From colonial era public hangings to the last moments before a lethal injection, Northwestern journalism teacher Elder revisits the final words of the condemned, both famous and forgotten. They expressed contrition or angry denial, often accompanied by an argument against capital punishment. Elder calls his book an oral history of the overlooked, the infamous and the forgotten, who speak to a common humanity with their last act on earth. Some considered their words carefully: William Robinson, a Quaker executed in 1659 for protesting Massachusetts's banishment of his co-religionists, said, I suffer not as an evil doer.... I suffer for Christ, in whom I live and in whom I die. Others offer bizarre non sequiturs: in 2002, serial killer Aileen Wuornos proclaimed, I'm sailing with the Rock and I'll be back like 'Independence Day'... big mother ship and all. Elder culled his material from newspaper accounts, prison archives, and religious counselors who transcribed for posterity the final utterances of the roughly 16,000 men and women who've been executed in the United States. The late Studs Terkel contributed an eloquent foreword.
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“This is a dangerous book. Who knows how we will emerge from the encounter? It makes me want to live, use my energies in soul-sized pursuits like justice, like love. One of the psalms says that God collects our tears in a flask—so too does this collection of last words from human beings before they were killed.”—Sister Helen Prejean
(Sister Helen Prejean )
“This is a powerful, haunting book. Whether you favor or oppose the death penalty, you won’t think about it the same way after reading the last words of the condemned—some remorseful, some spiteful, some humorous, all tragic. Most horrifying is the realization that some of those who claimed innocence until the end probably were telling the truth.”—Rob Warden, executive director, Center on Wrongful Convictions
(Rob Warden )
"Enthralling. . . . Often more interesting than the final thoughts of some of these men and women are the short descriptions Elder provides of their backgrounds and the crimes they committed. . . . Whatever side in the argument one habitually takes, this book is recommended reading, so that in addition to learning how we put people to death, one can also test the firmness of one''s convictions."—Charles Simic, New York Review of Books
(Charles Simic
New York Review of Books )
"Even though the topic is polemical, Elder''s book is dispassionate. . . . Whatever terrible crimes they committed (or, as many insist to the very end, did not commit), these are, for the most part, regular people being killed, and in their last moments they ask for forgiveness, protest their innocence, say goodbye, remember their parents and lovers and children."—Benjamin Moser, Harper''s
(Benjamin Moser
Harper's )
"Knowing something of the deficiencies of the American justice system is useful for leafing through
Last Words of the Executed, the final statements of hundreds of Americans who have been condemned through the centuries. . . . The last words are remarkable for their remorse, humour, hatred, resignation, fear and bravado. ''I wish you’d hurry up. I want to get to hell in time for dinner,'' a 19th-century Wyoming murderer told his hangman. Some rambled; others were concise. Several blamed the drink; others reasserted innocence, or (especially in recent years) railed against the death penalty. Some accepted their fate. ''If I was y''all, I would have killed me. You know?'' said a Texan, who had murdered his son’s former girlfriend and her sister, as he readied himself for lethal injection. America’s diverse heritage is stamped even onto its killers’ final moments."—
Economist (
Economist )
"By compiling the last words of people put to death by the state in America, juxtaposed against details of their crimes and victims, Robert K. Elder has created an extraordinary book. No matter which side of the capital punishment divide you find yourself, Last Words of the Executed is a must-read. Because this is not a political book, but a human journey. You may find your beliefs challenged, changed, or reaffirmed, but you will not come away unaffected."--Sean Chercover, author of Trigger City
(Sean Chervover )
"Last Words draws no straightforward conclusions about capital punishment. Instead, the book tells a harrowing and bewildering tale of aggression and redemption, pride and humility, strength and weakness."—Chronicle of Higher Education
(
Chronicle of Higher Education )
"The quotes are often poignant or funny (one man before the firing squad requests a bulletproof vest) and often don''t register as much more than interesting historical documents from centuries past. But read in aggregate, all that pain piles up. Essentially, Elder has amassed a collection of what people say when they know they are going to die, the final product of what could be seen as psychological torture."—Jonathan Messinger,
Time Out Chicago (Jonathan Messinger
Time Out Chicago )
“If the book is intellectually engaging as a historical document, then it is emotionally immersive as a series of psychological snapshots.”—
New City (
New City )
"This extraordinary book gathers the last words of victims of capital punishment in the United States, starting in the seventeenth century and continuing up to the present."—Ruth Franklin, New Republic
(
New Republic )
