What The Last 24 Hours of Death Row Prisoner Look Like & Other Death Row Stories

believe it or not there's a fairly long list of people who have survived their executions we might look at the case of William do well a 17-year old English boy who was hanged in 1740 in London and then came back to life as he was about to be dissected he was later exiled to North America then you had John Babic only another Englishman nicknamed the man they couldn't hang after surviving three executions more recently you have the case of Romell broom an American man sentenced to death by lethal injection he survived that ended up writing a book called survivor on death row but it seems he spoke too early as he scheduled for another execution in 2020 but today we'll talk about one of the best-known survivor stories in this episode of the infographic show death row inmate who survived his own execution as we've said a handful of people have survived their executions you can read quite recent cases - such as American inmates Doyle Lee ham who was said to have experienced torturous and traumatic hours in the execution chamber before staff admitted that they had failed the US media reported in 2017 that a man called Alva Campbell became the third man to survive an execution in the country in recent decades and that was just a matter of the execution team not being able to find a vein in which to inject the lethal drugs but perhaps the tale we're about to tell you now is the most moving as the person that survived was only 17 years old it's also the first case of someone surviving the electric chair in the USA if you've seen our show on old Sparky you'll know that executions in the early days could certainly be horrific to watch but eventually the inmates succumb to the shock that was not the case for 17-year old Willy Francis let's have a look at what offense led to him ending up in the chair Francis was a young poor african-american in 1946 and at the time of his lucky escape many people believed that the hand of God had interrupted this McCobb spectacle of official murder for one thing he was just so young and a lot of people to create the execution of a boy not yet a man and another thing was the fact that the American justice system at the time could have been said to be harsh for certain people of certain races and certain social standing he lived in a place called st. martinville located in southwestern Louisiana you can read articles about this place in the 40s with one saying that the town had two sections one for the white people and the other for the color the white tended to their own business and the color tend to theirs yes this was a time when racism was pervasive in some parts of the US and despite the backwards attitudes of some people there was a lot of support for young Willie when he was condemned to death after the botched execution attempt Francis wrote from his prison cell a lot of people write me to ask me to tell them something about what I did when I was young I'm only 18 now so I guess they mean when I was very young but what had he done one of 13 children Francis said life was hard as a kid but he wrote he had fond memories of the hard-knock life playing baseball with a broomstick handle and going out with friends causing mischief when he got older he was given a job by a man called Andrew Thomas Thomas owned the local drugstore hiring Francis to do errands and keep the store tacky they apparently got along and Francis was called a nice boy and cooperative by folks who visited the store he was however called illiterate by some or at least close to that other said he was slow but later when Francis was writing from his prison cell it was proven that he could not just write but express himself in a deep and meaningful way we're telling you this because this case was very controversial and at the time and for years after people tried to understand why this seemingly nice kid committed a murder that murder was of the drugstore owner Thomas when her son was convicted of slaying his boss the mother told the press there wasn't no band in him I just don't understand quite a few people thought that this young boy perhaps somewhat mentally challenged had admitted guilt to something he didn't do the murder of Andrew Thomas described as a handsome educated bachelor with his own successful business he was killed at his home during that night of November 7th 1944 his body was discovered the next day displayed on the floor near the house steps to witnesses Alvin and I'd event Brocklin had said that they heard gunshots in the night they didn't see who did the firing though it was later said that Thomas had been dining with friends and upon returning home had been met by a gunman who unloaded five bullets in him to hit him in the back two in his left side and one went right through his eye it said his pockets had been emptied prompting police to say the reason for the murder was robbery rumors spread around town it said he was quite the ladies man and many speculated he had been killed by one of those ladies husbands or lovers for months people believed this to be the case sometime later police were looking for a drug dealer and it said that Willie Francis just happened to see the police he wasn't dealing drugs but it said that when he saw the two white police officers running his way he just took off out of fright that was a mistake as running made the police think that he was guilty of something later Francis was interviewed by cops at the police station they said he seemed frightened and he stuttered a lot but it turned out that Francis had stuttered his whole life the cops didn't think that they had captured a drug dealer that they've been looking for but guess what they found on Francis they found Andrew Thomas's wallet and identification card that's what they say it anyway it said that within three to five minutes the police got a full confession for the murder of Thomas they also managed to get a confession for an unrelated assault and robbery in another town the facts cops did this in a few minutes and the fact that the boy was said to be somewhat slow would compel people to ask if the interrogation and subsequent confessions were perhaps a part of a setup Francis was questioned without a lawyer without any advice without any family member or friend being present the confession read I Willie Francis now 16 years old I stole the gun from mr. Agassi at st. martinville Louisiana and kill Andrew Thomas November 9th 1944 or about that time at st. martinville Louisiana it was a secret about me and him I took a black purse with card one two eight zero one eight two in it four dollars in it he wrote a second confession the next day this will contain more details about how many shots had been fired and where the body was found as for the trial it said Francis's lawyers were inept one writer says they never questioned for indictment nor do they make a motion for a change of venue despite the widespread publicity about the murder of a beloved white member of a small community by a black youth the 12 white jurors found him guilty and he was to be executed Frances lawyers never challenged the verdict by the way Frances has pleaded not guilty the jury never heard any argument pertaining to the possibility of a forced confession or that evidence could have been planted the confession itself was good enough for him to be convicted many people in the town thought that something smelled funny as did many others across the u.s. the local press wrote quote throughout the trial the Negro was uninterested and showed very little emotion unquote Francis wrote that he was concerned that he might act like a crybaby on the day of his execution but was relieved to hear that the actual execution would only take on May 3rd 1946 he had his head shaved and prepared to have 2,500 volts of electricity flow through him on his cell wall it was discovered that he had written the words of course I am NOT a killer police never did have a motive for the murder nor any substantial evidence other than the confession of a slow 16 year old boy he was taken to Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola to be put in the chair nicknamed gruesome gertie the lever was pulled and this is how Frances later described the feeling I couldn't stop the jumping if that was tickling it sure was a funny