OP-ED: Journalist Recalls Witnessing an Execution and Describes the Importance of Media Witnesses

In May 1990, Jonathan Eig, then a reporter for The New Orleans Times-Picayune, wit­nessed the elec­tric-chair-exe­cu­tion of Dalton Prejean at Angola State Penitentiary for the 1977 mur­der of a Louisiana state troop­er. Mr. Eig watched Mr. Prejean’s exe­cu­tion through an obser­va­tion win­dow, and report­ed see­ing ​“his chest heave, his fists clench and his right wrist twist out­ward. A spark and a puff of smoke shot from the elec­trode attached to his left leg.” In the years fol­low­ing the exe­cu­tion, Mr. Eig regret­ted his deci­sion to wit­ness Mr. Prejean’s exe­cu­tion, writ­ing that it made him ​“feel com­plic­it, ashamed, a cog in a machine that dehu­man­ized the process of death.” But more recent events, includ­ing Alabama’s exe­cu­tion of Kenneth Smith with nitro­gen hypox­ia, led Mr. Eig to change his mind. He now writes that ​“wit­ness statements matter.”

At the time of Mr. Prejean’s exe­cu­tion, Gallup report­ed that about 80% of Americans sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. In 2023, that num­ber dropped to just 53% of Americans, with 50% of respon­dents believ­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is applied unfair­ly. Mr. Eig writes that ​“since the 1990s, Americans have grown more skep­ti­cal of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, com­ing into align­ment with much of the rest of the world.” This shift in ​“pub­lic opin­ion has no doubt been shaped by reports from wit­ness­es like me who have pro­vid­ed accounts indi­cat­ing that despite all our advances in tech­nol­o­gy we have not yet found a humane method for killing,” Mr. Eig said. He also writes that today, more Americans ​“live now with the greater aware­ness that inno­cent peo­ple have been con­vict­ed and exe­cut­ed for their crimes.”

On January 25, 2024, Alabama became the first state to use nitro­gen hypox­ia to exe­cute a pris­on­er. In addi­tion to the exe­cu­tion team, prison offi­cials, Mr. Smith’s vic­tims’ fam­i­ly, and Mr. Smith’s fam­i­ly, five jour­nal­ists wit­nessed his exe­cu­tion. Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) pro­to­col does not allow jour­nal­ists to wear watch­es, bring their cell­phones, or to even use pens or paper to take notes dur­ing the exe­cu­tion. But even with­out these items, the obser­va­tions of the media wit­ness­es sharply con­tra­dict­ed with the state­ment of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who told the press that the exe­cu­tion was ​“text­book.” Their obser­va­tions about the pain and dis­tress Mr. Smith appeared to be suf­fer­ing are impor­tant as oth­er states con­sid­er using nitrogen gas. 

When Mr. Eig wit­nessed the exe­cu­tion of Mr. Prejean, his report­ing about the spark and puff of smoke from the elec­trodes on his leg inter­est­ed attor­neys and prison jour­nal­ists, prompt­ing fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tions. The Angolite, the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s pris­on­er-run news mag­a­zine, lat­er report­ed on the elec­tric chair, pub­lish­ing pho­tos that revealed the seared flesh of a man exe­cut­ed in the state’s elec­tric chair. In 1991, the Louisiana leg­is­la­ture banned the use of the elec­tric chair and required future exe­cu­tions to be car­ried out by lethal injection. 

Louisiana has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 2010, but new­ly elect­ed Governor Jeff Landry cam­paigned on a promise to resume exe­cu­tions and called on the Louisiana State Legislature to pass bills autho­riz­ing a return to the elec­tric chair and use of nitro­gen gas. On March 5, 2024, Gov. Landry signed these meth­ods of exe­cu­tion into law, which goes into effect on July 1, 2024.

Mr. Eig writes that ​“as our soci­ety matures, we should resist the temp­ta­tion to return to crude forms of pun­ish­ment. If we can’t, we should demand account­abil­i­ty from the offi­cials car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions. We should per­mit wit­ness­es to car­ry pens, paper, and cam­eras. As long as the death penal­ty remains a part of our sys­tem of jus­tice, we shouldn’t shrink from look­ing at it.”