For every legal execution in the U.S., hundreds of people are involved. But those workers rarely speak about it. NPR talked with 26 executioners, wardens, lawyers and more about their experiences. Many say it changed their stance on the death penalty.
, it decided to leave it up to the states to decide whether and when they'd bring capital punishment back. Some states never did. Others, like Oregon, waited decades to do it. That meant many workers who started their jobs in prison when executions were off the table suddenly found themselves required to perform tasks they never expected.
Like the law clerk, that changed his opinion on the death penalty. Thompson grew up in the segregated South and remembers when two white men tortured and lynched 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi. He used to believe that people who did things like that could deserve to die. But after seeing how preparing to carry out executions took a toll on staff, Thompson came to believe the workers didn't deserve to have to be the ones to do it.
"Every single one of the death certificates says state-assisted homicide," Baxley said."And the state was me." But there's a difference between servicemen who kill for the government in warzones and execution workers who do it at home. Veterans have access to free, lifelong health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Execution workers have no comparable support system. Although his job and his suffering were serious, Baxley never received counseling to discuss what he was going through while he was executing people for the state of South Carolina. He wasn't alone.
But of the five states that scheduled executions before the end of 2022 — Alabama, Oklahoma, Arizona, Missouri and Texas — none have the kind of support system in place that psychologists and former workers recommend, NPR found.What each of the states confirmed they do have are basic Employee Assistance Programs, or EAPs. Those programs provide workers with a handful of free counseling sessions before referring people to pay out of pocket if they want more.
Representatives from Missouri, Texas and Arizona said their corrections departments also have trained teams of counselors that can help workers during some crises in prisons, like riots or hostage situations. But when NPR asked whether the team in Texas attends to staff during executions, a spokeswoman for the Department of Criminal Justice confirmed it does not. And like the EAP programs, the services are mostly optional.
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