Jerry Givens, Former Executioner Who Became Outspoken Critic of Death Penalty, Dies at 67

Jerry Givens (pic­tured), who per­formed 62 exe­cu­tions dur­ing his time as a Virginia cor­rec­tions offi­cer, but lat­er became an activist against the death penal­ty, died April 13, 2020 of COVID-19. He was 67 years old. During his 17 years (1982 – 1999) as a mem­ber of Virginia’s exe­cu­tion team, the com­mon­wealth per­formed more exe­cu­tions than any oth­er state except Texas.

Though he swore an oath not to tell even his fam­i­ly about his role as exe­cu­tion­er until he left his cor­rec­tions posi­tion, Givens lat­er shared his expe­ri­ences through­out the U.S. and inter­na­tion­al­ly. ​“Jerry was pained by his expe­ri­ence but also proud of how he did it,” said Abraham Bonowitz, co-direc­tor of the abo­li­tion­ist group, Death Penalty Action, on whose board of direc­tors Givens served. ​“That some­times rubbed some peo­ple in the move­ment the wrong way. He was also a very devout reli­gious per­son. He did what he could to help heal the world in the wake of the dam­age done dur­ing his career.” 

“He was one of the very few exe­cu­tion­ers who was will­ing to speak pub­licly about his expe­ri­ence, and how that expe­ri­ence changed him over time so that he became a pas­sion­ate crit­ic and oppo­nent of the death penal­ty,” said Michael Stone, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP), anoth­er orga­ni­za­tion for which Givens served as a board member. 

Givens said he was shak­en by the case of Earl Washington, an intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled man who false­ly con­fessed to mur­der. In 1985, Givens was sched­uled to exe­cute Washington, but he received a last-minute stay and was lat­er exon­er­at­ed by DNA evi­dence. ​“I was doing so many exe­cu­tions at the time, I was sort of addict­ed to exe­cut­ing, not that I enjoyed it, but you get into a cer­tain mind-set. I’m a hus­band and a father at home. I’m a church atten­der,” Givens said. ​“I did not want to wear the fact that I exe­cut­ed an inno­cent man for the rest of my life, and God answered my prayers. He answered them by tak­ing me to prison and tak­ing Earl Washington out.” 

Givens said his views were also shaped by the four years he spent in prison on charges of per­jury and mon­ey laun­der­ing. Givens stead­fast­ly main­tained his inno­cence of those charges. During his incar­cer­a­tion, Givens prayed and read the Bible. Reflecting on Jesus’ teach­ings on for­give­ness, he con­clud­ed that the death penal­ty was wrong. ​“This was God’s way of wak­ing me up,” he said of his time in prison. 

In his time as an anti-death penal­ty activist, Givens tes­ti­fied before leg­is­la­tures across the coun­try — most recent­ly in his home state of Virginia — and spoke at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty. In 2017, he joined with oth­er cur­rent and for­mer cor­rec­tions offi­cials to warn Arkansas about the psy­cho­log­i­cal trau­ma that the state’s rushed exe­cu­tion sched­uled would inflict on those who car­ried out executions. 

In his pub­lic appear­ances, Givens spoke of the emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal toll of per­form­ing exe­cu­tions. ​“How can I be myself? I’m not a nat­ur­al killer,” he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2007 about his mind­set dur­ing an exe­cu­tion. ​“These peo­ple haven’t done any­thing to me. I’m not doing it out of revenge.” ​“You are not going to feel hap­py,” Mr. Givens told the Washington Post in 2013. ​“You feel for the con­demned man’s fam­i­ly and the victim’s fam­i­ly. You have two sets of fam­i­lies that are losing someone.” 

On March 16, 2020, Givens emailed DPIC with a mes­sage about the coro­n­avirus and the death penal­ty. ​“With this Coronavirus that has tak­en con­trol over our Country,” he wrote, ​“exe­cu­tions should be the last thing on the list. Let us join togeth­er and pray that things will get better.”