CALIFORNIA VERSUS TEXAS PRISON WARDENS [THE DEBATE OF THE MONTH ~ JULY 2013]

NOTE: I will post a debate on a topic of this blog once a month.

            For this month’s debate, there will be a testimony from two retired Prison Wardens on Death Row from California and Texas. The former became an opponent of capital punishment but the latter still remained a supporter. Let us hear from the one from both of them.  

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeanne-woodford/prop-34-death-penalty_b_2067617.html

Yes on 34 Takes the Lead 

Posted: 11/03/2012 4:58 pm

Fantastic news:

California's respected Field Poll just released their latest survey, showing Prop 34, our state initiative to replace the death penalty, leading 45 percent to 38 percent -- a YES margin of 7 points!

Oh, how far we've come!

One year ago, I helped to launch the SAFE California Campaign -- now known as Prop 34 -- to replace California's broken death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. When we started, SAFE California was made up of a small but mighty group of law enforcement leaders, innocent men and women who had been wrongfully convicted and brave family members of murder victims who understood that the death penalty is a false promise.

Today, the Yes on 34 Campaign has grown into a statewide powerhouse with the support of some of the most respected organizations and leaders in the state -- everyone from Don Heller, who wrote California's death penalty law and now calls it a "huge mistake," and even FOX News personality Bill O'Reilly. 

With ten points gained in the last month YES on 34 has taken the lead!

We're surging in the polls and although we have not reached 50 percent support (yet), we're gaining momentum, sharing the facts, and changing people's minds every day!

Over my 30-year career in the California Department of Corrections, I rose through the ranks from a corrections officer working in prisons to the warden of death row. I oversaw four executions and eventually was appointed director of California's entire prison system. 

I know firsthand that the death penalty wastes money and does not make us any safer. For years, however, many people believed that the death penalty cost less than life in prison with absolutely no chance of parole. Now voters have learned that's simply not true and The Field Poll confirms it: a majority of Californians today understand that the death penalty is far more expensive than a sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole. California taxpayers will save $130 million each year by replacing the death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole.

Voters have also had a chance to meet Franky Carrillo and learn his story. Franky spent 20 years -- his entire youth starting at 16 years old -- behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Franky is Prop 34's number one supporter and his story has hit the television and radio airwaves. Watch it here:

We've come such a very long way. It's hard to believe that in just a few short days, California could become the 18th state to replace the death penalty. This is epic. The implications will be felt far and wide, starting with the 33 states that have the death penalty on their books.

Put simply, when we pass Proposition 34 next week and replace the death penalty with life in prison with no possibility of parole, we'll make history and come closer to justice that works for everyone -- nationwide. 

To learn more about Prop 34, please visit: www.yeson34.org

INTERNET SOURCE: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ex-texas-warden-reflects-after-140-executions

Ex-Texas warden reflects after 140 executions

By NOMAAN MERCHANT

— Jun. 26 8:10 PM EDT 

FORNEY, Texas (AP) — Charles Thomas O'Reilly supported capital punishment when he oversaw his first Texas execution. And he still supported it after his 100th.

In six years as warden of the Huntsville Unit, the prison that houses Texas' death chamber, O'Reilly supervised about 140 executions — more than any other warden in state history.

Now retired, he reflected on his career this week as the nation's busiest death penalty state as the state executed its 500th inmate since resuming capital punishment in 1982.

The 62-year-old said he has no regrets about a process he considered to be a relatively unemotional and small part of his job.

"If you do 140 of them and then decide you can't do them, then I think you've pushed it a little too far," O'Reilly said during an interview with The Associated Press in Forney, about 175 miles away from Huntsville. "If you can't do it, you should have made that decision after one, or maybe two."

O'Reilly, who retired in 2010, recalled meeting condemned inmates when they arrived at Huntsville the afternoon of their executions.

"I'll tell him that we're going to treat him with as much dignity as he'll allow us to," O'Reilly said. Then at 6 p.m., he would return to the inmate's holding cell and say two words: "It's time."

A five-man team walked each inmate to the death chamber and tied the prisoner to a gurney. Other staff members ran IV lines for the execution drugs.

Before the lethal injection began, O'Reilly would ask the inmate for any last words. He liked to give each inmate about three minutes, though he rarely cut anyone off.

Once the inmate's final statement was complete, O'Reilly used a hand-held clicker to signal to the drug room that it was time to start. Minutes later, he would signal to a doctor to check the inmate's pulse and declare him dead.

Relatives of the condemned inmates and victims typically watched through a window.

"There's not a lot said," O'Reilly said. "Everybody knows their job, knows how to do it, when to do it."

He does not remember the name of the first inmate executed during his tenure, but a few names stand out. They include Frances Newton, the only woman executed on his watch. Condemned to death for killing her husband and two children, she was executed in 2005, becoming just the third woman put to death since Texas resumed capital punishment.

O'Reilly said he was more concerned with making sure executions were done professionally. He recalls the professionalism of the prison chaplain and the staff he hand-picked to assist with executions.

Speaking in a low Texas drawl, O'Reilly's voice hardens when asked about his personal views on the death penalty. He said it's the appropriate way to deal with society's worst criminals, such as someone who rapes and kills a 7-year-old girl.

"As far as I'm concerned, that person probably got a just punishment for the crime that he committed," O'Reilly said. "Like me or anybody else, we all have to take responsibility for our own actions. Our actions are our choice. The consequences for those actions are not our choice."

Although the fight over the death penalty is often heated, O'Reilly said the process of an execution is quiet and simple.

"It doesn't take long. There's not a lot said," O'Reilly said. "All you're going to do there is watch a guy go to sleep."