num_pages: 304
description: Some beg for forgiveness. Others claim innocence. At least three cheer for their favorite football teams. Death waits for us all but only those sentenced to death know the day and the hourand only they can be sure that their last words will be recorded for posterity. Last Words of the Executed presents an oral history of American capital punishment as heard from the gallows the chair and the gurney. The product of seven years of extensive research by journalist Robert K. Elder the book explores the cultural value of these final statements and asks what we can learn from them. We hear from both the famoussuch as Nathan Hale Joe Hill Ted Bundy and John Brownand the forgotten and their words give us unprecedented glimpses into their lives their crimes and the world they inhabited. Organized by era and method of execution these final statements range from heartfelt to horrific. Some are calls for peace or cries against injustice; others are accepting confessional or consoling; still others are venomous rage-fueled diatribes. Even the chills evoked by some of these last words are brought on in part by the shared humanity we cant ignore their reminder that we all come to the same end regardless of how we arrive there. Last Words of the Executed is not a political book. Rather Elder simply asks readers to listen closely to these voices that echo history. The result is a riveting moving testament from the darkest corners of society.
language: English
title: Last Words of the Executed
publisher: University of Chicago Press