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Da sinistra: Dennis Dowthitt, Brian Roberson and James Collier, tre detenuti del braccio della morte in Texas di cui si possono leggere le ultime parole prima dell'esecuzione.
Dennis Dowthitt (left), Brian Roberson (centre) and James Collier, death row inmates whose last words before execution have been recorded by the state of Texas.
TEXAS. THE LAST WORDS OF EXECUTED PRISONERS

July 12, 2013: the last words of the 376 prisoners executed in Texas are faithfully recorded on the state justice department's website. These words not only represent how they wish to be viewed after their death, but it is also the final step before the actual execution begins.
The final statements vary from those who use it as an opportunity to apologize for their crimes to those who proclaim their innocence. Some are angry, blaming the system for their actions, blaming their victims and the victim's family, or blaming the ineptitude of their lawyer. Most will tell their families and friends that they love them; many times asking for forgiveness from them for all that they have endured. Most surprising are those that take a moment to thank the prison warden or to tell their executioner that they are forgiven.
The Texas death chambers are the busiest in the US, and correspondingly efficient: 376 prisoners have been executed since 1982. There isn't much time to dwell on rights and wrongs and regrets. Perhaps in order to cauterise doubt in a blaze of clarity, everything is catalogued: the minute the prisoner is injected with lethal medicine, the minute it starts to take effect, the minute they die. Now that there is nothing they can do to change their fate, the prisoners are allowed small freedoms: to choose their last meals, to say a few words. These last words, too, are catalogued, and are publicly available on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's website. The pages are cleanly designed, passionless, almost an artwork - but the minimalism cannot hide the fact that every name and number indicates whole blighted, messy lives, of victims and prisoners alike.
The statements are hard to read. They are at once public and very private. They are domestic. They ask partners to care for soon-to-be fatherless children. There is a lot of love - for friends, supporters, partners, already grieving parents. There is guilt. They are overwhelmingly religious, mostly asking for mercy from a Christian God, though there is the occasional invocation of Allah. The appearance of a foreign language is unusual. In more recent years the recorders have contented themselves with "...(Spanish)...", as if being foreign stripped the prisoner of their last words. Profanity gets the same treatment. State-sanctioned murder is fine. Swearing, it seems, is not.
Many are still pleading their innocence. This too is difficult to read, because there is no way for us to know whether they are telling the truth. Along with each statement is a description of the crimes each prisoner is accused of committing. Rape, sexual molestation and murder of a five-year-old. Rape, strangling and drowning of a 28-year-old woman. Murder, during robberies, of a whole procession of small-town store clerks. Many may well not be able to face, possibly even comprehend what they have done; others may be hoping for the last-minute stay. And some may be telling the truth: a careful Boston Globe review of the 127 death-row inmates who died during George Bush's governorship of Texas concluded that "there was powerful proof of guilt - uncontradicted scientific evidence, freely offered confessions, or an admission of regret before the execution - in nine out of 10 cases."
Read the statements at this link: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/dr_executed_offenders.html (Sources: http://www.guardian.co.uk/)

GEORGIA (USA): JUDGE UPHOLDS STAY OF HILL’S EXECUTION
TEXAS (USA): VAUGHN ROSS EXECUTED
SINGAPORE: MALAYSIAN ESCAPES GALLOWS AFTER SINGAPORE LAW REFORM
GAMBIA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER CONVICT
BANGLADESH: ISLAMIST LEADER SENTENCED TO DEATH
USA: FBI COULD BE AT FAULT IN 27 DEATH ROW CASES
SOMALIA: PUNTLAND COURT SENTENCES SIX PEOPLE TO DEATH
VIETNAM: 5 SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUG DEALING, ADDING TO DEATH ROW WHILE EXECUTIONS DELAYED
TEXAS (USA): JOHN MANUEL QUINTANILLA EXECUTED
INDIA: MADHYA PRADESH HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR RAPE CONVICT
GEORGIA (USA): WARREN HILL EXECUTION STAYED DUE TO LETHAL DRUG LAW
INDONESIA: JAKARTA INMATE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR RUNNING ECSTASY RING FROM JAIL
BANGLADESH: GHULAM AZAM FOUND GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES
GAZA: COURT ISSUES DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER SUSPECT
SAUDIS TORTURED IN IRAQI PRISONS
CHINA: COURT EXECUTES MAN WITHOUT TELLING FAMILY
PAKISTAN: 400 PRISONERS ON DEATH ROW WILL KNOW THEIR FATE
KENYA: FIVE MEN SENT TO GALLOWS FOR VIOLENT ROBBERY
SAUDI ARABIA: 31 DEATH ROW PRISONERS PARDONED IN 8 MONTHS
NIGERIA: LAGOS URGES REVIEW OF DEATH PENALTY
USA: AS OF MID-YEAR 2013, PACE OF EXECUTIONS CONTINUES TO DECLINE
IRAN: THREE PRISONERS HANGED IN KERMANSHAH
BANGLADESH: FOUR TO DIE IN COLLEGE GIRL RAPE, MURDER CASE
IRAN: THREE MORE HANGED IN ARDEBIL PRISON
IRAN: 21 PRISONERS HANGED
INDIA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR RAPING, KILLING MINOR
PENNSYLVANIA (USA): SUPERIOR COURT PANEL AFFIRMS LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR MUMIA ABU JAMAL
INDIA: HC COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE OF THREE TO LIFE
CHINA: SUSPENDED DEATH SENTENCE FOR EX-RAILWAY MINISTER
SAUDI ARABIA: CONVICTED MURDERER BEHEADED NEAR MAKAH

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