Giving voice to the dead: Last statements of the condemned

Abstract

The discourse surrounding the death penalty includes many diverse voices. However, the voices of the individuals at the center of this ultimate punishment – the condemned themselves – are often silenced. Moreover, systematic research on these individuals is severely lacking in the scholarly literature on the death penalty. This article seeks to ‘give voice’ to these individuals by exploring their last statements. Through an exploratory examination of the last statements of the condemned, the perspectives and sentiments of these individuals are brought to light. Through the use of content analysis, the major themes found among the last statements are identified and a detailed typology is constructed. What we find is that the most dominant themes among the condemned center around transformation and positive messages of connection to others. We find humanity.

Keywords:

• death penalty
• last statements
• executions
• condemned prisoners
• transformation
• humanity

Notes

1. Portions of this article and the findings herein are also included in the book by Scott Vollum: Last Words and the Death Penalty: Voices of the Condemned and their Co‐Victims (2008), LFB Scholarly Publishing, New York, NY.

2. For an interesting artistic form of this in regard to the death penalty, see the play The Exonerated (Blank & Jensen, 2004) in which the words of exonerated death row prisoners are re‐created in a one‐act play.

3. Although latent content analysis was the primary mode of analysis in this study, it should be noted that manifest content was denotative of particular themes and thus played a role in classification of content. Moreover, specific words and phrases were identified as indicators of particular content in the coding protocol. As others have noted, the difference between manifest and latent content is often subtle and a wise approach to content analysis is to rely on a ‘middle‐ground’ or blend of the two forms (Berg, 2004; Riffe, et al., 1998).

4. The four that were not used to compose the primary themes are four themes best referred to as ‘other’ or miscellaneous in nature. They are ‘cheer for a sports team,’ ‘an act or statement of defiance,’ ‘filibuster,’ and ‘recital of song or poem’. Although these were each interesting in the context of this study, they did not fit into a broader category nor did they have substantial enough numbers to warrant their own category.

5. Portions of statement obtained from Dial, J. (1992, November 19). Griffin cheerful in dying. The Huntsville Item, p. 8A.

6. ‘Co‐victims’ is the preferred term for those who have lost a loved‐one to murder. ‘Victim’s family’ is overly limiting to the exclusion of close friends and other non‐family individuals who shared an emotional connection to the victim. ‘Survivor’ is potentially confusing as it may confuse those who literally survived the murderer’s attack and those who only experience the loss of their loved‐one.

7. Portions of statement obtained from Upshaw, A. (1997, September 23). State executes 27^th this year. The Huntsville Item, pp. 1A, 7A.

8. Portions of statement obtained from Jackson, J. (1997, June 3). Killer defiant before death. The Huntsville Item, pp. 1A, 5A.

9. Portions of statement obtained from Gideon, L. (1999, February 11). Cordova apologizes, dies for killing. The Huntsville Item, pp. 1A, 6A.

10. Statement obtained from Sunriver Cartel (2000).

11. Statement obtained from Sunriver Cartel (2000).