Witnessed Two Executions

I have been an official witness for two executions in my State. One was a lethal injection and the second was the Electric Chair. What I can say is that it is a very sterilized, medical type procedure. I do not see how the executed person felt any type of physical pain other than the needle going in on the LI. The electrocution, according to all of my research is painless if done correctly. Obviously this is based on simple physics and what the human body can/cannot handle. The research I perused basically described it as too much juice through a circuit simply blows the fuse; end of discussion.
After having witnessed two, I can say that I am glad that I did. If you support something, you should be willing to see it through to the end, especially for me as the DP is the ultimate penalty in my field. It is so sterilized, however, so as to be boring and mundane although to watch the precision and efficiency by which the execution team performs is something to appreciate.
Would I do it again? Perhaps. I would like to witness a firing squad and the other methods used so that I could see all of them, but I seriously doubt that that will happen. I do believe though that the only sure pain that the subject feels is the severe anxiety/ apprehension adn sheer terror related to the fact that they know EXACTLY what is transpiring and the when and where of their demise. I rest peacefully in the fact that that has to be something horrible and frightening in their final living days as they get closer and closer to their date and hour.
Lethal injection is a fairly sterile, clinical-like procedure and the only pain the inmate really feels is the poke of the IV needles going into each arm. The biggest thing I suppose is the waiting. The inmate knows that he or she's going to buy the farm on that table in a matter of a few minutes and the anticipation of death has got to be overwhelming for not only the inmate, but the staff that is in the room and perhaps even for the witnesses that have gathered.
Wnen I say the electrocution was pretty sterile, I meant it wasn't pasty white and light blue with the gurney and such, but it was very controlled and almost clinical in its application. The condemned was also strapped into the chair so tightly that there was little motion otehr than an upward lurching, but nothing like that has been displayed by Hollywood like The Green Mile or anything like that. There was some residual smoke from the leg strap and a blister appeared where it was attached, but overall, it was very non-climatic, just like lethal injection.

Hard Times of Old

On or about this day in 1629, one John Dean, described in court documents as “an infant between eight and nine years,” was hanged in Abingdon, England for setting fire to two barns in the nearby town of Windsor.

This juvenile felon was indicted, arraigned and found guilty all on the same day, February 23, “and was hanged accordingly.” The actual date of his execution is not known, but it can’t have been long afterward because the wheels of British justice ground very quickly in those days.
The age of criminal responsibility in Britain at the time was seven years old. (It was later raised to eight, and in 1963 to ten, where it remains; there have been calls to raise it again.) Accordingly, anyone seven years or older could be charged with a crime and face the same penalties as someone seventeen or forty-seven — including the death sentence.

But do remember that this does not mean that vast numbers of children were executed, quite the contrary. As records show, death sentences were certainly routinely passed on 7 -13 year olds but equally routinely commuted. Girls were only typically hanged for the most serious crimes whereas teenage boys were executed for a wide range of felonies.

The youngest person to have been hanged in Britain was in 1708 of a boy called Michael Hammond aged 7, hanged in King's Lynn at the South Gate along side his sister Ann aged 11.

Bundy's Last Interview

On the eve of his execution, he talked of suicide. "He did not want to give the state the satisfaction of watching him die," Hagmaier said. Ted Bundy died in the Raiford electric chair at 7:16 a.m. Eastern time on January 24, 1989. Several hundred celebrants sang, danced, and set off fireworks in a pasture across the street from the prison as the execution was carried out,[255][256] then cheered loudly as the white hearse bearing Bundy's body departed the prison. His remains were cremated in Gainesville and the ashes scattered at an undisclosed location in the Cascade Range of Washington State.

Execution Of A General

The Execution of a German General

He served as Chief of Staff of the 7th Army. Subsequently, he commanded the 57th Infantry Division (1941-1942), the 163rd Infantry Division (1942) and the 42nd Army Corps (1943-1944). He was appointed to command the 75th Army Corps in January 1944.

Execution Of Spies



This harrowing clip is from the British Pathe archives. There were no details about location or dates attached to the original reel. It does mention that the firing squad is the American Military Police. We assume these events happened during World War II.

Olympic Tat

Horrible logo and Olypic underpants? Seriously? Whoever was responsible for these nasty creations needs to stand on Execution Island's gallows for just punishment!

Guns For Hire