The Psychology of the Executioner

Screenshot from "Dead Man Walking" (1995) by Tim Robbins, with Susan
Sarandon and Sean Penn, based on Sr. Helen Prejean's eponymous book.

A look inside the minds of those who have participated in firing squads and lethal injections.

There’s a funny fact about firing squads: People volunteer for them. When it comes to lethal injection though, it can be difficult to find an expert with the right expertise to oversee the procedure. In 2006, Missouri state officials told a judge that they sent letters to 298 anesthesiologists, asking if they would help with the state’s executions. All refused.

In 2010, when Utah wanted to execute death-row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner, it used five anonymous police officers who all volunteered for the job. Two other volunteer police officers stood by, in case anyone in the original five wanted to back out at the last minute. (None of the five officers got cold feet.)

About a week before Gardner’s execution, CNN talked with another officer who had volunteered for the firing squad that executed convicted murderer John Albert Taylor in 1996. The officer considered the job a rare chance to affect “100 percent justice.” “There’s just some people we need to kick off the planet,” he said. He described the process as instantaneous, professional, and not unduly gruesome.

In contrast, getting medical professionals—the equivalent of trained marksmen for lethal injections—to join death penalty teams can be difficult. Doctors, after all, take an oath to “first, do no harm.” Doctors’ groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Board of Anesthesiology, say physicians shouldn’t participate in capital punishment. 

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Source: Pacific Standard, Francie Diep, March 12, 2015

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