The executioner who became a death penalty opponent

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 4:59 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

The executioner who became a death penalty opponent 2016-09-30T16:59:55-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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This makes for a striking counterpoint to the recent essay by Fr. George Rutler, defending capital punishment.

It comes from Sunday’s Washington Post, and tells how a man who spent decades personally administering the death penalty came to oppose it:

Jerry Givens executed 62 people.

His routine and conviction never wavered. He’d shave the person’s head, lay his hand on the bald pate and ask for God’s forgiveness for the condemned. Then, he would strap the person into Virginia’s electric chair.

Givens was the state’s chief executioner for 17 years — at a time when the commonwealth put more people to death than any state besides Texas.

“If you knew going out there that raping and killing someone had the consequence of the death penalty, then why are you going to do it?” Givens asked. “I considered it suicide.”

As Virginia executed its 110th person in the modern era last month, Givens prayed for the man, but also for an end to the death penalty. Since leaving his job in 1999, Givens has become one of the state’s most visible — and unlikely — opponents of capital punishment…

…Givens’s improbable journey to the death chamber and back did not come easily or quickly for the 60-year-old from Richmond. A searing murder spurred his interest in the work, but it was the innocent life he nearly took that led him to question the system. And he was changed for good when he found himself behind bars.

His story helps explain how a state closely associated with the death penalty for decades has entered a new era.

“From the 62 lives I took, I learned a lot,” Givens said.

Read it all. It’s a compelling journey.

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