kind I thought for a minute I was going to knock the chair over then I was all right I thought I was dead other reports state that he shouted take it off take it off as the executioner's tried to give him a second round of shocks it said that after the failed attempt he wasn't even injured but he said he felt kind of dizzy some people said this was a miracle and a righteous one as they didn't believe that he was guilty nor had had a fair trial Louisiana's governor James Davis then said in six days they would send him to the chair again that didn't happen and much of America got behind the young man he once wrote I felt just like a movie star I didn't have any idea I had so many friends he also later described how his execution felt it's something he called the chair he wrote you feel like you got a mouth full of cold peanut butter and you see little blue and pink and green speckles the kind that shines in a roosters tail what ensued where many months of legal arguments not only did some people believe he wasn't even but lawyers now argued that to subject the person to a second execution was cruel and unusual punishment prosecution lawyers argued against that stating the first attempt had not worked at all and he had not been hurt but the evidence supporting this in hindsight seems pretty weak the court also heard that the bot was just an accident and such accidents happen for which no man is to blame that meant no one was at fault and there should be another execution we might also note that later the state was petitioned with lawyer stating this about the botched execution the scene was a disgraceful and inhuman exhibition that as soon as the switch controlling the current was taken off the drunken executioner cursed Francis and told him he would be back to finish electrocuting him and if the electricity did not kill him he would kill him with a rock the drunken men in charge that night were accused of being sadistic not giving Francis the full shock because they wanted to torture him he was then returned to the chair on May 9th 1947 and this he didn't survive he was just 18 years old if anything positive came out of all of this it's the fact that the justice system was exposed for not supporting Francis in the first place this poor black boy may or may not have killed his boss but he certainly wasn't protected as he should have been by the American justice system many Americans of all colors saw and criticized what had happened at the time of writing there are 2738 inmates on death row in the United States this number can change quite frequently given that some prisoners of course might be executed but others might have their sentence commuted they might have their sentence overturned or someone else might join them on death row right now only 2 percent of people on death row are women 42% of people are classified as white 41% black 13% Latino 1.9 percent Asian 1% Native American and the rest is stated as unknown you can be on death row for a long long time and believe it or not the average time spent there from sentencing to the day in the execution chamber is 20 years let's now see what happens on that final day 8 p.m. the inmate is taken from death row to another cell this involves a drive from the prison to what one former official in a documentary called the death house that official said prior to leaving death row and getting in the van to come to the death house the inmate will be searched really well he said this wasn't only because a weapon might harm a guard but mainly because they don't want the prisoner committing suicide another guard interviewed said he once took a route to the death house where they couldn't be ambushed tensions are high during these events he also said the atmosphere in the van was solemn we all knew where we were going and why nobody said a whole lot once the prisoner goes into the death house he won't ever see the light of day again unless some kind of appeal works for him 9 p.m. after booking in he can sleep until he's awakened if indeed he can sleep we managed to find the diary of one prisoner who described his move to his new cell they stripped me out with a female officer present he wrote now personally I'm not the shy type but having a female officer on Death Watch is just one more humiliation we're told that during this time the prisoner is on something called death watch he's watched all the time in case he tries to take his own life the cell is close to the execution chamber and it is very private a space where the inmate can reflect on life as the hours countdown this might happen just one day before but we found cases where it was a couple of days prisoners will also be given special clothes in most cases much smarter than prison attire the man who kept the diary wrote he was happy to have at last a pair of trousers with a button and zip we don't know how well he slept but in his diary he comments about watching the guard sleep this is what he wrote good for them I'm sure this has to be stressful for them so a moment's relaxation is well-earned I also enjoy the irony who exactly is watching whom one other thing he says is that the death house is much cleaner than his death row cell he remarks that there is not a bug in sight whereas in his last cell it was like going on Safari 4:30 a.m. the inmate is woken up bright and early in his cell we should adhere times might change from place to place petitions might still be pending and there's a phone right outside the cell in the cell there's a shower a toilet a bed and a desk during this last day the prisoner is allowed to see family and can be visited by a chaplain as for calling people the inmate can write down a list of phone numbers he intends to call and give that to the guards one guard interviewed said we would dial the number for him and then allow him to make his call but after the prisoner has called the last person on his list the only person he'll have to talk to is the chaplain we're told that after this last call it can be a very traumatic time one chaplain interviewed said I was to do everything and anything to help him face that last day whatever it was writing letters making phone calls singing songs listening listening and listening 8 a.m. we said they can have visitors but 8 a.m. is the cutoff time after that the prisoner is on his own besides having prison staff around and of course anyone involved in this case should something change the chaplain can still visit - at around this time in the actual death chamber it's very likely that the equipment will be tested this might mean checking that the straps on the gurney work or even checking the phone to the governor's office is working yep imagine it wasn't and there was a last-minute reprieve if the form of execution is the chair then its electrical components have to be tested in one case we found the actual governor was the person who they strapped in to test if he could get out or move out of his straps I didn't want my staff to get kicked in the face he remarked 10:30 a.m. now it's lunchtime yeah this is an early lunch but let's not forget the inmate has been up a a long time already lunch is not special it's not the last meal from what we can see it's the same old prison food the only difference is that the prisoner gets to eat it in a private setting the inmate we talked about before said what he got for lunch was orange juice and what he called a prison issue donut for quite a few hours now the prisoner has a lot of time to think and as you know they have a desk and can write any number of letters goodbyes or just reflect on life 3 p.m. if the inmate is to get the electric chair he'll have his head shaved around this time but this might also happen later in the day he might still talk to a spiritual adviser but food might also be on his mind right now around this time maybe an hour or so later the inmate will also be asked to dress in one of those smart clothes he's been given he'll be asked to take his shower before he does this a shower at least in total privacy he'll have already written down what he wants to eat so in the kitchen the death House chef will be doing all the preparations for p.m. the inmate will receive his last meal contrary to popular belief inmates can't just order what they want it makes sense because it's highly unlikely that authorities would splash out on the