Special Hearings — Prison Hearings — 1997-07-22

UNKNOWN: As you move through, I was third in the queue, so I looked at what the people in front of me did.  You accompany the person lightly, you are just supposed to touch his shirt and to walk with him.
 Between the trap doors there would have been a pipe railing.  The person who was due to be hanged, would go on the left of the railing and the person accompanying, would go on the right.  Then on the trap door, there would be two foot prints painted, and you had to make sure that the person was standing on that mark.
 I was very tense and I was actually grabbing the person I was accompanying and the man who was going to execute the people, came and he placed the rope around their necks and he would then pull down the flap on the hood and just before he pulls the lever, the Warrant Officer then slapped my hand and at that moment, I looked away.  I wanted to know why he slapped my hand and he said to me the way in which you are grabbing onto the person, you would get pulled down through the trap door yourself.

MR JANSEN: What were your observations immediately after the persons fell below?

UNKNOWN: When I looked down, I noted as the people were swinging from the momentum and had their spastic movements, I noted how they moved.

MR JANSEN: Did you know what these movements were?  Did you at that time know that these were involuntarily spastic movements, or what did you know about these movements?

UNKNOWN: What went through my thoughts is that this person is now dying.

MR JANSEN: What happened subsequently?

UNKNOWN: As a group we then moved down to the bottom part of the gallows room where the person would be hanging.  I saw the members, you will see the platform under the bodies.  They moved the platform under the bodies.

MR JANSEN: Before we get to that, during the process of execution, who would be in that top part of the gallows room?

UNKNOWN: There would be the accompanying warders and then other members of the Correctional Services, who were responsible for taking part in various processes.  The Head of the Prison, the Commanding Officer, the executioner and someone from the Department of Justice.  And then a Doctor.

MR JANSEN: Were there any people in the bottom part of the gallows at that time?

UNKNOWN: No, no one was allowed in the bottom part of the gallows during that part of the process.

MR JANSEN: After the execution you say that the people moved to the bottom part of the gallows room, what then occurs?

UNKNOWN: A scaffold trolley is pushed in beneath the bodies as they hang and the - we had a stainless steel trolley in which you move the bodies.  That was all prepared. We then waited for the Doctor.
 The Doctor would then come down and he would check on the various bodies.  Once he had confirmed that the people are in fact dead, we would then remove the clothing off the people.  We would untie their hands and we would take a tag with his prison number which we would then tie to his big toe.  It had a little tag on it.
 The people who remained at the top, the Warrant Officer, always did this.  We had a different trolley, or rather a jack trolleying system with which the rope would then be released and there was a circular rope which we put around the body of the person who was then hoisted upwards, which allowed the executing rope to be untied from the person's neck and the person was then slowly hoisted down.
 We took the person's hands and feet and placed him on the trolley.  Two other people would then take the trolley, move the person to the coffin.  The person would be in the coffin and the coffin would be closed properly.  This is what we would do until everyone was entirely finished.
 We then cleaned the place out, we then hoisted the coffins down to the Chapel so that people would be able to have a final church service if they wanted to.

MR JANSEN: To return to the very first day, what reaction did your involvement in this execution evoke from you?  How did you respond to your experience?

UNKNOWN: That particular evening, I could not sleep.  I really bothered me.  And then I started smoking.  It was on that day that I started smoking.

MR JANSEN: Later in the two and a half years of your service, you became involved in other facets of the process of execution?  Is that correct?

UNKNOWN: yes.

MR JANSEN: There has been testimony before this Committee in this regard, but could you briefly explain how the administration of the process of execution actually took place?

UNKNOWN: The Department of Justice would inform the Chief warden of the Prison that certain people would be due for execution.  He would make an appointment.  He would then come and visit the Prison.
 They called this old uncle Squalla, it is the person who puts you in the pot or take you out of the pot.  Then the entire prison was locked down, all the cells were locked and it was entirely quiet.
 We were then instructed to collect a certain person from his cell.  We had a map and we knew exactly where everyone slept in the prison.  You would walk down, you would go down to the person in the cell, you would tell the person to pack up his stuff and we would then accompany the person to a reception office.
 There would then be a consultation between the person who was due to be executed and the person from Justice and the person from the Department of Justice will then tell this person whether he was due for execution in seven days or whether there was an alternative sentence.
 They would then take the finger prints of the person.  The person would be asked about the closest family members or other persons, whether they wanted to arrange for visits since the Department arranged and paid for say train tickets and so forth, for visits from next of kin.
 The person would then be undressed, socks, underwear, the person would then be weighed, the person's length would be noted down, the circumference of the person's neck would be measured and the person would then be told what he could take with to the pot.
 The person's clothes were returned so that he could dress and he would then be accompanied to his cell.

MR JANSEN: In that period of time prior to the execution, there would often be a stay of execution or there might be a stay of execution.  Which mechanisms were in place to ensure that stays of execution were not lost or were not delayed?

UNKNOWN: None of the gates were locked and there were always staff on duty, so that if there was a phone call to the Chief warden's office, we would be able to receive the message very quickly.

MR JANSEN: On evenings prior to executions, were there persons on standby, particularly for this purpose?

UNKNOWN: There were no particular people due to be on standby, but the Chief and the assistant-Chief had to ensure that they were at home on those evenings and quite often they would visit the institution during the evening.
 They carried two way radio's so that if the member on duty at night, would be able to get hold of the Chief either by radio or be telephone.

MR JANSEN: With regard to the funerals of the people who were executed, could you inform us somewhat more extensively?

UNKNOWN: Are you referring to the funerals?

MR JANSEN: Yes, where were they buried and what administration was involved?