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TechnoratiWarden on Death Penalty: 'This Is Wrong'
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Murderer Pedro Medina was strapped into "Old Sparky" shortly after midnight on March 25, 1997, at Florida State Prison.
Warden Ron McAndrew stood nearby as a guard placed a wet sponge to conduct more than 2,000 volts of electricity onto Medina's shaved head.
The executioner pulled the switch. Within seconds, an arm's length from McAndrew, 6-inch flames leaped out the side of the mask on Medina's head.
The cramped chamber immediately filled with smoke and a putrid, acrid odor.
The executioner, wearing oversize insulated gloves that protect linemen working on electrical wires, sought advice from the warden.
"He looked at me with this big question on his face, and he said, 'Continue?' " McAndrew recalled recently. "I said, 'Continue. Continue.' There's no way we could stop at that point."
Medina's searing death and two executions before it led McAndrew down an unlikely path since he quit prison work: He is a working opponent of the death penalty.
"All three executions ignited a fire of thought," McAndrew said. "Each time I carried out one of those executions, I certainly was asking myself why I was there and is this necessary."
Witness entire process, ex-warden says
On Tuesday, Florida plans to execute by lethal injection Mark Dean Schwab, who raped and strangled 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez of Cocoa. McAndrew opposes the execution.
During his time at Florida State Prison, McAndrew earned the moniker "The Walking Warden" because he spent more time outside his office walking the grounds than behind his desk.
He said he visited Death Row every day.
McAndrew said he supported the death penalty during his 20-plus years with the Department of Corrections.
"One day I just sat down and said, 'This is wrong. This is wrong. We have no business killing people,' " he said, except in self-defense, in defense of someone else or in defense of the nation.
Not everyone agrees.
Proponents of the death penalty, including some families of murdered children such as Rios-Martinez, argue that the execution helps them deal with their loss.
"That will not serve as a substitute for getting our son back, but it is as close as we can get to justice in this rather imperfect world we live in," said Don Ryce, whose 9-year-old son Jimmy was raped, murdered and dismembered in Miami-Dade County in 1995. Juan Carlos Chavez was convicted of the crime.
Ryce said Chavez's execution would bring his wife, Claudine, and him "as close to a feeling of peace to that chapter of our life that we're ever going to get." He said he supports the death penalty, although he may not live to witness Chavez die because of the lengthy appeals process.
"He'll probably outlive us because of our screwed-up system," Ryce said. "But if we're still alive, we'll be there for the execution. And we have had some people promise us if we don't make it, they'll be there for us."
"From the standpoint of not only myself but Claudine, we feel the death penalty is appropriate in this case, knowing that won't bring our child back. Knowing there's no such thing as closure. Knowing that justice has been done. We don't feel that way yet," said Ryce, of Vero Beach.
Although McAndrew understands the feeling of the victims' families, the executions he witnessed still haunt him.
Schwab's will be the first execution since former Gov. Jeb Bush put a moratorium on executions in 2006 pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on lethal injection. The court ruled recently that lethal injection is not cruel and unusual punishment.
McAndrew, a slow-spoken activist, grows agitated when talking about lethal injection and the likelihood that executions will resume in Florida.
The most recent inmate executed by lethal injection, Angel Diaz, took more than 30 minutes to die because the needles had been pushed through his veins into his flesh.
But none of the 26 witnesses on the other side of the glass window looking into the execution chamber knew that because, when the curtains behind the window were opened, Diaz was already on a gurney with IVs in his arms.
"If they're going to be honest and forthcoming about what's going on in the death chamber, then from the second the condemned walks into the chamber until the body is placed in a body bag, all 26 witnesses should be there," McAndrew said.
Opponents welcome an insider's voice
Other death penalty opponents tell him that he's an invaluable resource.
"They say only someone who's been that close to it can speak about it in the way that you do," McAndrew said, his voice growing soft.
The former Air Force sergeant began his career in corrections after returning to the United States following a 15-year stint living and traveling throughout France and Asia as a manager for an international exporter.
He never imagined then that, less than two decades later, he would be the warden of one of the state's toughest institutions, landing in 1996 at Florida State Prison.
There, he oversaw three executions in the electric chair: John Earl Bush, John Mills Jr. and Medina.
His first experience, Bush's execution, was uncomfortable, he said. Bush had killed 18-year-old Frances Slater after abducting her from a Stuart convenience store.
