Dr. Allen Ault, the for­mer war­den for Georgia​’s exe­cu­tions, recent­ly spoke about the lin­ger­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal effects of car­ry­ing out the death penal­ty. Ault, who retired in 1995, said, ​“I still have night­mares. [Execution is] the most pre­med­i­tat­ed form of mur­der you can pos­si­bly imag­ine and it stays in your psy­che for­ev­er.” He said he felt guilt after the elec­tro­cu­tion of a men­tal­ly dis­abled juve­nile offend­er, who devel­oped a deep sense of con­tri­tion dur­ing his 17 years on death row and whose last words to Ault were ​“please for­give me.” ​“No one has the right to ask a pub­lic ser­vant to take on a life-long sen­tence of nag­ging doubt, shame and guilt,” Ault said. He also said the death penal­ty was plagued with racial disparities.

(S. Sackur, ​“Electric chair haunts US for­mer exe­cu­tions chief,” BBC News, February 22, 2014). See New Voices and Race.

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