Column Chronicles: More last words of the lethally injected

More last words of the lethally injected

Frank Cotolo
March 1, 2018

In states of America where capital punishment is legal, the preferred method of death is an injection of a lethal substance. This became the precedent in the 1970s. Journalist-author Albert Swing made it his business to record the last words of every person being executed since the injection method began and now has a second volume soon be published that reveals their last words.

Swing's second book does not explain how drugs like pentobarbital and midazolam hypochloride work but he does write that they give victims a few cogent moments to speak before going into a deadly coma. That's when "people on death row say the craziest things."

The book includes random comments from the last moments of condemned people, such as follows.

"Is it too late to hire a very good lawyer?"

"All of my life, especially before the crime that brought me to this ending moment of my life, I regret eating grits."

"I can see the horizon. It is a long line that is getting darker by the moment..."

"Quick, get me a pen."

"Will what I say be on or off the record?"

"Who I should have killed I didn't kill, so now I see this has been a total waste of everyone's time."

"Coke or Pepsi?"

"I know the situation seems grim for me but actually I am rather enjoying my state of mind and it leads me to being compelled to tell a story of my youth which goes like this..."

"Had I been a coal miner I would've died even sooner."

"Regret means nothing at this point, so (BLEEP) the victim, he deserved it."

"Tick, tick, tick goes time, which is running out rapidly as I speak."

"I didn't do it, I swear I didn't do it. Guess it doesn't sound any more believable than all the other times I said it. Goodnight."

Swing hopes that readers enjoy the last words of the lethally injected so that he may publish volume three. He said, "I will have to wait, though, until at least another hundred people are executed because the book has be a certain length."

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.