Death Row Confinement and the Meaning of Last Words

Johnson, Robert; Kanewske, Laura Caitlin; Barak, Maya Pagni

doi:10.3390/laws3010141

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Last statements were a documented part of the execution process since 1388 in England. This practice was brought over to the Americas as a mainstream practice early in the 17th century (Johnson, Kanewske, & Barak, 2014). The practice continues today and is viewed as a de facto right of capitally punished inmates.…”

Section: Last Statementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In Their Own Words

2016

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Last statements have been a common practice as part of capital punishment as far back as the 1300s in Europe. In the United States, the first execution occurred in 1608, and currently, 32 states have the death penalty. In 1991, Missouri integrated death row inmates into the general prison population, which makes this population unique compared with other death row populations across the United States. This article is a qualitative study on the themes found in the last statements of 46 capitally punished inmates in Missouri from 1995 to 2011. The purpose of this study was to determine if capital punishment inmates being housed in the general population had an impact on an inmate's last statement prior to execution. Three domains emerged from these last statements: life, death, and execution. The most common theme identified was love while the least common theme was acceptance. The themes found in this research were consistent with previous studies which looked at inmates executed in Texas where inmates sentenced to capital punishment are separated from the general prison population. Implications, limitations, and future research areas are discussed.

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Section: Last Statementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The practice continues today and is viewed as a de facto right of capitally punished inmates. Last statements were previously manipulated in the media for public entertainment, but now statements are recorded by officials and are more objective and accurate (Johnson et al., 2014).…”

Section: Last Statementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Their Own Words

2016

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“…First, as the findings suggest, changes in the social context of the death chamber and the composition of witnesses may influence how death row inmates chose to represent themselves in their last statements. Thus, an ethnographic approach similar to that conducted by Johnson and his associates (Johnson et al 2012(Johnson et al , 2014 can shed further light on the social context of confinement, the physical and mental toll it takes on death row inmates, and the influence it may have on their last statements. Second, religious coping theory offers one explanation as to why death row inmates draw on religious themes for self-presentation during the imminent death experience.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further demonstrating that religion was a prominent feature of the final statements, the authors uncovered other important religious themes, such as preaching (15.8 percent), praying for others (13.4 percent), gratitude toward God (7.5 percent), prayer unspecified (6.8 percent), asking for God's forgiveness (6.8 percent), and prayer for self (6.5 percent). As alluded to above, studies documenting the most common themes found in the last statement data generally conclude that the themes are unexpectedly positive (Goranson et al 2017;Hirschmüller and Egloff 2018;Shermer 2018;Upton et al 2017) which is remarkable given the dire circumstances that death row inmates find themselves in at the moment of imminent death (Johnson et al 2014).…”

Section: The Last Statements Of Death Row Inmatesmentioning

confidence: 91%

Race, Ethnicity, and the Functional Use of Religion When Faced with Imminent Death

Smith

2020

Religions

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This article uses religious coping theory to theorize about how and why race and ethnic groups on death row frame religious last statements at the moment of imminent death. Unique data (N = 269) drawn from death row inmates in Texas between December 1982 and April 2016 reveal uniformity in the dominance that black, white, and Hispanic inmates assign to relational forms of expressions that draw them closer to God and expressions that facilitate spiritual intimacy with others, over self-focused expressions that represent efforts to gain control over the imminent death experience or signal a transformed life. There is a hierarchy of preferred religious coping methods that changes for each group following the implementation of a new policy allowing the family and friends of murder victims (co-victims) to witness the execution of inmates. It is concluded that race and ethnic groups differ in the premium they place on preferred religious coping strategies when faced with imminent death, and a change in social context, such as the sudden presence of co-victims at executions, increases the religious content of last statements for all groups.

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“…Taken together, the reviewed text analysis studies of executed death row inmates' last words demonstrated that they contained surprisingly more positive than negative emotional expressions, with final statements' content themes revolving most strongly around expressions of love and appreciation, messages to relevant social others, and religious beliefs (see also Ward, 2010 ; Johnson et al, 2014 , for general overviews). That is, prisoners' final statements spoken moments prior to death seemed to focus on aspects, including social connections and religion, that make life (and death) meaningful (see e.g., Smith, 2017 ).…”

Section: Analyzing the Phenomenon: Language Use In Last Words Before mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Focused Review of Language Use Preceding Death by Execution

Hirschmüller

Egloff

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Executions are one form of death that can be assumed to be maximally anxiety provoking. Words spoken by death row inmates moments before their execution can provide valuable insights into people's end-of-life communication needs and themes, conveying what individuals choose to express to others in the face of imminent death. In this focused review, we describe findings from quantitative and qualitative text analysis studies that have analyzed affective experiences and meaning-making attempts in transcriptions of actual statements made by Texas death row inmates. Overall, the most prevalent content themes identified in these final acts of verbal communication in the reviewed studies consisted of a strong predominance of emotional positivity, messages to relevant social others, and spiritual references. We subsequently view the reviewed findings in the light of additional research in which people's conceptions of death and dying were explored and language studies in which people's communication before other forms of death was analyzed. Finally, we describe open questions and directions for future analyses of death row inmates' final statements, and we outline practical implications.

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Death Row Confinement and the Meaning of Last Words

Cited by 8 publications

References 23 publications

In Their Own Words

In Their Own Words

Race, Ethnicity, and the Functional Use of Religion When Faced with Imminent Death

A Focused Review of Language Use Preceding Death by Execution

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