The members of the execution team told the warden that it was a tradition to have breakfast at Shoney's after the early morning executions.
"I got to Shoney's and the food started looking very disgusting," McAndrew said. "At the table directly in front of me, I could see the back of the female attorney (for Bush). She turned and looked over her shoulder at me. She had a look of pain on her face."
He left without eating.
'I'd had all the breakfast I could stand'
Starke is a small town with a population of about 5,500 people, most of whom work at the nearby prison, have retired from there or have family members who do.
Everyone at the restaurant knew the group had performed the execution.
What troubled McAndrew was that the public might misconstrue the breakfast as celebratory.
Before the next execution, McAndrew spoke with the colonel on the team: "I told him I'd had all the breakfast I could stand."
Paul Schauble Jr. spent more than a decade as a Death Row officer, taking condemned inmates to showers and recreation and delivering their meals.
He doesn't have any qualms about the job he performed for 12 years.
"Most of us believe we have a job to do. And whether I believe they are innocent or deserve their punishment, my job is to make sure they stay inside the fence and I take care of all their needs and then I go home," Schauble said.
Although he didn't enjoy it, he believes that the prisoners he tended to deserved to die because their crimes were so egregious and their court appeals, over and over again, had been exhausted. He has been the target of Death Row inmates' wrath. He has been hit with feces and bricks, been gouged and stitched up.
The union representative of the Police Benevolent Association doesn't have a lot of sympathy for the prisoners.
"By the time they get on Death Row, the investigation is so extensive ... I truly believe they are guilty of that crime," Schauble said.
Before dawn on the day of the execution, McAndrew would sit on the side of the inmate's bunk and read the death warrant aloud after explaining that he was required to do so by state law.
"You ask them if there's anything you can do for them. If there's any phone call you'd like me to make, I'll be glad to do that," McAndrew said.
Those last moments alone with the person whose death he was about to facilitate haunt him.
"They share things with you in those last moments too, things that you'll never talk about again," he said.
The positions are reversed now.
"These men come and sit on the edge of my bed, so to speak," McAndrew said. "In my mind, I see them a lot. I wish I had never been involved in carrying out the death penalty."
Copyright 2008 The Palm Beach Post
22 Comments so far
Show AllOur system of "corrections," overall, is a disgrace. Then, there is the blatantly unequal treatment of those who are accused: the poor who face every indignity and the rich who, if they don't get their "get out of jail" card, don't spend nearly as much time as a poor inmate. It's IMMORAL, a disgrace and is one of the many things that makes this failing nation a laughingstock throughout the world. Maybe if more "corrections officers" find their way out of haze of denial, the death penalty will stop.
I'm for capital punishment when it comes to likes of GW Bush and his gang of thugs. I would even volunteer to pull the switch.
They overturned this thing in 1974 .... ??
And two years later the neo-cons succeeded in
having it reestablished---!!!
Violence keeps winning --
and humanity and the planet keep losing.
Alan,
You god freaks make me want to puke. When reasoning doesn't work or when you need to justify your own venal compulsions, then drag out the old god rubric. Ever thought that the actions being taken regards crime and punishment are done by us, by man? I agree with your conclusion but not how you got there; the next god-fearin' clown can just as easily justify capital punishment by using the very same god. Have the guts to take a position because it's something you've figured out on your own; use your brain not some fictitious imaginary boogey man!
GOD gives life and only GOD should take it away. The state only has the obligation to protect us and permanent lockup will provide this. The state cannot protect us before a crime but can protect us after the fact.
The Netherlands has a more enlightened approach to punishment that I like. An example: When two men beat another so badly that he will be in a wheelchair for life, the judge gave them the option of 5 years in prison or 5 years taking care of the victim. One took prison, one took the care option and at least learned something while serving society.
The death penalty doesn't deter - as American prisons don't (in general) rehabilitate. They offer advanced degrees in inhumanity and crime.
"Death penalty advocates must either believe that the court system is infallible (which is demonstrably false), or that occasionally executing an innocent person is acceptable.
If you accept the latter premise, imagine going to the death chamber yourself for a crime you didn't commit. Imagine your child going there."
"'By the time they get on Death Row, the investigation is so extensive … I truly believe they are guilty of that crime,' Schauble said."
