Were you also present for this?My recollection is that it was around the same time, and that I did meet with them.I’m wondering if other victim relative quotes were edited out for space or if there was a deliberate decision to limit their side compared with Barfield’s family, perhaps because it’s unexpected that her siblings would support their own mother’s killer?There certainly was no deliberate decision to limit anyone’s side. My editors agreed.As for my approach, it was (and is) usually to report a story as if I were doing a feature – i.e. To the best of my recollection, I spoke with prison officials and possibly some of the scheduled witnesses.
After 14 years on death row, she was given a lethal injection.The last foods she ordered and received were one banana, one peach, and a salad with ranch or Italian dressing.Grasso was executed in 1995 for strangling an 85-year-old woman with Christmas tree lights.His final menu was: Two dozen steamed mussels, two dozen steamed clams, a Burger King double cheeseburger, six barbecued spare ribs, two large milkshakes, tin of SpaghettiOs served at room temperature with meatballs, half a pumpkin pie and strawberries and cream.Grasso’s long and complex menu baffled kitchen staff who made a mistake he thought would make the headlines.His last words were: "I did not get my SpaghettiOs, I got spaghetti. As you know, the Constitution and the courts have prohibited “cruel and unusual punishment.” But as we have seen recently in some botched executions, the state sometimes fails in this regard.Why note that two of the witnesses were women?I thought it was relevant, and not a given, that women were represented on the witness side of the glass at the execution of a woman.As if that’s the most expensive aspect of having inmates on death row.Another nice detail.
Also, I assume (though I don’t remember specifically) that I went through several drafts of the sentence, reworking it, before I settled on this version. Organizing material is a bit easier with today’s devices.Of course! .. Here, we’re dealing with the mechanics of the state killing someone in the name of the citizenry, with conflict swirling around the act. He then drew a curtain between her and the witnesses.The woman, who by her own admission had watched her four poisoned victims die slowly and in agony, did not appear to suffer in her own passing.“I was struck by how peaceful it was,” said witness Tom Fuldner, a reporter for WWAY-TV here.The details of Barfield’s death were revealed to reporters by Fuldner and three other local journalist-witnesses, including two women, before an encampment of lights, cameras and satellite dishes that had grown up outside Central Prison here.Barfield was the first woman executed in the United States since 1962 and the first white woman executed in the state. But supporters hailed the method as humane, allowing the condemned “a more peaceful exit.” They noted also that while the traditional cyanide execution in the gas chamber costs $104.04 per killing, injection costs the state only $30.12.As the hour of execution passed, inmates inside the prison held lighted matches to their sealed windows.The eerie sound of rebel yells and hoots of triumph rose from the few dozen pro-death-penalty demonstrators gathered outside the prison. with the Lord.” He added, “She’s not afraid. but we understand, we forgive.”,Describing his visit with Barfield earlier that day, her brother James said, “I told her I’ll see you later . (What I do remember is that as I parked at the prison, I was in such a hurry that I jumped out of my rental car and locked the keys inside. It’s a relief,” said Alice T. Storms, daughter of Stuart Taylor, the tobacco farmer Barfield was convicted of poisoning with roach killer just before she was to marry him.
''Velma was no stranger to suffering,'' Mr. Carter said at the memorial service. She seemed to move them as if in prayer.Her color began to change from a healthy pink to gray, draining away from a spot in her forehead and working down.Four or five minutes after her color changed, the prison doctor performed his only role in the drama: after removing her glasses, checking her pupils and listening to her heart with a stethoscope, he pronounced her dead.
Then I would try to accumulate as many meaningful details as possible that would allow the readers to feel almost as if they were actually there along with me.As for the pure mechanics, to write a lengthier feature in a short amount of time (and keeping in mind this was decades ago when the tools of the trade were mainly pens, paper notebooks and sometimes a tape recorder), I would have numbered the pages of my notebook, then created on the back page a sort of running index of categories, such as “Barfield quotes,” “victims,” “prison operations,” “demonstrators,” etc., with page numbers so I could locate them quickly when writing the story. Inmates on death row could create their own last menu - before white supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer killed the tradition by 'making a mockery' out of it.Most US death row inmates are famously given a last meal, a final food of their choice before being executed for their crimes.The rules around the meal vary from state to state, with Florida insisting the food is bought locally for no more than $40 (£31) while Oklahoma's budget is just $15.
(The story touches on aspects of this in upcoming paragraphs, and a couple of other stories I wrote about Barfield did as well.)
Another showed a picture of a needle with the words, “Inject compassion.”.Near midnight, Barfield’s sister and two brothers appeared suddenly among the demonstrators, attracting a burst of bright television lights.