finest Wagyu beef in Florida for instance the maximum this last meal can cost is 40 bucks but this will change from state to state those poor convicts over in Oklahoma only get a limit of $15 or at least when one documentary we watched was made that is hardly enough to go crazy on your last meal it's still good though as one death house chef pointed out this meal is the only choice of food they might have had in two decades in some states though prisoners no longer get up a spoke last meal and only get the usual prison food to give you an idea of what inmates might choose we will list some last meals serial killer John Wayne Gacy had 12 fried shrimp an entire bucket of KFC some french fries and a whole load of strawberries the man behind the Oklahoma bombing Timothy McVeigh just opted for two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream a killer from Florida called on Hell Nieves Diez shows absolutely nothing the terrible Ted Bundy did pretty much the opposite ordering a steak cooked medium rare eggs on the side over easy some hashbrowns slices a toast and milk and juice the infamous female serial killer Aileen Wuornos was good with just a cup of coffee while a murderer called Stephen woods must have been famished we should add that many thought he was innocent in his last words were you're not about to witness an execution you're about to witness a murder before that he has to eat according to the website rancor two pounds of bacon a large for meat pizza for fried chicken breasts two drinks each of Mountain Dew Pepsi root beer and sweet tea two pints of ice cream five chicken-fried steaks two hamburgers with bacon fries and a dozen garlic breadsticks with marinara on the side that state must have had a big budget 5:00 p.m. the witnesses will likely arrive at the prison this might be family of the victims journalists family of the condemned Friends of the condemned or whoever the condemned has asked to be witnesses they will be told to try and stay quiet when they reach the witness room before that they'll wait somewhere else in most states civilians who didn't know anyone involved will be asked to witness the execution 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. the time of execution can vary from state to state but it's just about always in the early evening at this point the prisoner will be taken to the execution room the witnesses will soon be in the witness room prisoners for the most part will just walk right there and not give the guards any problems in some states this will be a five man team just in case there is a struggle but that doesn't happen often one warden interviewed who had done 89 execution said he'd only had one prisoner that was hard to deal with the walk to the chamber in most places is only about ten feet just over three meters the guys would usually walk right up to the electric chair they weren't forced by the staff by that point they've already accepted what will happen a former death watch guard told Business Insider another guard in a separate interview said the same inmates usually act very dignified it's a very clean procedure there's no hustling and bustling it's not always this way especially for prisoners protesting his innocence in 2018 the BBC reported that one man in Florida was screaming and thrashing before he was executed screaming to everyone that they were murdering an innocent man one warden said the first thing that catches his eye is that gurney which is the place he's gonna die if it is lethal injection which it often is the prisoners told to sit on the gurney and then lay down there will be a tie-down team each responsible for a part of the prisoners body doctors will usually not be at the execution because it's not in line with their code of ethics so there will be a special team to administer the drugs this is not always easy as the veins tend to hide during the stressful time some of them had burnt veins from drugs which would make the process longer and more painful said one former warden when the catheters are in place the inmate will be secured again there's about 15 minutes before the execution believe it or not some inmates have got a stay which means they call to stop the execution during these last minutes if that doesn't happen the witnesses are brought into the main room and the curtains are undrawn some inmates might make a final statement it depends on the state but some prisoners might be given a few minutes and others just allowed to make a brief statement Kentucky gives two minutes but in Pennsylvania you can't talk at all in the statement can only be written here are some fairly recent examples of last words I'm ready to roll time to get this party started my last words will be Hoka hey it's a good day to die somebody needs to kill my trial attorney I think that governor's phone is broke he hasn't called yet these are of course unusual ones and most people will just say their goodbyes to loved ones or give an apology for what they did at this point the Chaplin might lay a hand on the prisoner sometimes where there's a pulse the warden will give the signal to the executioner and then it's time the end of the day the end of a life imagine sitting in a prison cell and contemplating life and how it will be all over quite soon you're going to be executed by way of hanging and no doubt you're wondering how that will go you hope it'll be quick it's not so much a Bolivian that scares you but the fact that hanging might not go exactly as it should and you'll spend some seconds or even minutes in agonizing pain it wouldn't be the first time a man has been left dangling with life still in him one thing you're not considering at all is the possibility of surviving your execution never mind surviving three attempts to execute you welcome to the life of John Lee the criminal they just couldn't kill before we get to the momentous moments in history that tainted the image of the British authorities and before we investigate the theories as to why the job at hand failed you need to know a bit about hanging in the first place that way you might better understand how John Lee escaped with his life intact prior to the British getting a bit more humane about this method of execution it was quite brutal I'll be it likely a better way to go than past forms of execution such as being burned or boiled or torn apart at the limps hanging in the old days might have involved climbing onto something and then having your neck put inside a noose then the object is taken from under the person and they died from strangulation in the 19th century scientists aired their views and said dislocating the neck was a more humane way to kill someone then strangulation on a rope in 1866 the idea was proposed to drop the person from a certain height to ensure this quick snap and ensuing death this method was called this standard drop at the time a scientist named Samuel Houghton said the height of the drop to secure a fast death should be between four and six feet that way there would be no dangling and terrible discomfort the standard drop was soon seen as backwards due to the fact that it didn't take into account a person's height and weight in 1872 a new method was introduced that was called the long drop the person was connected to a nuisance stood on a scaffold which had a trapdoor when the door was opened down fell the body the authorities had to calculate the proportions of the person's body so that the neck would snap and kill the person quickly but not drop the person so much that he or she would be decapitated this can and has happened and while death is death losing the head was not something anyone wanted to see so that's where we were around the time of mr. John Lee is going to go to the scaffold on November 15th 1884 he murdered a woman named Emma and Whitehead keys this happened in a small village called Bab accom which is in Devon in the South of England Lee was arrested but always protested that he was innocent of the crime but there was some evidence to the contrary including a knife wound that he'd encouraged during the murder the woman had been killed with a knife prior to her downfall Keyes had lived alone with her servants and cooks and Lee had once worked there too he left that job joined the Navy returned to Devon and was arrested for stealing after his release from prison he returned to