Facing the Death Penalty: Essays on a Cruel and Unusual Punishment

3. Facing the Death Penalty

3 Facing the Death Penalty WATT ESPY Only one who has endured the experience can fully understand the thoughts and emotions of a person who has been condemned to die at the hands of the executioner. Such an individual is kept in close confinement, deprived of all the creature comforts of life, forced to contemplate a sudden and violent death by a means already ordained and known to him or her. It is a period during which the soul and spirit of any mortal is severely tested. In this chapter I will illustrate, by factual examples, the manner in which some of those who have been judicially executed have prepared themselves for and met their fates. Twenty-year-old Crawford Goldsby killed his first man at the age of 14. During the ensuing six years, many others fell victim to the pistols of this desperado, who was known and feared throughout the Indian Territory as "Cherokee Bill." Even as a prisoner under sentence of death at Fort Smith, Arkansas, he managed to secure a gun and claim another victim in an aborted jailbreak. On 17 March 1896, he stood on the gallows in the yard of U.S. District Judge Isaac Parker's court, prepared to expiate his crimes pursuant to the sentence of the man often referred to as the "Hanging Judge." His mother stood beside him on the gallows, stoic and dry-eyed, as her son was asked if he had anything to say. Cherokee Bill coldly stared at the executioner who was about to carry out the law's mandate and replied: "No. I came here to die, not to talk." He 27 28 WATT ESPY kissed his mother goodbye, the trap was sprung, and he fell to his death at the end ofa rope (New York Times, 18 March 1896). Goldsby, who had shown nothing but contempt for society, met his death in a calm and dignified manner, but Andrew Taylor, who was hanged at Loudon, Tennessee, on 23 November 1883, could not resist a final opportunity to show his hatred for the law and its enforcers. Taylor and his brothers, John and Robert, had terrorized east Tennessee for years. When John was sentenced to ten years in the state prison for an unprovoked murder, Andy and Bob determined that he would never serve a day. On 14 September 1882, as SherifI' W. T. Cate of Hamilton County and his deputy, J. J. Conway, were transporting John to prison, his brothers boarded the train in Loudon County and shot the two lawmen, killing both. The three brothers then fled to Missouri, where John and Robert were killed resisting arrest and Andrew was taken into custody. When asked if he had any last words before his execution, Andrew replied, "Not a goddamned word," but he changed his mind after the noose had been adjusted and, looking at the sheriffwho was about to spring the trap, exclaimed: "God damn you! I could drink your heart's blood!" That was Taylor's final act of defiance. The drop fell, and nine minutes later Andrew Taylor was pronounced dead of strangulation (Goodspeed, 1896:237-38; News [Galveston, Texas], 24 Nov. 1883). Even advanced age and the advent of our modern industrial society did not dampen the spirit ofJames ("Mancos Jim") Stephens. Stephens had been raised among the Navajo Indians. In his early manhood he had been a range rider, but as age overtook him he settled down to the easier life ofherding sheep. The wizened, toothless old man was considered a harmless relic ofthe past in Motezuma County, Colorado, when, on 9 October 1939, he shot and killed Town Marshall Lynn Deat at Mancos. Appeals and respites delayed his execution until 20 June 1941, when Governor Ralph Carr announced that even though he was reluctant to allow the execution to proceed because of the man's advanced age, he had decided to interfere no further. Mancos Jim expressed some disappointment at the decision, but said that he was ready to go. After his last meal of soft foods, fruit juice, and eggs, the 76- FACING THE DEATH PENALTY 29 year-old former cowboy had to be driven in an automobile the last half-mile up a hill to the execution chamber. As he entered, he muttered a few words in the Navajo language and then, after he had been strapped into the chair, he let out a Navajo...