In the past week, two brothers - Karl and Walter LaGrand - were executed
by the state of Arizona. They were friends of mine. It took seventeen
years to put on this little 'dog & pony show' for the world to see.
After all, the state deserved to get all of its entertainment value in
exchange for the room and board they provided Karl and Walter. Karl and
Walter could not refuse, but they did not go easy.

They both elected to die as they were sentenced, by the gas chamber. The
last time the gas chamber was used was for Donald Harding in 1992.
Harding died such a gruesome death in the gas chamber that the state
promptly changed the law from cyanide gas to lethal injection. Those
sentenced before 1992 could choose gas or lethal injection, but all new
candidates must be injected. It looks more humane, like putting down an
unwanted animal.

By choosing gas as his method of execution, Karl knew that the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals would issue a stay of execution because they
had previously declared the gas chamber to be 'cruel and unusual'
punishment. Once the stay was granted, the state appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court in order to get the stay lifted. The Supreme Court, our
guardians of morality and law quickly lifted the stay. The execution
would proceed. Uncharacteristically, the state allowed Karl to change
from gas to lethal injection. At a certain point the condemned can not
change execution methods. It was not so much that the state was being
kind, rather that they understood the negative implications of gassing a
German citizen with the German government’s representatives here
watching. The world was watching. It hearkens one back to the days of
the holocaust when millions were gassed to death. Civilization has
evolved to abhor such barbarism. How embarrassing and ironic to gas a
German citizen! When all of the last minute “gang plank” appeals failed,
the poisons flowed into Karl’s veins putting him into the big sleep.

Just seven days later, his brother Walter was scheduled to be executed
by cyanide gas. During Walter’s clemency hearing he apologised numerous
times to all the victims’ families. The German government raised the
issue that the LaGrand brothers were not allowed to contact their German
consular officials when they were arrested. The issue was also brought
to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Also at
the clemency hearing, the state admitted that they knew the brothers
were German and should have been allowed to make the phone call. The
denial of the phone call violated international treaties. In an
unexpected move, the clemency board voted 2-1 to recommend to Governor
Jane Hull that a 60-day stay of execution be allowed so that this issue
could be properly addressed. This was the first time the clemency board
recommended anything less than death. However, Governor Jane Hull was
quick to deny this request and proceed with the execution. The dilemma
Hull faced was that if she allowed the 60-day stay and at some point
relief was granted to Walter and he could not be executed, then how
would she deal with having killed Karl LaGrand the week before? So she
had to see to it that Walter’s execution proceeded. The loose ends had
to be 'tidied' up.

Walter was executed at 9:30 p.m. and it took an excruciating 18 minutes
for him to die. Witnesses claimed that Walter died hard. It was a
painful death. Can you imagine watching as a man goes into spasms and
endless involuntary convulsions for 18 minutes? What kind of society
does this to its own citizens? It belies the wisdom of the U.S. Supreme
Court to allow executions in the gas chamber. After all, they have said
cyanide gas was not 'cruel and unusual'. Regretfully, none of the
Supreme Court justices has actually experienced being strapped inside of
a gas chamber and made to suck in cyanide vapors to test their beliefs.
They say that justice is blind for a reason.

It seems our society has not learned from history. For the past 50 years
the world has condemned the method of gassing other human beings. Does
the 'holocaust' and the 'final solution' mean anything? We must have
forgotten that lesson. The German people have struggled all of these
years to overcome the evils of past mistakes. How cruel and hypocritical
then to be helpless to stop the death of two of their own in a gas
chamber! How insensitive!

It is unconscionable to allow people to be put to death with cyanide
gas. Why does the world community allow this? We do it in private, we
only allow victims’ families, the prisoner’s family and a few reporters
to watch the event. No matter how many times witnesses relate the
horrors of these spectacles, the executions continue. The executions are
not even newsworthy and rarely get mentioned.

Is society safer each time we execute another human being? Not really.
We on the row die a little each day for as long as 20-25 years. We die
on the 'instalment plan'. This punishment is worse than execution. We
live and breathe death every day. Never knowing when our number will be
called. It’s like living the same bad dream day after day for eternity.
This is where no tomorrows exist, only endless todays. The state of
Arizona was able to put on another exhibition for the world. To haul out
some broken down souls and parade them around in the time-honored
tradition of the 'Dog and Pony Show'.

Walter could have changed the method from gas to lethal injection, but
he chose to take gas in the hope that some public consciousness would be
raised. The jury is still out on that.

Take care, Walter. I’ll see you in another lifetime, hopefully a
lifetime with more compassion and a lot less pain and suffering.

                         *      *      *

Richard Rossi, 50337
Death Row
ASPC Eyman, G-42
PO Box 3400
Florence, AZ 85232
USA

March, 1999