the manor and worked for keys again it was perhaps a bad move on her part to take him back in when she was found dead there had only been one person in the house at the time and that was Lee then there was the cut on his arm which pointed at his guilt besides that there wasn't really anything else the police had on him and in 1884 there was no CSI Devon maybe it wasn't him who had committed the murder and he certainly thought he'd been falsely convicted he once said the reason I'm so calm is that I trust in the Lord and he knows I'm innocent he was sentenced to be hanged at Exeter prison on the 23rd of February 1884 on the day of the event the executioner named James berry went through the czechs scaffold all good noose correctly died trapdoor working fine what could possibly go wrong all we know is that Lee was taken to the scaffold and his head was fastened to the noose a white hood was put over his head and when the signal was given the trapdoor didn't open they tried again and then again and you can only imagine what was going through his mind after each time he gritted his teeth and prepared for the great unknown this was a total embarrassment for anyone involved and the medical officer said enough is enough he said he can't hang around any longer after those failures Lee was unfastened from the noose the last time and was taken back to prison but what actually went wrong since the entire apparatus had been tested well the executioner wrote about the experience as well as some other 130-plus executions in a book called my experiences as an executioner he admitted in that book that the science didn't always work it some men die too slowly or lost their heads but Lee's case was extraordinary these are two excerpts from that book one on the Saturday I examined this drop and reported it was much too frail for its purpose but I worked the lever and found that the doors dropped all right to the noise of the bolts lining could be plainly heard but the doors did not fall I stamped on the drop to shake it loose and so did some of the warders but none of our efforts could stir it please do it like a statute making no sound or sign between each attempt they actually took Lee away he had the hood removed from his head and was taken to a room the authorities then tried the trapdoor mechanism again and they've worked fine Lee was brought back out fastened in the noose hood put over his head and they tried it again it didn't work three times in all by golly thought the authorities the entire experience was frightening Lee perturbing and just a little bit disturbed executioner berry wrote that some people believed there was a possibility of the trap door being swollen by the rain but he added that they even cut the door with an axe and at plain and it still didn't work when it needed to in the end he concluded that it was the iron caches that had somehow stuck when Lee's weight was on the trapdoor it was one of the low points of his career the British Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt commuted Lee sentence saying it would shock the feeling of anyone if a man had twice to pay the pangs of imminent death Lee ended up serving 22 years behind bars the thing is investigations years later show that Lee might not have been the only person in the house that night and he might have been wrongly convicted maybe there really was some divine intervention on his part what's also a mystery is what happened to Lee after he was released no one really knows since he just kind of disappeared some rumors suggest he kept his head down and he moved to London while others say he moved abroad more recent research suggests that he went over the pond and that his graves in Milwaukee Wisconsin that research asserts that he had abandoned his wife and two kids in England and it started a new life in the States it's possible he was buried there in 1945 you would think that when strapped to a gurney knowing the life force mu is about to expire you'd want to say something nice to someone or profound or perhaps apologize to the family of the victim that's watching your demise then again if you were an innocent person about to have his veins filled with a lethal cocktail you might not be in the mood to deliver a tender speech you might also be a ruthless and heartless psychopath that wants to fill the air one last time with your monstrous voice as you'll now find out that has happened and it might send shivers down your spine hearing what they said first up Richard Aaron Cobb Cobb was executed by lethal injection in 2013 in Texas his crime was walking into a convenience store with an accomplice and robbing it it didn't stop there they took two female employees and one male customer and forced them into a car they took them to a secluded place and shot them execution-style and then drove away thinking they were all dead only the men absolutely died his last words were very strange starting out nihilistic he then finished with something very surprising I hope that some day this absurdity that humanity has come to will come to an end and then seconds later after he started to pass away wow this is great Thank You warden this next one is slightly more gruesome John Wayne Gacy you all know the story of this man we won't go into detail about what he did he murdered 33 people in the 70s and hid many of the bodies under his house he is one of the USA's worst serial killers his last words show that he had no remorse whatsoever they were kiss my we can't say that last word otherwise the video will get demonetized but we are sure you can guess what it is there's no cursing in this next one but we think you'll agree it's pretty darn dark Peter Cureton you've never heard this guy we bet he was a German serial killer at a time where there were few of them about in Germany that was the early 20th century he killed at least nine people and did terrible things with the bodies one other thing was that he drank the blood of his victims and that's why he was sometimes named the vampire of Dusseldorf in 1931 he was beheaded by guillotine and just before that happened he looked at his psychiatrist and said tell me after my head been chopped off will I still be able to hear at least for a moment the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck that would be the pleasure to end all pleasures before the blade came down the psychiatrist replied no Aileen Wuornos this woman you might have seen portrayed in a Hollywood movie called monster she worked selling her body on the streets and killed six of her male customers she claims she was defending herself but that didn't hold up at Gordon she's now known as one of America's worst female serial killers she was executed in 2002 and just before that she promised she'd come back to life again she said I just like to say I'm sailing with the rock and I'll be back like Independence Day with Jesus June 6th like the movie big mothership and all I'll be back sticking with serial murderers this next monster fits the bill carl panzram this guy was a serial killer in the u.s. at the start of the 20th century he committed murders among many other despicable things he said he had killed 22 people in all he was sentenced to be hanged in 1930 and just before the executioner put the cover on his head he spat in his face he was asked if he had any last words this is how he replied yes hurry it up you Hoosier bastard I could kill a dozen men while you're screwing around in case you're wondering a Hoosier is someone from the state of Indiana up next is arguably the funniest on this list James French French kills two people in the late 50s and mid 60s in the USA one of those people was his cellmate the two didn't get along very well his actual last words when sitting in the electric chair were there's nothing else to say but the last thing he said to a reporter was this if I were covering my execution do you know when I'd say in the newspaper headline tomorrow the reporter said what he answered french fries yep that was amusing it we think this next guy was also attempting to make a joke Jeffrey Matthews Matthews shot and killed his uncle during a robbery and he was executed in 2011 in Oklahoma because of that his last words aren't exactly frightening but his dark sense of humor at the end is perhaps a little bit shocking he said a few things but his very last words