Former prison officers say it is because putting a dog to sleep is one thing; killing a person is something else entirely.
“This is not normal behavior for right-minded humans to engage in,” says Steve Martin, who participated in several executions in Texas in the 1980s. His job was to man the phones in case of a reprieve. He says the whole process is emotionally crippling.
He remembers a couple times when the execution team couldn’t get the needles inserted properly.
“Boy, it just ratcheted up everything,” he says.
“People don’t realize,” he says, “you just killed somebody and you’ve been a part of it and it affects all of us.”
Carroll Pickett was the chaplain at 95 executions in Texas through the mid-90s. He remembers one time prison staff spent 40 minutes trying to find a vein until the inmate sat up and helped them. “Some of them would go outside and throw up,” he says.
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