I don't oppose the death penalty because it takes innocent victims, although that does happen. I oppose it, and very strongly, because I think it perpetuates crime. We're talking about somebody's life here. If they took another's, we are doing the same thing we're punishing for when we execute them, therefore condoning murder. Because an execution IS murder.
Yeah, some people think they deserve it. Well some people, myself included, believe that no living thing should be treated cruelly no matter what they did. It's called human rights.
"Proponents of the death penalty, including some families of murdered children such as Rios-Martinez, argue that the execution helps them deal with their loss.
"That will not serve as a substitute for getting our son back, but it is as close as we can get to justice in this rather imperfect world we live in," said Don Ryce, whose 9-year-old son Jimmy was raped, murdered and dismembered in Miami-Dade County in 1995. Juan Carlos Chavez was convicted of the crime.
Ryce said Chavez's execution would bring his wife, Claudine, and him "as close to a feeling of peace to that chapter of our life that we're ever going to get." He said he supports the death penalty, although he may not live to witness Chavez die because of the lengthy appeals process.
"He'll probably outlive us because of our screwed-up system," Ryce said. "But if we're still alive, we'll be there for the execution. And we have had some people promise us if we don't make it, they'll be there for us."
"From the standpoint of not only myself but Claudine, we feel the death penalty is appropriate in this case, knowing that won't bring our child back. Knowing there's no such thing as closure. Knowing that justice has been done. We don't feel that way yet," said Ryce, of Vero Beach."
So revenge is the answer? Nice. I'm ashamed that people still use that kind of logic. And I thought Jesus said "turn the other cheek."
I think it's a warning sign that our morality is going down the tunnel (or maybe was already down there) when we're so willing to seek vengeance. I think grieving is more than appropriate. But revenge is not the answer. That's taking the psychologically easy way out. Closure IS possible. It's not going to mean that you won't miss your daughter, but god forbid it might instill some human compassion and forgiveness in you. It DOES take mental effort. God forbid we should work for what we want these days.
There is only one thing worse than letting a guilty man live ... and that is killing an innocent man.
Death penalty advocates must either believe that the court system is infallible (which is demonstrably false), or that occasionally executing an innocent person is acceptable.
If you accept the latter premise, imagine going to the death chamber yourself for a crime you didn't commit. Imagine your child going there.
To be just in a fallible world, punishment must not be irrevocable. Life imprisonment without parole is a severe but revocable punishment. It protects society and punishes the perpetrator. Unfortunately, nothing will bring the victim back. Compensation for the victim's family may be appropriate in some cases, but the state should not be an agent for revenge.
We can spend literally millions of dollars to insure someone gets executed by we cry poverty when it comes to providing even basic free healthcare to our citizens.
Not that murderers and rapists shouldn't be punished but which is more of a punishment?
Flopping like a fish for 30 minutes after 12, 15, even 20 years on death row?
or
Being Bubba's girlfriend and the honored guest at the Cell Block C swinger's club for life?
There is absolutely, ad infinitum, NO point. How many innocent people have been murdered in this country? Death Penalty, WHAT? My Mother as her Alzheimers progresses spoke more and more about the injustice and determined cruelty in the Death Penalty. I said I think if someone killed my daughter(s) I'd want them dead. She would grab my hand and ask me would it bring Dilara back, No so it's wrong, it is wrong. I now am in agreement with her, for the lack of money, color of their skin, religion, the hate it sucks the wind from you. I know if my daughter murdered someone I'd be there for her every step and would be eternally grateful to have her alive. Selfish, yes, but other side of the coin someone murdered her in a horribly, egregious, heinous manner I would hope I did not waste her memory on her Murderer. I would not enjoy that persons death, my grieving would not abate, this is not humane or HUMAN this murder of one another.
For Treason, Torture, War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Hang the Bastards slow.....
PS: In the above note, I mentioned the willingness of prosecutors to re-try when trials result in hung juries. That happens, but in all fairness there may be perfectly good reasons to re-try a given case.
The kind of self-righteous vindictiveness I'm thinking of occurs more when convictions are reversed by appellate courts. Rather than leave bad enough alone, prosecutors often "vow"-- no one "vows" like public figures, according to our corporate media-- to re-try the case.
The pursuit of justice seems far too bound up in the egos of the alpha-achievers that attain prominent positions in legal and law enforcement agencies. Better a hundred innocent persons be convicted than a single prosecutor Lose Face!
