‘Houston cop killer Anthony Haynes will be executed by lethal injection.’ ibid. news report
‘We received nothing from the US Supreme Court that Anthony Haynes received a stay of execution.’ ibid. legal statement
‘The execution is now in progress; he is sitting there with clenched fists; he’s slowly relaxing at this time.’ Life and Death Row s1e2: Judgment, commentary, BBC 2014
In 2009 22-year-old Guy Heinze was charged with the murders of 8 members of his own family. He’s now on trial for his life in the state of Georgia. ibid.
‘Police say each of them was beaten with a blunt object.’ ibid. news report
‘Suspect says he returned to mobile home and found victims already dead.’ ibid.
‘When we get to the crime scene he’s wearing those shorts; underneath, he was wearing silver and black gym shorts – what was found was the blood of three different people from that house.’ ibid. prosecutor
For some prisoners there is one last hope: a team of law students fighting to save their lives. Life and Death Row s1e3: Crisis Stage
Two crisis appeals: gang member and drive-by killer Robert Garza and Prison guard murderer Robert Pruett. ibid.
‘He was stabbed to death and a make-shift knife was found.’ ibid. news
A few hours before his murder Daniel Nagle had written a disciplinary report on Robert Pruett for breaking prison rules. ibid.
And next to Daniel Nagle’s body they found the ripped pieces of Robert Pruett’s report. ibid.
Ray Yarborough died from multiple stab wounds … Robert had turned 16 by the time the case came to trial; he was sentenced as an adult and given ninety-nine years. ibid.
Corpus Christi 10th March 2009: ‘Lieutenant Stuart Alexander died an immediate death: he was struck and killed by a suspect fleeing in an SUV.’ Life and Death Row s2e1: Execution, news, BBC 2016
I, death row inmate, Stacey Johnson, at the present moment am being housed at the Cummins Unit feet away from the death chamber. The State of Arkansas is going to commit mass murder to kill eight men in ten days because their drug is gonna run out. So I ask you: who’s the murderer? The unprecedented number of executions and divided the state. Now the eight inmates are fighting for their lives. Life and Death Row s2e2: The Mass Execution I, BBC 2018
Each inmate is entitled to plead to the governor to spare their life at a hearing with the parole board. ibid.
‘The death penalty is political. I think the Governor is doing these executions in order to make a name for himself.’ Life and Death Row s2e3: The Mass Execution II, Johnson
‘The local politicians tried to execute me. Even when DNA testing came out that excluded me and the other two men that they had convicted from the scene of the crime they still kept trying to kill me.’ ibid. Damien Echols
The governor of Arkansas has scheduled 8 men to die within 10 days of each other. The schedule is to beat the expiration date of a lethal injection drug called Midazolam. Midazolam has been blamed for a number of executions that have gone wrong. Life and Death Row s2e4: The Mass Execution III, captions
Next in line to die are Jack Jones and Marcel Williams. ibid.
The last two men scheduled to die are Jason McGehee and Kenneth Williams. Life and Death Row s2e5: The Mass Execution IV
In 2004 former US marine John Henry Ramirez stabbed and killed Pablo Castro. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. After 8 years on Texas death row John will be executed in 7 days. John is making a final appeal to halt his execution. Life and Death Row s2e6: In Cold Blood
‘It was just a bad day and a bunch of wrong choices on my part.’ ibid. Ramirez
This film is about the death penalty in the state of Mississippi and the effect it has on the staff and inmates as time runs out for one 26-year-old man: Edward Earl Johnson. Johnson has been appealing against his sentence for 8 years in the United States’ courts. He was convicted in 1979 of killing a Mississippi town marshal and the attempted rape of a 60-year-old woman. He has spent the last 8 years on this death row and has always professed his innocence. Fourteen Days in May, BBC 1987
At the scene of the crime where Johnson allegedly robbed a 60-year-old woman and killed a local town marshal an old Buick car was seen. Because Johnson owned a Buick he was arrested with others and put in front of an identity parade. The woman who was robbed and nearly raped had known Edward Johnson for most of his life. ibid.
They wrote out a confession and asked Johnson to sign it. ibid.
Johann Reichhart was the most famous executioner in Nazi Germany. In a career which spans just over 20 years it was said that he put over 3,000 people to death. Jamie Theakston’s Forbidden History s4e1: Hitler’s Executioner: Johann Reichhart, Sky 2017
A family of executioners that went back eight generations. ibid.
20 guillotines were secretly ordered and distributed to prisons across the Reich. ibid.
Today there are over 50 countries around the world which continue to use the death penalty … It is only a decade since capital punishment was finally removed from British law. Timeshift: Crime and Punishment: The Story of Capital Punishment, BBC 2018
For over 200 years a moral battle raged about whether the state has the right to execute. ibid.
But it was in the late 18th century that the death penalty was applied most widely. ibid.
The participation of the crowd itself which appeared to revel in a macabre party atmosphere. ibid.
Between 1770 and 1830 over 35,000 people were sentenced to death. But only one in ten were actually executed. ibid.
The Victorians were still committed to retaining the death penalty for those convicted of murder. ibid.
The Victorians began to build large prisons across Britain as places of both punishment and reform. ibid.
[Albert] Pierrepoint became a familiar face to British audiences through numerous television interviews. ibid.
There was still widespread support for capital punishment. ibid.
In 1969 parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of permanently abolishing the death penalty for murder … Hanging only remained for treason and piracy. ibid.
Gary Gilmore became the first person to be executed in the US for ten years … by a firing squad in Utah. ibid.
She was our most infamous queen. The second wife of Henry VIII tried on his orders for crimes of adultery and treason. Anne Boleyn was led from her rooms at the Tower of London to her death by an executioner’s sword. The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family, BBC 2021
On 21st January 1793 King Louis the VI was sent to the guillotine ... Few such foreign events have evoked such horror in England. Monarchy by David Starkey s3e5: Survival
I only have a little neck. So it will be the work of a moment. Wolf Hall VI: Masters of Phantoms, Ann, BBC 2015
Anne Boleyn: Around a thousand people have gathered to watch her execution. Days that Shook the World: Affairs of the Crown, BBC 2004
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia … The world’s champion of democracy and human rights has sidled up closer to it than any other friends. Abby Martin, The Empire Files: Inside Saudi Arabia: Butchery, Slavery and History of Revolt, Youtube 2015
Cutting lots of people’s heads off with swords right in the middle of the street … executed more than a hundred people in the first six months of 2015. ibid.
Beheading, firing squad or stoned to death. Non-violent drug offences count for a shocking 43% of all executions. ibid.
Accused offenders have their limbs amputated and dissenters are severely lashed. ibid.
‘Saudi Arabia continues its outrageous repression of human rights activist’. ibid. Washington Post article
‘Thousands of people have been arrested and detained in virtual secrecy, while others have been killed in uncertain circumstances. Hundreds more people face summary trials and possible execution’. ibid. Amnesty International report
Former Conservative MP Michael Portillo is on a mission to investigate the science of killing. He wants to find a method that is unquestionably humane. And to do so he will delve into one of the darkest areas of science – his aim is to try and understand what it feels like to die by execution. Horizon: How to Kill a Human Being, BBC 2008
Fifty-five countries in the world use execution as the ultimate punishment. But the killing of prisoners has long been the issue of controversy. ibid.