Commentary:
Executions are a big yawn
Editor's Note: Wright, an assistant content editor for the Tribune-Star, witnessed the execution of John Wayne Gacy during his seven years covering criminal justice issues for this newspaper. He also holds a master's degree in criminology from Indiana State University.
By John D. Wright
Tribune-Star
Death-penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean is correct. Witnessing an execution firsthand does affect a person's view toward capital punishment.
It certainly changed mine when I saw John Wayne Gacy die. But not to a stance Prejean would endorse.
My experience strengthened my support for the death penalty.
Prejean, author of the book upon which filmmakers made "Dead Man Walking," supports the broadcast of executions, so the American public can see for itself what happens.
She claims our government should not react to violence with violence.
As a media representative, I sat in the witness room with others on May 10, 1994, when the state of Illinois imparted its "violence" on Gacy.
Gacy had been convicted of killing 33 people, mostly by strangling them.
Lying on a gurney in the death chamber, Gacy showed no signs of cowering. I've seen people who looked more uncomfortable waiting in their dentist's chair. Through the viewing glass, we could see him talking to the warden before the injections. We could not hear the words, but it looked like casual conversation.
No one knows how McVeigh will act in his final seconds, but I doubt he will show much emotion.
His death room will resemble a hospital room, a place to close his eyes and sleep forever. He certainly will not bleed to death under a pile of steel and concrete. He will not sting from any broken bones from a two-story fall, or suffer from glass embedded in his side. He will not have to die in a pile of rubble, without a final opportunity to say good-bye and tell someone, "I love you."
As for Gacy, he appeared ready for death. He was allowed last words, and earlier had dined on his beloved Kentucky Fried Chicken, delivered to him for a final supper.
We watched Gacy react to the initial injection, which induces sleep, with a quick movement forward, as if acknowledging the drug. Although we could hear the thud of the machine as it passed the second and third injections to him, we could see no sign of any sort that Gacy did anything but sleep. We could not detect that a death had occurred.
Have you ever seen a person put under for surgery? That's what watching an execution is like. Executions are a big yawn.
So why have them? Why not let the killer suffer a worse fate - the misery of life imprisonment?
Because executions serve a useful purpose for the victims by allowing them a semblance of closure. Think of it: While McVeigh lives, he writes letters that make their way into the hands of media. He gives interviews. His attorneys appeal, appeal, appeal. Reporters telephone victims. Videotape of the shell of the bombed-out Murrah building continually runs on television. Anything that McVeigh does while alive will be hot news.
Once he dies, the attention given the case subsides. Then maybe the ones who matter the most in this whole horrible chapter in our lives - the survivors and the family members of the dead and injured - can find some peace and rebuild their lives.
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