Death Row: The Final Minutes by Michelle Lyons  is a book that you may want to read, no matter your position on the death penalty.  It’s a well-written memoir (consistent 4.5 and 5 star reviews, if that’s important to you).

Lyons Witnessed Hundreds of Executions

Michelle Lyons was an eyewitness to almost 300 executions by lethal injection by the State of Texas.  Part of the time, she did so as a reporter.  For the rest of the deaths, she was there as the media representative (spokesperson) for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

She watched the inmates die, time and time again.  She also grew to know many of these men and women, as well as the staff who had the horrific responsibility of carrying out the execution.  (As did her friend and predecessor Larry Fitzgerald, who figures prominently in the book).

For those interested in capital punishment, reading what Michelle Lyons has to tell us about her knowledge and perspective regarding the death penalty, the lethal injection method of execution, and how it impacts so many people is important.  

 

Book Description From Amazon

First as a reporter and then as a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Michelle was a frequent visitor to Huntsville’s Walls Unit, where she recorded and relayed the final moments of death row inmates’ lives before they were put to death by the state.
Michelle was in the death chamber as some of the United States’ most notorious criminals, including serial killers, child murderers and rapists, spoke their last words on earth, while a cocktail of lethal drugs surged through their veins.
Michelle supported the death penalty, before misgivings began to set in as the executions mounted. During her time in the prison system, and together with her dear friend and colleague, Larry Fitzgerald, she came to know and like some of the condemned men and women she saw die. She began to query the arbitrary nature of the death penalty and ask the question: do executions make victims of all of us?
An incredibly powerful and unique look at the complex story of capital punishment, as told by those whose lives have been shaped by it, Death Row: The Final Minutes is an important take on crime and punishment at a fascinating point in America’s political history.