Former death row commissioner: 'If you seek revenge, dig two graves'
The US Supreme Court has ruled states can use a disputed drug in lethal injections. Dr. Allen Ault, who oversaw executions, tells DW about the human cost of the death penalty for the condemned and their executioners.
'I murdered a human being'
Ault never used lethal injection. Georgia's method of execution was the electric chair. The trained psychologist served as the commissioner of Georgia's Department of Corrections from 1992-1995. He oversaw five executions.
Unable to cope with the psychological trauma, Ault left his job. He told Deutsche Welle how he came to oppose the death penalty:
At nine o'clock, or whatever the time was, it's listed on the death warrant, I signaled to the warden who was standing in the chamber and he asked the inmate if he had any last words. And the inmate as I recall said, “please, God, forgive me.”
The electrician was standing behind me but was facing toward the apparatus on the wall. So then I said, “It's time Brad,” and he never ever looked at the condemned person. He just threw the switch.
What we observed was a really violent body movement when the voltage hit the body, and then five or six seconds later it slumped in the chair.
It was at that moment that I realized that I had just murdered a human being.
http://www.dw.com/en/former-death-row-commissioner-if-you-seek-revenge-dig-two-graves/a-18550061
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Damning and devastating account. And, he doesn't even go into all of the falsely convicted people on death row.
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