Death House

I received a letter from the Department of Corrections today. In it they detail when I have to report and where, what I have to bring, what I can't bring and where I'll park for the execution. It struck me how much the letter is much like the media letters I recieve for any event.

It's kind of surreal. I've learned that witnesses will be briefed and following the "pre-execution briefing" we'll be escorted inside the facility to "the Death House" where we'll watch the execution.

Maybe it's me. But when I read "the Death House," (Their capitals, not mine), it stopped me short. So I went to the internet and "Googled" the name. "Death House" is what a lot of prisons with death row facilities call the buildings where they execute people. It's fitting, but so final. We'll all walk in but Christopher Scott Emmett won't walk out.

I learned that Public Radio has done an article on executions and I read a New York Times article on the people who make up part of the "tie-down team." They're the people who strap the person down to the table. Many of the guards who make up this team quit after so many years. It takes its toll, this killing people business. Movies have hardened us all to cheer for death. We applaud when the bad guy dies. New York Times reporter Bob Herbert quotes Chaplain Jim Brazzil in his article:

"Jim Brazzil, a chaplain with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said: "I usually put my hand on their leg, right below the knee, you know. And I usually give them a squeeze, let 'em know I'm there. You can feel the trembling, the fear that's there. The anxiety that's there. You can feel the heart surging, you know."

I've been warned by those who have seen executions and those who haven't, that it's something you never forget. When I started this assignment it was another event, although a solemn one, to cover. Now it's become something more and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the need to understand something deeper.