A recent issue of the award-win­ning prison news mag­a­zine, The Angolite, fea­tured a sto­ry by inmate Lane Nelson about Gerald Bordelon, the first per­son to be exe­cut­ed in Louisiana since 2002. Bordelon expe­dit­ed his own exe­cu­tion by choos­ing to waive his appeals, includ­ing his direct appeal, which was pre­vi­ous­ly thought to be a manda­to­ry part of the state’s death penal­ty process. Bordelon vol­un­teered for exe­cu­tion after he was found guilty of rap­ing and mur­der­ing his 12-year-old step­daugh­ter. The choice to waive his appeals was met with strong dis­agree­ment from his team of inmate coun­sels (vol­un­teer pris­on­ers who act as attor­ney sub­sti­tutes), who decid­ed they would not assist him in his choice. Bordelon was rep­re­sent­ed in his desire to be exe­cut­ed by a not­ed con­sti­tu­tion­al attor­ney from Baton Rouge, Jill Craft. She suc­ceed­ed in hav­ing the court allow Bordelon to waive his appeals, but lat­er said she would nev­er do it again. Bordelon told The Angolite why he vol­un­teered for his exe­cu­tion: ​“I’m doing this for [the vic­tim] Courtney. I’m doing it for her fam­i­ly. I’m doing it for me. I’m doing it for my fam­i­ly so they don’t have to wor­ry and deal with it for the next 20 or 30 years. I’m doing it for a lot of reasons.”

Since 1976, of the 35 states that cur­rent­ly have the death penal­ty, 31 have at least had one vol­un­teer for exe­cu­tion. Texas has had the most vol­un­teers (26), while Nevada has the most strik­ing ratio: 11 of the 12 exe­cu­tions that occurred between 1979 and 2009 were volunteers.

(L. Nelson, ​“Execution: A per­son­al choice,” The Angolite, January/​February 2010; post­ed May 11, 2010). See also Executions and Articles. To sub­scribe to The Angolite, send pay­ments and sub­scrip­tion information to:

THE ANGOLITE
c/​o Cashier’s Office
Louisiana State Penitentiary
Angola, LA 70712

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