were I think that governor's bones broke he hasn't called yet Robert Charles comer you can say the same about this man at the end he either had a twisted sense of humor or was on another plan it's mentally speaking in 1987 he killed a man but he had also committed some other serious crimes throughout his life when he asked if he wanted to say something at the end he said go Raiders that's in reference to an American football team such a statement you might assume incapsulate how little he thought about himself in life and his victims Robert Alton Harris Alton was executed in California in 1992 for multiple murders he'd been a career criminal with a long rap sheet although his killing of two boys is why he got the gas chamber he was incredibly heartless if you read his story but we won't go into it today at the end he became poetic his last words being you can be a king or a street sweeper but everybody dances with the grim reaper he's not wrong about that he's not as amusing as the next person though Vincent Gutierrez this guy was executed in Texas in 2007 after being found guilty of killing a man Gutierrez had been trying to steal the man's car and then shot him in the back he was under the age of 18 when it happened he said a few things for his last words and apologized for what he had done but then he finished it off by saying where's my stunt double when you need one John William rook Brooke believes his difficult childhood was the reason he committed a murder in 1980 in the u.s. he had 12 hot dogs for his last meal and then just before they took his life away he thanked them and said freedom freedom at last James W Rogers Rogers was sentenced to death after killing a fellow worker at a uranium mine in 1957 the two had fallen out over quite a big issue and that was how a scoop shovel should be properly greased they didn't see eye to eye regarding the grease and Rogers shot the other man he was sentenced to death by firing squad when Rogers was ready to have the firing squad finished his life he was asked if he had any final words his reply was I done told you my last request a bulletproof vest Charley Livingston in 1983 this man shot and killed a woman in Houston during a robbery he didn't seem to see the point of final words when the time came and he made that point saying you all brought me here to be executed not to make a speech that's it that was simple enough quite different from what's coming up douglas-roberts this man from Texas was quite the opposite and he had quite a lot to say on the day of his execution by lethal and action in 2005 even found guilty of kidnapping robbery and murder when the time came for his last words he said I've been hanging around this popsicle stand way too long before I leave I want to tell you all when I die bury me deep lay two speakers at my feet put some headphones on my head and rock and roll when I'm dead the media later reported that he was upbeat and animated before his execution Frederick wood wood was another Joker albeit with a dark sense of humor he was foot to the electric chair in 1963 for the crime of murder when asked what his final words would be he replied gents this is an educational project you're about to witness the damaging effect electricity has on wood the next couple of people you could say are unique on this list Mary Blandy now we're going really back in time and this is the story of an English woman whose father didn't approve of her relationship she looked to poison to deal with this problem she was hanged in 1752 and at the time she was wearing a dress she was worried people might look up the dress even though it wouldn't matter much after she was dead still she told the executioner for the sake of decency gentlemen don't hang me hi Sara good now we go even farther back to the Salem trials in Massachusetts in 1692 Goode was in her 30s when she was accused of being a witch and then sentenced to death all 12 jurors agreed that she had to be a witch she was accused of lacking in self-discipline and being a servant of the devil she had only challenged the locals regarding their very strict Puritan values but they had said that that made her in league with Satan the reference Nicholas noise was there at the end and still tried to get her to confess and she of course refused her last words were I no more a witch than you are a wizard and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink 25 years later Noyes had an aneurysm and as the story goes he coughed up blood and choked on it we should say this is what's called popular legend but as the witch trials were so terrible we imagined many people might hope it happened while these witch trials were madness to the highest degree Mary's husband at least sued the courts for what's happened to her and he won now we go back to the present day and a couple of guys that looked death straight in the eye Clarence Ray Allen this man was executed in California for killing three people he was executed in 2006 when he was the ripe old age of 76 he was very sick at the time and a lot of people wondered why the death sentence since it seemed he didn't have much time left anyway his last words were polka hey it's a good day to die Melvin white Whitehead committed the terrible crime of murdering a child and he was executed in Texas in 2005 we won't go into the details but what he did shocked a lot of people not many folks felt sorry for this man as he went to the gurney for his dose of lethal drugs he did say he was sorry for what he did and then said alright warden let's give him what they want the next couple of people he might say didn't sit too well in their chair of death Tory Twain McNabb in 2017 this man was given lethal injection in the state of Alabama he'd been convicted of killing a police officer he and his lawyers had tried to stop it going through by saying the punishment was cruel and unusual but that didn't work he went to the gurney and angry ma'am and with both his hands he pointed to middle fingers in the air he then said mom sis look at my eyes I got no tears I'm unafraid to the state of Alabama I hate you I hate you I hate you Thomas and J Grasso we have perhaps saved the strangest last words to last and this was the execution of a man that had been convicted of two murders of elderly women he was given lethal injection in the state of Oklahoma in 1995 he wrote a short poem before his death and part of it went like this the warden will read my last Creed and the deadly brew will flow as the poison drips into my veins and from my body life does drain but his last words were in the form of a very practical complaint we guess he was being ironic those words were I did not get my SpaghettiOs I got spaghetti and want the press to know this late last evening you were taken from your cell on death row to the death house the room condemned prisoners stay in before they finally receive that ultimate punishment your stay will be short but at least you have your own bathroom a guard sits outside your cell at all times because you're on what's called death watch nobody wants you to have the chance to take your own life and rob them of the spectacle tomorrow you wake up on the big day say your goodbyes to your loved ones maybe phone some friends you have a word with the chaplain perhaps and then it's just you alone with your thoughts there will be no you in just a few hours in the last real decision you'll ever make is what you want to eat for your final meal at this restaurant the final check is permanent but at least you don't have to pay but what are some of the craziest last meals prisoners have requested before we get into the wildest last meal requests there are some things you should know about these very peculiar restaurants you might be thinking you can order what you want so what about a 200 dollar piece of Japanese Kobe beef and some caviar on the side perhaps wash down with a bottle of Dom Perignon unfortunately the American prison system doesn't show that kind of largesse there is a limit as to how much you can spend and that varies wildly from state to state for instance Florida is apparently quite kind giving prisoners a forty dollar budget but in tight fisted Oklahoma you only get 15 bucks worst still is Texas which in 2011 got rid of the last meal altogether and told the condemned that regular prison food will have to do