Michael Graczyk (pic­tured), who wit­nessed more than 400 exe­cu­tions as an Associated Press reporter in Texas, has retired after near­ly 46 years with the news ser­vice. On March 14, 1984, Texas exe­cut­ed James Autry — the sec­ond per­son put to death in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute in 1976. According to a non-exhaus­tive list of exe­cu­tion wit­ness­es main­tained by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, it was the first of at least 429 exe­cu­tions Graczyk wit­nessed in the nation’s most pro­lif­ic death-penal­ty state. Graczyk is believed to have wit­nessed more exe­cu­tions in the U.S. than any oth­er per­son: no oth­er reporter or cor­rec­tions offi­cial in Texas has seen as many exe­cu­tions, and no oth­er state has exe­cut­ed even one-third as many pris­on­ers. In his 34 years observ­ing exe­cu­tions, Graczyk was com­mit­ted to telling the full sto­ry behind the case, inter­view­ing death-row pris­on­ers if they were will­ing, and speak­ing to vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, lawyers, and prison offi­cials. He said the vol­ume of exe­cu­tions in Texas was sur­pris­ing: ​“I talked to inmates on death row at the time, and some of them had fore­seen that once the ball got rolling the state would be very aggres­sive. But I don’t think any­body could have fore­seen the num­bers.” His con­ver­sa­tions with pris­on­ers also revealed some of their think­ing, includ­ing one insight that rais­es ques­tions about the death penalty’s effect as a deter­rent: ​“Despite Texas’ noto­ri­ety as this cen­ter of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, so many inmates I talked to told me they didn’t know or weren’t aware of the death penal­ty in Texas,” Graczyk said. Noreen Gillespie, the Associated Press’s deputy man­ag­ing edi­tor for U.S. news, described the crit­i­cal role that Graczyk played in wit­ness­ing exe­cu­tions, say­ing, ​“Mike’s descrip­tion of what hap­pens in an exe­cu­tion is how the world and most of the coun­try knows how that hap­pens.” Graczyk’s retire­ment on July 31, 2018 does not mark the end of the line for his exe­cu­tion cov­er­age. He will con­tin­ue to cov­er Texas exe­cu­tions for the AP as a freelance reporter.

(Nomaan Merchant, AP reporter who observed 400+ exe­cu­tions in Texas retires, Associated Press, July 30, 2018; Keri Blakinger, After cov­er­ing more than 400 exe­cu­tions, AP’s Graczyk calls it quits, Houston Chronicle, July 30, 2018; Photo by David J. Phillip, Associated Press.) See Texas.

Citation Guide