Any Last Words? features the last words of 100 executed inmates. Each chapter starts out with a short synopsis of each crime that was committed that put the inmate in the position that he found himself in. It is a little different and we hope that you find it interesting.
Released on February 24, 2014
This is the introduction to Any Last Words?
Over the past few years, Tristan and I have been writing the true crime series They Walk Among Us as well as Hell Hath No Fury: Women Who Kill. Since the subject matter was violent crime, the chapters would end with a trial and occasionally capital punishment. During the course of the research we sometimes came across the descriptions of the actual executions. Each person that faces execution is given the opportunity to make a final statement. Many decline the opportunity and just want to get it over with. Others go on and on as if to postpone the inevitable. Some offer what appear to be sincere, heartfelt apologies while others show no remorse at all. In Any Last Words? we have put together the final words of 100 convicted killers. We start out each one with a short synopsis of the crime that has put them in the position that they are in. We think it is interesting to see what was in the minds of some of the most violent criminals in society just before they were to pay the ultimate price for their crimes.
There are 18 states in the United States plus the District of Columbia that do not currently have the death penalty. This is a list of those states and the year that they abolished capital punishment. Alaska 1957, Connecticut 2012, Hawaii 1957, Illinois 2011, Iowa 1965, Maine 1887, Maryland 2013, Massachusetts 1984, Michigan 1846, Minnesota 1911, New Jersey 2007, New Mexico 2009, New York 2007, North Dakota 1973, Rhode Island 1984, Vermont 1964 (Vermont still has the death penalty option for treason), West Virginia 1965 and Wisconsin 1853.
We don’t want anyone to think we are picking on Texas since many of the stories here took place in that state. That is simply because Texas leads all states in the number of executions by a wide margin. As of this writing there have been 510 executions in Texas since 1976. By comparison, Virginia and Oklahoma have executed 110 inmates each in that time. Also, this book does not offer an opinion on capital punishment one way or another.
Les and Tristan
Winnipeg, February 2014