come on Texas where's your heart guess which state has the most executions - yep it's Texas since 2012 84 folks have met their maker with only a belly full of standard issue prison slop you get the picture prisoners have to work with what they've got historically speaking though the budgets have changed over time and sometimes there's not even a budget at all but the requests must be reasonable we'll stay with one of the most well known convicts to be executed the killer Klown John Wayne Gacy this serial killer murdered scores of young people after he lured them into his house where he kept them captive Gacy is relatively unusual for a serial killer because he was a successful businessman and a pillar of the community so trusted he often did his Pogo the clown routine for the neighborhood kids and before his a lethal injection in 1990 for he certainly put on a show as well for his last meal he had 12 deep fried shrimp a whole bucketful of chicken from KFC fries a pound of strawberries and a bottle of Diet Coke maybe he was watching his weight you might not have heard of Marian Albert Pruett he were not a robbing rampage in the 80s that left five people dead this man was what you might call a fast food fan and we wonder if he was even able to finish his last meal he ordered a whole pizza hutt stuffed crust pizza four whoppers from Burger King yes we said four but he also ordered large fries some eggplant squash and okra all washed down with three two-liter bottles of Pepsi that wasn't quite enough so he had pecan pie for dessert and he's far from the only one who got greedy with his last meal Robert Elton Harris who was found guilty of murdering two teenagers in 1978 ordered 21 pieces of KFC chicken in a bucket two large Domino's pizzas with no anchovies a tub of ice cream a bag of jelly beans and a six-pack of Pepsi but what about the people who wanted something special rather than a massive mash-up of junk food and sugary drinks are there no refined condemned killers actually there are and one example is Robert Dale Conklin in the 2000s he stabbed his lover to death with a screwdriver and then chopped off the body if he could stomach that he certainly could get a meal down before his death for his last meal he asked for a bacon-wrapped filet mignon steak he wanted sauteed shrimp deveined of course in garlic butter with lemon on the side he wanted a baked potato filled with sour cream chives bacon bits in hollandaise sauce he also wanted bread but it had to be a French baguette buttered and filled with goat cheese for dessert he asked for cantaloupe apple pie and vanilla bean ice cream his drink of choice was ice tea you might be wondering which state would pay for all that and the answer is Georgia so if you're gonna get the death sentence and you call yourself a foodie make sure you do it there Ronnie Lee Gardner was a death-row rarity as one of the few people in recent times to be executed by firing squad in 2010 before he had to eat a bullet he ordered surf and turf lobster and steak to drink he wanted 7up and for dessert vanilla ice cream Gardner who was accused of having shot a man in the face during a robbery had one more request he if while eating his last meal he could watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy a cunning plan to delay the execution but we can't find any sources that reveal if he made it through all three films then we have the carnivores the ones that just need their meat one such was Steven Michael woods junior who was infamously executed in 2011 a controversial case with many believing he was innocent he's also famous for his last words you're not about to witness an execution you were about to witness a murder we won't dive into the details of this case in this episode and whether he may have been innocent or not but we do know for sure that he loved meat for his final meal he requested two pounds yes pounds of bacon with that he wanted for fried chicken breasts he wasn't on a low-carb diet though because he also got a pizza what topping if you guessed more meat than your right four kinds to be precise he wasn't done though he also ordered two hamburgers french fries 12 garlic breadsticks with dip two pints of ice cream and a selection of drinks including Mountain Dew and Pepsi root beer and sweet tea then you've got the people who know exactly what they want and don't go for the smorgasbord of treats the man behind the Oklahoma City bombing Timothy McVeigh only wanted a couple of pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream murderer Dobie Gillis Williams who was executed in 1999 also wanted to go out on a sugar high all he asked for were 12 chocolate bars with some ice cream and coconut pie Gerald Lee Mitchell who was only 17 when the murder he was convicted of took place also wanted candy for his last meal ordering only a bag of Jolly Ranchers the murder of Victor figure who was hanged in 1963 and was the last person put to death in Iowa had one of the smallest orders of all time one olive yep a single olive but he said he only wanted it on the condition that the pit was left in and surprisingly he isn't the only one to make this order Robert Anthony Buell who was convicted of kidnapping and killing young girls in the 1980s asked for the same thing one olive pit in of course but our vote for the most minimalistic order ever came from James Edward Smith who shot and killed a man during a robbery a crime for which he was executed in 2004 his last meal all he wanted was a pile of dirt some have speculated that he wanted the dirt for a voodoo ritual which he performed in his to prevent himself from becoming a ghost but the ceremony never came to pass as the prison denied the request and instead of the dirt he was given a cup of yogurt Odell Barnes jr. wanted a whole lot more but also a whole lot less at the same time he was convicted of murder in 2000 and sentenced to death the evidence surrounding this crime was controversial and his case became a focal point for the debate over capital punishment this is another case we won't explore in this episode but for his last meal he ordered justice equality world peace other prisoners have tried to do or say nice things with their final moments Phillip workman robbed a Wendy's restaurant in 1982 and shot a policeman he was executed in 2007 and actually declined his last meal but asked the prison to order a vegetarian pizza and give it to a homeless person any homeless person in fact the prison refused but people heard about his request and all across the USA thousands of pizzas were donated to homeless shelters the prison doesn't always get the order right either has happened with murderer Thomas J Grasso who was executed in 1995 his last meal was quite extravagant and it's clear he was a fan of seafood he wanted two dozen steamed mussels and two dozen steamed clams on top of that he wanted a double cheeseburger from Burger King and some barbecued spareribs he went overboard for dessert asking for half a pumpkin pie with whipped cream diced strawberries and two strawberry milkshakes they got all of that correct but managed to mess up maybe the most important thing he was given a plate of spaghetti when what he actually asked for was a can of SpaghettiOs David Leon Woods had one of the strangest requests for a last meal before his execution on May 4th 2007 a birthday cake his birthday had been a month earlier so maybe this was a belated gift to himself he also ordered a pizza and shared his last meal with his family a capital crime as you probably know is an offense that is punishable by death the term comes from the Latin word caplet which means head and capital punishment originally meant literally losing your head this controversial kind of punishment is still retained in 58 countries while 102 countries have it but don't use it 32 countries have abolished it all together with another eight countries saving it for only special crimes and would be genocide in most countries it's saved for the most heinous of crimes such as murder war crimes or crimes against humanity but if we look at the ever progressive Saudi Arabia you could lose your head over there for adultery robbery witchcraft homosexuality and according to the BBC even repeated drug use though we guess even just being a journalist will do it nowadays but if you think that's crazy well listen to