Witness to a Prosecution

Whether or not someone is for or against capital punishment, listening to the 2000 audio documentary Witness to an Execution is a harrowing experience. The documentary focuses on the stories of the women and men involved with the execution of death row inmates at the Walls unit in Huntsville, Texas. What is particularly emotionally grim is the minute-by-minute description of carrying out an execution by lethal injection. The listener is not the only one distressed by the description.

One corrections officer, named Fred Allen, who was part of the tie-down team, talks about his own mental breakdown attributed to taking part in too many executions, 130 by his count.

I was just working in the shop and all of a sudden something just triggered in me and I started shaking�.I just thought about that execution that I did two days ago�and what it was, was something triggered within and �all these executions all of a sudden all sprung forward (Witness to an Execution Transcript.

Warden Jim Willett, who has overseen about 75 executions, remarks that he worries about his staff. He says that he is retiring soon and the executions are something he won't miss. "There are times when I'm standing there, watching those fluids start to flow, and wonder whether what we're doing here is right. It's something I'll be thinking about for the rest of my life" (Witness to an Execution Transcript).

These remarks come at the conclusion of the documentary, leaving the listener with a variety of f

Related Essays

Billy Wilder's films Witness for the Prosecution (1958) is atypical in some ways--it is more isolated in time and place than most of Wilder's films because it is a courtroom drama .... (1725 7 )

Analysis of Televised Court Case .... to the trigger when the gun went off. Kent Culuko was the prosecution's chief witness. He was a friend of Williams who was clearly .... (1561 6 )

Ethical Behavior in Legal System .... for attempted murder. Ironically, the star witness for the prosecution would be the client's lawyer. Extrapolating from this situation .... (1361 5 )

Simon Schama's Dead Certainties .... of having his ideas publicly noticed and his private will unchallenged in large and small things alike; the main witness for the prosecution, who disliked .... (2343 9 )

Maryland v. Craig The Child Victim as Witness .... testimony more reliable or as reliable as that given on the witness stand in .... will allow many young children to testify and will allow the prosecution of child .... (1855 7 )

while it is not a direct part of the documentary, it most likely provided background for the producers to work with. Following Glass' narrative structure, Warden Willett provides general information including the condemned inmate's schedule prior to the execution his last meal and so forth. Then, in an informal tone, he informs the listener, "I'm gonna start our story where the execution process really begins" (Witness to an Execution Transcript). As principal narrator, Willett provides the timeline that informs the documentary. "At five minutes to six, I'm sitting in my office. I get up from my chair, put on my jacket, and walk back to the death house. At this time the inmate is in his cell, talking with the prison's chaplain, Jim Brazzil." Then Brazzil relates some of his previous experiences, followed by Willett saying, "One of my supervisors will get a call at 6:00 from the governor's office�." (Witness Transcript). And then to Brazzil's voice, then back to Willett, and then to Kenneth Dean, a member of the tie-down team that handles the individual straps to tie down the inmate to secure him to the gurney so "he won't be jumping up, and he won't be able to squirm out of the restraints themselves, and that the job can be don

Category: Film - W