Folsom's 93

The Lives and Crimes of Folsom Prison's Executed Men

Tag Archives: Capital punishment


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Last Suppers

Above is the last meal of a Texas man executed in November 2006. He requested two double-meat bacon burgers, Freedom Fries, BBQ ribs, onion rings, root beer soda, banana split ice cream, and peach cobbler.

This is one of 500 plates Julie Green, an art professor at Oregon State University, has painted over the last five years. She plans to paint fifty more per year until the death penalty is abolished. According to Julie, in Texas, a condemned inmate cannot request a steak. Or bubblegum. In Maryland, requests are not even offered.

There have been more humbled requests:

And of course, what I think we all want.

Julie’s plates have been displayed both nationally and internationally. In fact, her work was exhibited in the Fort Collins Museum of Modern Art where I live, but unfortunately, I missed it. To read more about Julie Green, Last Suppers, and her other work, visit her at GreenJulie. For more on Folsom’s last requests, you can read about them in a previous blog post.


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The California Ballot to Watch

In 1913, Jake Oppenheimer, Folsom’s 28th execution, called capital punishment “a relic of the barbaric age,” acknowledging, “I will not be the last to go before this practice is abolished, but  I will be a martyr to the cause.” Abolishing the death penalty has been urged from various groups since the early 1900s.

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In 1925, California Senator, Roy Fellom,  introduced a bill to legislation to abolish capital punishment saying,  “Let’s hope that this horrible spectacle of three men being executed in cold blood by the state of California will be the last of its kind and that the state will never again be subjected to witnessing anything so barbaric.”  He had hoped to save the lives of #49, John Geregac and his accomplices by the passing of the bill, which of course, did not.

John “Smokey” Geregac

Many of Folsom’s 93 expressed their belief that their execution would be California’s last. #55, Ray Arnold said, “If they want to kill me, all right. I am ready to die. I would die gladly if I thought my death would aid in putting an end to capital punishment.”

Ray Arnold

Little did these men know that close to a hundred years later, the debate would be at a fever pitch—and that their own state would be the epicenter of it all. Executions in California have been halted since 2006 when a federal judge declared there to be flaws in the execution process. Come November, California voters will decide whether or not to eliminate the death penalty. According to a September 2011 poll, 48% Californians favor life imprisonment over execution. Right now, it doesn’t appear it’ll be a landslide either way.

According to Death Penalty Information Center there are currently 717 condemned prisoners in California. Across the country, 3, 251 folks are on death row. This op-ed piece, points out that abolishing the death penalty would save the state of California $100 million over three years, putting more police on the streets. It would also fund community programs, educate the  prison population, and force those serving life without parole to work and pay restitution to the victims’ families.

It will certainly be the ballot to watch considering California has the highest number of death row inmates, Texas taking the #2 spot with 321. Where does your state rank?


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Was Justice Served?

Troy Davis died last night at 11:08 from lethal injection. Strong evidence pointed to another man as the killer of officer Mark MacPhail. There was certainly a tremendous amount of doubt surrounding his conviction and I felt it was tragic that despite this, he was executed. I’m not alone in my opinion; over a million people from across the U.S. and the world supported clemency for Mr. Davis. My heart goes out to both the MacPhail and Davis families, because I think they’re both victims in this case. I don’t know if Davis was innocent, but with such strong doubt of his guilt, capital punishment should not have been considered.

As I’ve mentioned before, I acknowledge the fact that the world has gotten rid of some very heinous individuals, but I can’t help but think about the cost of that; the cost consisting of innocent people. Is the elimination of an S.O.B. worth killing a few wrongly convicted here and there? The Innocence Project has exonerated 273 people, 17 of which served on Death Row. What about those this organization has not been able to save?

In the early 1900s, Jacob Oppenheimer, Folsom’s 28th execution, said in his final speech just before mounting the gallows said,

“Calmly leaving myself of out the question, I want to say that capital punishment is a relic of the barbaric age. It ought not be tolerated. I hope that in every country the time will soon come when it will be abolished . . . I will not be the last to go before this practice is abolished but I will be a martyr to the cause.”

Oppenheimer was just one of many of Folsom’s 93 who called for the abolition of the death penalty. I doubt he ever believed that over a hundred years later, it would still be practiced in 34 states, including California. You can read in an earlier post, about how I talked about whether or not I believed some of Folsom’s condemned men were innocent (yes, I did)!

No matter where you stand on the issue of capital punishment, I think it’s extremely important to know why you feel that way. Before I began this book, I really had no problem with capital punishment, but I also didn’t realize the staggering number of people who have been proven to be wrongfully convicted. I guess I still find myself teetering on this fine line of morality and “justice.”

My hope is that if Davis was indeed innocent, that the real killer is caught and Davis’ name will be cleared. It’s the least the justice system can do.