Love and regret — death row’s final emotions

THE mental states of death row prisoners in the moments before they are executed have been revealed in a first of its kind study by two Irish psychiatrists.

The study, published in the US, is based on prisoners’ final statements and shows the most common emotions expressed by inmates before they are subjected to death are love and regret, along with expressions of spirituality.

Psychiatrists Dr Sharon Foley from St Vincent’s Hospital and Dr Brendan Kelly from the Mater Hospital in Dublin published the findings in the latest edition of the American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry.

They studied statements made by those executed under the death penalty in Texas between April 2002 and November 2006.

During the 55-monthperiod, 116 prisoners were executed and 100 of these made statements. They accessed the statements on the website for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, where they are available for any members of the public to see.

Seven out of 10 prisoners spoke about love in their statements, six out of 10 spoke about spirituality, while a tenth quoted poetry or literature.

Dr Kelly said: “Spirituality usually involved a reference to God or religion. Regret was usually something like ‘sorry for what I did’, but it was most commonly expressed as ‘sorry for the pain I caused my family’, which is different than apologising for the crime they committed. Then love was usually expressed to their mum, partner or everyone.”

All those who wrote statements had killed somebody, a fifth of these involved the death of a child and a little more than a quarter had more than one victim.

But less than a third asked for forgiveness for what they had done, while 17% used the opportunity of their final statement to deny their offence.

Escape was a common theme in more than half of statements. Dr Kelly said this was used as a coping mechanism.

“Obviously these people are not going to physically escape, so they said things like ‘you are executing me now but real judgment will only occur in heaven’.

“Because of their powerlessness in their current context they tend to intellectually escape to a different place,” he said.

The report said there is a similarity in psychological factors in the last statements from prisoners and suicide notes. Although the two are completely different, they are the only insight we have of how people feel before they die.

“The themes we see here of spirituality, regret and love are from a very confined group of people. Do you think people dying of a medical illness focus on the same things? It’s quite possible,” said Dr Kelly.

He admitted that the paper may be used by those who are opposed to the death penalty in the US.

“In the paper we do not take a position on whether the death penalty is right or wrong. Our study demonstrated that even individuals who have committed serious crimes have spiritual feelings, and feelings of love and regret. They are human beings. Most of them are there for killing somebody and now the state is killing them,” he said.

Killers’ last words

THE final statements of prisoners’ moments before they are executed are posted on the internet by the Texas State Department. They include:

* “The Bible says that you shalt not kill, but it also says to obey the government. I am sorry, forgive me. I have no ill will towards anyone carrying out this so-called justice. Thank you. I am ready, Warden.” — Tony Roach, 21, convicted for strangling a woman in 1999, executed last month.

* “Father take me home. I am ready to go.” — Lonnie Johnson, 31, shot two teenagers in 1990, executed in July.

* “Lord reach down and help innocent men on death row... Death has set me free. That’s the biggest joke, I deserve this. And the other joke is I am not Patrick Bryan Knight, and ya’ll can’t stop this execution now. Go ahead, I’m finished.” — Patrick Knight, 25, murdered a couple in 1999, executed in June.