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| (Marie Antoinette at age 13) |
If ever a coping mechanism were needed, it would be during the moments before one's execution.
Some condemned prisoners, such as George Appel, utilize a macabre sense of humor. The final words that he spoke before his 1928 electric-chair execution were these: “Well,
gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel.” In
1966, James French also emphasized the “pun” in “punishment.”
Before being electrocuted, he morbidly quipped: “How
about this for a headline for tomorrow’s paper?
French fries.”
Others rely upon their spirituality to see them through to the other side. Karla Faye Tucker Brown, executed by injection in 1998, said this: “I am going to be face to face with Jesus now…
I love you all very much. I will see you all when you get there… I will wait for you.” While in prison
for her part in two grisly murders, and before her death-penalty sentencing, Tucker-Brown picked up a Bible and began reading. Wikipedia reports that she afterwards stated:
“Before I knew it, I was in the middle of my cell floor on my knees. I was just asking God to forgive me.”
Among the many who later requested that her life be spared were Newt Gingrich, Pat Robertson and Pope John Paul II.
Some wax philosophical, psychological and/or sociological. Barbara
Graham, executed at San Quentin in 1955, made this comment: “Good people are always so sure they are right.” Robert Alton Harris, executed by gas in 1992, poetically warned: “You can be a
king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the Grim Reaper.” John Spenkelink, electrocuted in 1979, offered this food for thought:
“Capital punishment:
them without the capital get the punishment.”
Others cannot seem to drop their worldly roles, even at a time like this.
Marie Antoinette, long known for her royal persona, uttered these last queenly words as she met her famous fate: “Pardon me sir, I meant not to do it” (said to her executioner as she mistakenly stepped on his foot after climbing the scaffold).
Perhaps, though, the most poignant last words are these: “Today is
a good day to die. I forgive all of you. I hope
God does too.” These words were spoken by Mario Benjamin Murphy, a Mexican citizen whose 1997 execution by the State of Virginia was in blatant violation of both the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.
Resources
http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/dying2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karla_Faye_Tucker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/802
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