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The Death Penatly is carried out in many US states often by lethal injection but a shortage
now of chemicals used for he drugs has left some US states considering other older means
of executions including what we used to see, the electric chair.
No US state puts more people to death than Texax. More than 500 people have been executed
there since 1982 and the Huntsville State Prison in Texas has the busiest exectution
chamber in the country.
Well, VOA's Jerome Socolovsky went to Huntsville and he met the former death house chaplain,
a man who has a unique perspective on capital punishment as Jerome told me when we talked
about it in a segment we first featured last year.
THERE ARE GHOSTS IN REVEREND CARROLL PICKETT'S CLOSET. NINETY-FIVE TO BE EXACT.
"...BUT THIS IS PART OF THE TAPES."
THAT'S THE NUMBER OF INMATES PUT TO DEATH WHILE HE WAS CHAPLAIN AT THE TEXAS STATE EXECUTION
CHAMBER IN HUNTSVILLE.
"I MADE THE TAPES THE NEXT DAY, OR THE NEXT NIGHT, TO GET IT ALL OUT."
"HE ADMITTED HE WAS NERVOUS, AND IT SHOWED IN MANY WAYS THAT HE WAS SCARED."
YOU TALK ABOUT HOW REVEREND PICKETT WAS PRESENT DURING THESE EXECUTIONS. WHAT EXACTLY WAS
HIS ROLE AS PRISON CHAPLAIN?
HE REALLY SPENT BASICALLY THE LAST DAY WITH EACH OF THESE CONDEMNED PEOPLE. AND HE GOT
TO KNOW THEM PRETTY WELL. THEY GOT TO KNOW HIM. AND THEY ALL REACTED DIFFERENTLY TO HIM
AND HE WAS BASICALLY THERE UNTIL THE END. MANY OF THEM HAD QUESTIONS FOR HIM ABOUT 'IS
THIS GOING TO HURT? WHAT'S IT GOING TO BE LIKE THE LAST FEW MINUTES AND HE WAS IN A
POSITION WHERE HE OFTEN HAD TO REASSURE THEM THAT IT WOULDN'T HURT.
JEROME, YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND A GOOD AMOUNT OF TIME WITH REVEREND PICKETT
LEARNING ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCE. WHAT STRUCK YOU MOST ABOUT HIS STORY?
I THINK, ALEX, WHAT STRUCK ME THE MOST WAS HOW HE STRUGGLED WITH HIS OWN FEELING ABOUT
THE DEATH PENALTY WHILE HE WAS A PRISON CHAPLAIN. HE WAS THERE FOR NINETY-FIVE EXECUTIONS AND
THE THIRTY THIRD EXECUTION THAT I TALK ABOUT IN MY STORY OF CARLOS DELUNA STARTED RAISING
QUESTIONS IN HIS MIND.
"HE WAS A BABY FACE. HE HAD BIG EYES. BIG BROWN EYES. HE WAS INNOCENT. I KNEW HE WAS
INNOCENT. I KNEW BY TALKING TO HIM AND LISTENING TO HIM."
DELUNA WAS CONVICTED FOR THE FATAL STABBING OF A GAS STATION ATTENDANT. BUT PICKETT BELIEVES
IT WAS A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY. AND WHILE HE PROMISED DELUNA HIS DEATH WOULD BE PAINLESS,
IT WAS FAR FROM THAT.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IS WRONG, HE CONTINUED GOING AND KEEPING THE, HIS OWN FEELINGS TO
HIMSELF. HE TALKED ABOUT WHAT HE CALLED A MINISTRY OF PRESENCE, THAT HOWEVER HE FELT
HE SHOULD DO GOD'S WORK AND BE THERE WITH THE INMATE, WITH THE CONDEMNED MAN OR WOMAN
RIGHT BEFORE THE EXECUTION.
HE CAME OUT AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY AFTER RETIRING IN 1995. HE IS NOW A POWERFUL VOICE
IN THE MOVEMENT TO ABOLISH IT.
YOU'RE LOSING A LOVED ONE TO THE STATE OF TEXAS.
THIS VIDEO PROVIDED BY THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE SHOWS THE EXECUTION CHAMBER
WHERE THE CONDEMNED INMATE IS STRAPPED DOWN. AT 6PM IF THERE IS NO LAST MINUTE INJUNCTION,
A LETHAL INJECTION IS ADMINISTERED. THERE WERE MASSIVE PROTESTS RIGHT HERE IN FRONT
OF THE DEATH HOUSE BACK WHEN REVEREND PICKETT ATTENDED HIS FIRST EXECUTION. NOW THE DEATH
OF NUMBER FIVE HUNDRED AND FIVE, ARTURO DIAZ, DRAWS ONLY A COMMITTED CORE OF ANTI-DEATH
PENALTY ACTIVISTS. TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY, HE SUPPORTS THE DEATH PENALTY AND SAYS TEXAS
HAS NEVER EXECUTED AN INNOCENT PERSON. REVEREND PICKETT DISAGREES.
SO I WAS WITNESSING, WITNESS TO A *** BUT IN THE NAME OF THE STATE.
HIS EVOLUTION TOWARD BEING OPPOSED TO THE DEATH PENALTY CAME AS A RESULT OF QUESTIONING,
OF MANY OF THE QUESTIONS OF, MANY OTHER AMERICANS HAVE ABOUT WHETHER IT'S EFFECTIVE, WHETHER
IF REALLY ACTS AS A DETERRENT AND, OF COURSE, WHETHER AN INNOCENT PERSON HAS BEEN KILLED
AS A RESULT OF THE DEATH PENALTY.
AND AGAIN JEROME SOCOLOVSKY IS VOA'S RELIGION REPORTER. REVEREND PICKETT RETIRED IN 1996,
AFTER 15 YEARS IN THE TEXAS PRISON SYSTEM, WHERE HE WITNESSED 95 GOVERNMENT EXECUTIONS
-- AN INTERNATIONAL RECORD.