You need to know whether you’re going to react to it and how you’re going to react to it. I remember walking in and the inmate said, ‘Hi, Mike!’ What do you say to someone who’s about to die? I was taken aback. The second time, just because I’d been through it once, I think I nodded. Especially if you’re standing next to the relative of a victim, be cognizant. I wouldn’t want to say something totally sympathetic or discourteous.”

    https://www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...-covered-them/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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