this episode of the infographic show capital crimes of the past we'll start with Europe and move on to the USA later if we look at the UK a place where once upon a time you can have your limps pulled off your internal organs ripped out and any other manner of awful punishments happen to you you could say things have vastly improved the last time they had an execution in the UK was on the 13th of August 1964 and that was the hanging of two men Gwen Evans and Peter Allen for stealing a few quid from a man and bludgeoning him to death in the process The Guardian writes that there was no public outcry and the event only got a couple of lines in the British press nonetheless that was that the Labour government wanted the end of capital punishment in the UK and it was abolished in 1965 it remains somewhat legal for certain punishment such as treason until 1998 but no one was hanged during that time frame believe it or not when England introduced a drop hanging in 1783 it was seen as quite humanitarian and it moved forward in terms of morals it was the same time in France when it introduced the guillotine for capital crimes in 1792 the reason for that of course is that it was supposed to be quick and painless rather than long and drawn-out excuse the pun torture that ended a death it wasn't until then that hanging replaced burning at the stake as the punishment for treason in England while the Scots burned their supposed witches for a while longer this was progress times were moving on and the historians tell us that the English were not so frivolous in their executing we're told that during King Henry the eighth's reign there were 10 executions every week in London the writer Steven Pinker writes that people in those days might be executed for as little as stealing someone's cabbages if we look at the list of UK capital punishments in England as late as 1822 the barbarity of present-day Saudi Arabia comes to mind that year we saw the very last hanging for shoplifting in the country how many of you have lifted a candy bar in your lifetime an execution for witchcraft was no more still you might find yourself in the gallows after a minute's long trial with the judge telling you that you'll be hanged by the neck until dead for what might seem like today's minor offenses of the 222 capital offenses there was cutting down a tree poaching robbing a rabbit warren begging if you were a soldier or sailor damaging westminster bridge pickpocketing stealing from a shipwreck maiming cattle on purpose being in the company of gypsies for more than a month strong evidence of malice in a child aged seven to fourteen being out at night with a blackened face stealing horses or sheep arson forgery fraud letter stealing rioting and sacrilege we can find only one person who was hanged for the latter from 17 23 to 1820 we should add that the US National Institutes of Health tell us that across England Wales and Scotland their work contrasts in how this punishment was applied it seems by far the south and southwest of England saw the highest rate of hangings property offenses such as burglary ended with thousands of executions in England over a few decades but few in Scotland and Wales we might also add that of course murder was a capital offense but that's a given not everyone convicted of capital offences went to the gallows we're told that there was a golden age of what is called the bloody code and this was from 1816 to 18 25580 three sentences of death were handed down and yet only 518 people were hanged it said that many were pardoned while others joined the army or Navy or were sent to Australia to eke out an existence there thankfully from 1822 and through to the 1830s many of these capital offenses were removed one of the reasons for the change was the introduction of police forces which were supposed to help reduce crime rather than the old tactic of just preventing crime by scaring people with the consequences by 1861 there were just four capital offences they were murder high treason piracy with violence and arson in the Royal dockyards we are not exactly sure though what would have happened to you then if you went out robbing rabbits from Warren's with your clothes gypsy buddies we might also remember in view of what we see as apps Lulla heinous and despicable today is that England in the 19th century there was still a capital crime of committing the detestable and abominable vice of buggery with mankind or beast yes that includes mere homosexuality the last Brits hanged for this were James Pratt and John Smith their execution was on the 27th of November 1835 the reforms after 1822 weren't exactly humanitarian across-the-board our American viewers must now be thinking that those Brits were a brutal lot but those living in the new world were not always that far removed from such brutality America had its own terrible laws while it's hard to find exactly how many homosexuals were executed in the u.s. even after its independence from Great Britain and the creation of new laws it seems the country wasn't all that progressive one academic that wrote a paper on this says it appears that in 1776 male homosexuals in the original 13 colonies were universally subject to the death penalty and that in earlier times for a brief period in one colony lesbians had been liable to the same punishment for relations with other women we just can't find any instances of the death penalty being applied for homosexuality back then we do know that Thomas Jefferson thought that he was being forward-thinking when in 1779 he tried to create a law in Virginia which meant that men convicted of sodomy would be castrated rather than executed but his idea was rejected okay on to the USA and its past capital punishments but first of all what are the present capital offenses as the country hasn't given up the ghost just yet on killing people for crimes they committed we are told that there are currently 41 such offenses and you all know the obvious such as murder this list contains many instances of how such a murder can happen such as murder and an airport or in a drive-by shooting but you can add to that list destruction of aircraft motor vehicles or related facilities resulting in death espionage death resulting in destruction of government property genocide mailing of in Juris articles with intent to kill resulting in death large-scale drug trafficking treason all of the others just about are related to the willful taking of life even today many people receive the death penalty but many of those people are not executed we're told that since nineteen 76 78 hundred people in the USA have been sentenced to death and just over 1,400 people have been executed as of April 2018 there are two thousand seven hundred forty three people residing on death row we should add that some states 20 at the time of writing have abolished the death penalty altogether back in colonial times before America gained its independence you can of course compare capital offenses to those of Great Britain historians tell us that you might be sent to the gallows in the 1600s and 1700s in the US for witchcraft stealing food heresy trading with the local Indians or when slaves killed their masters or masters wives or family traitorous denial of the Kings rights kidnapping perjury in a capital trial or striking one's mother a father upon complaint of both another historian tells us that you can add to that horse theft counterfeiting adultery arson bestiality piracy slave revolt concealing birth and burglary from 1600 to 1700 the execution rate for crimes other than murder kept dropping but even after 1776 when the u.s. gained its independence there were still quite a lot of people being killed for their crimes when those crimes were not murder not all states were the same we're told that some states were much more lenient but then we found a list of capital crimes in North Carolina in 1837 these included many crimes we've already listed but also highway robbery dueling where death occurs castration hiding a slave with intent to free him bigamy that's marrying while married circulating seditious literature among slaves inciting slaves to rebel taking a free Negro out of state to sell him and also the vague crime of causing mayhem some states were way more progressive having heeded the warnings of European enlightenment writers in the past