On September 2, 1983, Jimmy Lee Gray died smashing his head into a metal pole located behind his head as a result of being strapped to a chair and forced to inhale a deadly mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrogen cyanide. On May 4, 1990, Jesse Tafero, at the time living and breathing, died after being set on fire while completely incapacitated being bound to a chair. These instances sound much like the works of a sadistic serial killer torturing his victims, but they are in reality the works of State Departments of Corrections here in America. These documented cases as well as many more wrongs involving the administration of capital punishment in the United States are found in 15,543 and Counting. Each and every step, from the very beginning of the guilt trial to the very end of the cooling of the corpse, is addressed and accounted for in 15,543 and Counting. Among the countless informative sources are testimonies of corrections officers assigned to the care and custody of death row inmates, as well as actual quotes from death row inmates themselves.
