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American Morning
The Execution Tapes: Chilling Accounts of Georgia Executions
Aired May 03, 2001 - 10:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're going to begin this hour with these moments frozen in time and chilling in their honesty. Now, what you're about to hear is an audiotape recording of the death penalty being carried out in Georgia, a prison official delivering an eerily dispassionate eyewitness account, an unflinching description of a man's final moments and often a man's final words.
We get this story, which some may find disturbing, from reporter Randy Travis of CNN's Atlanta affiliate, WAGA.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: At this time the condemned has been secured in the chair. He is not moving. He's just sitting there very passively staring out at the witnesses.
RANDY TRAVIS, WAGA REPORTER (voice-over): Twenty-three times the State of Georgia has sent a convicted killer to this room to end his life in this chair. Each time for the sake of history the State of Georgia made sure a tape recorder was rolling.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: This is a recording of the execution of Alvon Ray Stanley, EF103603.
TONY TURPIN, FORMER JACKSON WARDEN: It is not an easy task. It's probably the most difficult task that you could ask a corrections staff to perform.
TRAVIS: Listen to these 71 tapes and you begin to understand. Every state ordered electrocution since 1983, from the first one, John Eldon Smith, to the last, David Cargill -- never-heard-before moments of men and women going by the book, carrying out the ultimate punishment.
(on camera): For each execution, the warden's executive assistant would be standing right about here, in the equipment room behind the execution chamber, watching through this window. He'd be on the phone in constant contact with officials back in Atlanta, providing a running commentary of the prisoner's final hours.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: He didn't give us any problem, didn't say anything. You know, he come on out and sit down and he's awfully nervous.
TURPIN: You know what the task is. You know what the outcome is going to be.
TRAVIS (voice-over): Tony Turpin was the warden at Jackson for the last three executions.
TURPIN: You know that the crime that was committed put that person in the situation that they're in and you deal with what comes.
TRAVIS: The tapes also include the final words from each condemned man, sometimes recorded while they sat waiting in the holding cell next door, others from the chair itself.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: The warden is asking the condemned if he would like to make a statement. The condemned spits toward the warden.
TRAVIS: But some do talk, often with an odd mixture of resignation and relief.
VAN R. SOLOMON, SENTENCED TO DEATH: Yes, I'd like to say, I'd like to give my blessing to all the people that seek to save my life and I'd like to curse everyone that seek to take my life. Farewell.
ROOSEVELT GREEN, JR., SENTENCED TO DEATH: I love the lord and I hope that you all love him, too, and that god takes me in his kingdom. And good-bye, mother.
JOHN YOUNG, SENTENCED TO DEATH: And I can only say that I am not sorry that I'm leaving this world.
WILLIAM B. TUCKER, SENTENCED TO DEATH: I take full responsibility for the crime I committed and I'm willing to pay the price exacted this day.
JEROME BOWDEN, SENTENCED TO DEATH: I am Jerome Bowden and I would just like to state that my execution is about to be carried out and I would like to thank the people at this institution for taking such good care of me in the way that they did and I hope that by my execution being carried out that it may bring some light to this thing that it is wrong.
TURPIN: They're also offered the opportunity to receive a prayer.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Into your hands I commend my soul.
TURPIN: A team of officers secure the condemned inmate in the chair.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: The perspiration has been wiped again from the condemned's forehead and the hood is being placed on at this time.
TURPIN: And then you exit the chamber and then the procedures begin.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: Commissioner? UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: Is there any further word?
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: No further word.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: Carry out the will of the court.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: Very well. On my count of three, begin the process. One, two, three. The execution is now in progress. He made one jerk when the voltage initially entered his body.
TRAVIS (on camera): What do you want people to come away with after listening to those tapes?
TURPIN: I think the most important thing is that this is the law of the state. It's the law of the state. It's, and we carry out that law.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER: At 12:37 hours this date, the condemned was pronounced dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: That was reporter Randy Travis of our Atlanta affiliate WAGA.
The debate over the death penalty and the public's right to witness the execution has been revitalized with the case of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. He is condemned, as you may know, to die by lethal injection in less than two weeks from now, on May 16.
According to a new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, just under six in 10 Americans support the death penalty. Some 22 percent of those polled say that they normally oppose capital punishment but they believe it is warranted in the case of McVeigh. Sixteen percent say they oppose it regardless.
Public witnessing of the execution also stoked some strong feelings. Seventeen percent believe McVeigh's execution should be shown on national television. Thirty-nine percent, though, believe it should only be shown on closed circuit television and 43 percent say it shouldn't be televised at all.
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