things were changing such as many social critics writing that public hangings should be ended like in the UK these live executions drew enlarged sometimes a rowdy crowds then in 1846 Michigan became the first state to abolish capital punishment Wisconsin followed a year later there were caveats though such as you won't get executed as long as you don't perpetuate treason against the state there was a kind of breakthrough in 1972 when the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment was a cruel and unusual and for three years it looked like an end to such punishment of course things changed from the beginning of 2018 to December 5th 2018 a total of 22 people in the USA were executed for their crime the last one was in Texas and the now dead man's name was Joseph Christopher Garcia he'd escaped from prison in the year 2000 and he was accused of going on a crime spree after the escape with six of his fellow escapees during that spree he was said to have killed a police officer during a robbery on Christmas Eve he denied this but all men except one that committed suicide were handed the death penalty only two are still alive and waiting execution the death penalty is enforced in 32 states in America and capital offenses include things such as treason espionage and death resulting from aircraft hijacking however committing murder is by far the most common reason that people find themselves on death row over the years execution methods have included everything from hanging to firing squad and even a gas chamber but today all 32 states that have the death penalty use lethal injection as it's considered the most humane way to end a person's life let's find out in this episode of the infographic show how does lethal injection work there have been 1472 executions in America since 1976 of those executions three-word by firing squad 3 by hanging 11 by gas chamber 158 by electrocution and 1297 by lethal injection lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person to cause them to die immediately it was first developed in the United States and is now a preferred method of execution in China Thailand Guatemala Taiwan the Maldives and Vietnam once the person's heart stops death is pronounced in most cases this takes around seven minutes although if there are complications it can sometimes take longer so what's actually injected into a person to bring on cardiac arrest according to the death penalty Information Center in Washington DC the process for lethal injection in most states involves injecting three separate shots all of which are delivered via intravenous trips the first injection is an anaesthetic called sodium thiopental a strong barbiturate used to send a person into a deep unconscious state so pain cannot be felt the drug affects a number of neurotransmitters causing brain activity to be depressed and blocking the actions of brain receptors therefore causing a dormant nonreactive state typically within 30 seconds this anaesthetic is intended to last throughout the lethal injection process so when the following injections are administered the person is completely unaware the tubes used to administer the drugs are flushed clean with saline and then the second injection this time of pancuronium bromide is administered this drug acts as a neuromuscular blocker preventing communication between the nervous system and muscles as the person has no muscular control a state of paralysis is reached the diaphragm a muscle used to pull air into the lungs stops working causing breathing to cease one last saline flush before the final injection is administered this time potassium chloride this disrupts the electrical signaling of the heart stopping it from beating and ending the person's life according to a 2002 study in the Journal of forensic science the average time from the first injection to the heart stopping is 8.4 minutes but what about rare cases when things go wrong and the process takes longer than anticipated though the general consensus is that lethal injection is the most painless and humane way to end a person's life there have been some botched attempts we researched some cases that have made the headlines over the years in 1985 Charles Walker was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of armed robbery he was a death row inmate at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester Illinois until September 12th 1990 when Walker requested a last meal of pan-fried wild rabbit with gravy made from the pan drippings biscuits and a dessert of blackberry pie with whipped cream his execution was scheduled for after dinner but the execution was prolonged because of human error and equipment failure according to Gary Sutter field an engineer who assisted with Walker's execution a kink in the plastic tubing going into his arm stop the flow of chemicals into Walker's body additionally the intravenous needle was pointing at Walker's fingers instead of his heart Walker's execution took far longer than it should have and he suffered excruciating pain throughout next we have Joseph cannon who on April 23rd 1998 prepared for his death in a Texas jail cannon was convicted of attempted rape and murder in 1977 when he was just 17 he spent more than half his life on death row before facing the needle he made his final statement and the execution process began but a vein in canons arm collapsed and the needle popped out as the witnesses looked on cannon laid back and exclaimed it's come undone the currents were then drawn for 15 minutes so the officials dealing with cannons execution could fix the when they eventually reopened the curtains canon made a second final statement and the execution was completed and finally a case that hit the headlines this year Doyle Lee ham who faced the death penalty at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer Alabama ham had been at Donaldson since 1987 after a jury found him guilty of shooting and killing a motel clerk during a robbery but ham had terminal cancer and a history of intravenous drug use leaving his veins feeble and compromised the attempted execution was halted after medical personnel were unable to find a vein despite trying to insert needles in the groin ankles and lower legs for nearly two hours dr. mark Heath the doctor responsible for examining ham was quoted on NBC News as saying during this time mr. ham began to hope that the doctor would succeed in obtaining IV access so that mr. ham could get it over with because he preferred to die rather than to continue to experience the ongoing severe pain ham survived to tell the tale and it's not been confirmed whether or not he will need to face another round of injections to end his life these are severe and unfortunate cases and though of course they are in the minority things do go wrong according to the death penalty Information Center a national nonprofit organization providing information and data on capital punishment 7.12 percent of lethal injection executions between 1890 to 2010 were botched capital punishment has always been a controversial topic and whichever execution method the state decides is most humane it is likely there will always be the occasional problem as we've learned today the method of legal injection puts a person to sleep before inducing a cardiac arrest and most of the time it's a straightforward procedure a small pinprick a combination of three substances and then lights out can you think of a more humane method for carrying out the death penalty let us know in the comments also be sure to check out our other video called illegal things that you do every day thanks for watching and as always don't forget to like share and subscribe see you next time

Channel: The Infographics Show

Views: 987,283

Rating: 4.8173189 out of 5

Keywords: death row, prison, execution, crime, criminal, famous last meals, last words, last words of death row inmates, death penalty, the death penalty, lethal injection, stories, story, prison stories, death row stories, the infographics show, death row prisoners, compilation, death row last meals, death row last words, hangman, survive, survived execution, teenager, teenager survives death row, insane, crazy, survival, survivor, true, true crime, prisoner, prisoners, real stories, true story

Id: SGzQU9LTlN8

Length: 60min 27sec (3627 seconds)

Published: Mon May 11 2020