Yes, it is wrong, and everyone is harmed by the endless cycle of violence. Sentient human beings do not kill - violence begets violence, which begets more violence still. It's not only wrong; it is stupid. Vengefulness is human, and understandable - and wrong. Let's aim for the highest common denominator rather than the lowest one - we can do much better than kill one another, and because A killed B does not mean that B's wife C has a right to kill A - what's the point?
It would be more punishment to me to know I would never be able to do the things I enjoy in life
than to be executed. I am against the death penalty except in the case of being found guilty of
war crimes.
Although he didn't enjoy it, he believes that the prisoners he tended to deserved to die because their crimes were so egregious and their court appeals, over and over again, had been exhausted. [...]
The union representative of the Police Benevolent Association doesn't have a lot of sympathy for the prisoners.
"By the time they get on Death Row, the investigation is so extensive … I truly believe they are guilty of that crime," Schauble said.
_________________________________
Law enforcers seem particularly susceptible to cognitive dissonance, rationalization, and similar defense mechanisms.
Maybe they should be called "prosecution mechanisms", because by now we've all seen countless TV segments about prisoners who are exonerated years after being convicted, either by DNA evidence or other compelling information. Yet, when the DA or whoever prosecuted the case is interviewed, by and large the prosecutor sticks to his or her firm belief that the person IS guilty.
This mentality is also displayed when prosecutors become persecuters, and insist upon re-trying cases where the evidence is so shaky that it leads to a hung jury.
But it doesn't surprise me a bit that most insiders in the state execution racket aren't particularly skeptical of the guilt of their charges. Skepticism would inflame one's conscience, as it finally did to the subject of the story.
Schauble might as well just say, well if they weren't guilty of THAT crime, they probably did something else that deserves execution. Sad.
You can tell a lot about a country by how they treat their prisoners.
I agree: this is a very powerful article, because it always means more when it comes from someone working within the system, such as this warden who oversaw the executions. The same thing happened to Governor Edmund G. Brown of California, who allowed 36 people to go to the gas chamber and who came to believe the death penalty was wrong.
The warden said that some might have "misconstrued" the breakfasts at Shoney's as celebratory. The truth is, they were celebratory - maybe not for him, but for everyone else in that shit hole of a town (Starke, FL). At a diner just down the road from the prison, on execution day, you'll invariably see a sign on the kiosk that says "Today is FRY - day!!" And prior to the execution, the prison always has a nice buffet for the witnesses. It's all so very clinical and surreal. And to me, that's part of what makes it so barbaric.
You are 100% sure of every death row inmate's guilt? I don't believe you.
Why do we kill people in order to teach people that killing people is wrong? Do like I say. Not like I do. Eh? The article states, "Proponents of the death penalty, including some families of murdered children such as Rios-Martinez, argue that the execution helps them deal with their loss." It's called revenge. As Ghandi put it, "An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind". Let us look at the so-called civilized nations of the world who still have the death penalty. The USA keeps good company with Syria, North Korea, South Korea, Cuba, Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, etc. Complete list at: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html None of the USA's close allies has the death penalty. If the death penalty worked as a deterrent then given all the executions we have carried out, we should be the safest country in the world. We are not, far from it. One might also ask of this so-called Judeo-Christian nation: what ever happened to the commandment, "Thou shall not KILL"? Oh, I see, it went out the window long ago. What we are doing in Iraq is an example of not following this commandment. Soon, it will be Iran. As for presidential candidates, which one is opposed to the death penalty? Not McCain. Not Obama. Run Ralph. Run! Finally, lets stop calling it the Department of Corrections. It is the Department of Punishment and Revenge. Of course, Bush and Cheny don't get to attend their institutions as impeachment, i.e., constitutional justice, doesn't apply to them. Another reason for: Run Ralph. Run!
No death penalty … just a cage for life. That seems a more fitting punishment as time can go so slowly in a gray, six by eight room with no windows. Cruel and unusual? So was the crime most likely. Screw 'em, let 'em rot in their squalor. But no death penalty.
This is a very powerful story and deserves a wide audience. With both of the major party candidates supporting the death penalty, we deserve other choices to vote for.
The good old USofA. God bless you, the world can always depend on your being counted among the most coarse, mean spirited, brutal, and detached from any specter of kindness on the planet.
Let's not expect any members of the world community to bail us out when we are going under. Who wants to preserve what we have come to stand for?