I drive by the sign every time I head south on Hwy. 21 to the interstate. The sign says William C. Holman Correctional Facility. Most of the time the gate is raised, the road is open to driving past the prison and the area is quiet.
On rare days the gate is down, the traffic increases and armed agents from the State Department of Corrections are on duty. This signifies execution day at Holman.
As a longtime member of the Alabama Press Corp, I went to witness the execution of Christopher Lee Price. I witnessed an execution in the late 70s when Alabama’s electric chair, “Yellow Mama,” was in use. Have you ever wondered why “Yellow?” It was because the electric chair was actually invented by an inmate and first used at Kilby Prison in Montgomery in 1927. Kilby just happened to be adjacent to the State Highway Department lab, so the non-conductive or wooden part of the “Chair” was simply painted with the same yellow paint that is used to paint the center line of every highway in Alabama. Yellow Mama has not been used since 2002.
My, how things have changed. If you have been following the national news you probably already know that Price was executed last Thursday evening for the 1991 slaying of Pastor Bill Lynn. You probably saw that on a headline news channel. They probably read a news release from the Department of Corrections Informational Manager Bob Horton. Since I was sitting with Mr. Horton in the press witness room, I thought I would fill in the blanks with a few details that were not likely mentioned on the headline news.
If you saw the movie, “The Green Mile,” starring Tom Hanks, you got a glimpse into what life was like on death row from a correctional officer’s point of view. You saw all the witnesses sitting together in the same room with the condemned man sitting in the electric chair. Well, that was a movie, in real life it’s different.
The best way to describe what I witnessed is the protocol in action. A protocol is an official procedure of rules governing the affairs of state. Believe me, they followed the rules.
Rules governing the condemned person’s last meal. Can they have just anything? No. The meal must be from the prison menu or readily available to the prison. Price asked for nothing from the prison, but bought four pints of Turtle Pie ice cream with his own money from the prison commissary. Before you Google it, Turtle Pie is basically vanilla topped with chocolate, pecans and caramel.
The victim’s immediate family can have eight witnesses; they have a room. The same number for the condemned’s witnesses, though they do not have their own room. The prison also provides a room for state officials to witness the execution. So, there are three separate witness rooms, each with a window into the death chamber.
Those who are going to witness the execution meet at one of Fountain Prison’s outlying buildings. They are searched and given ID badges. The witness groups get on three separate vans for the short drive to Holman. Like clockwork, when inside the prison gates the occupants of each van file out into a heavily guarded room on the back of the prison – no cell phones, no cameras and no talking.
Executions in Alabama are not at midnight anymore. They are scheduled for 6 p.m. The sign over the window in our witness room said: “Please be seated and quiet.” I noticed that even though it had been 28 years since the murder of Bill Lynn, the van for the victim’s family was full. The condemned family sits with the press corp. The state goes to great length to provide transparency to this process. Reporters from all around Alabama were present. All of the front row seats in our viewing room were empty. Only Price’s lawyer was present. The guards were courteous and professional.
Warden Cynthia Stewart read Price’s death warrant, it contained his death sentence. Price was then asked if he had any final words. I believe those words will haunt me forever: “A man is worth more than his worst mistake.” You could have heard a pin drop.
From 7:10 to 7:25 it was absolutely quiet. Ten minutes into the procedure Price was unresponsive when an officer stationed inside the chamber tried to wake him. Doctors pronounced Christopher Lee Price dead at 7:31 p.m. The method of death was a lethal injection. I witnessed no fighting, struggling or grimacing of pain on his face during this time. It was like he just went to sleep.
At the press briefing, following the execution, Anne Hill, chief of staff for the Alabama Department of Corrections read a statement from the Lynn family saying, “We would like to thank everyone for their prayers during this difficult time. While this will not bring closure, it will bring peace for the one we love and miss every day.”
Did you know that Alabama has the highest per capita death penalty rate in the country? Gov. Kay Ivey commented after the execution, “Ensuring the safety of the people, who call Alabama home, is of the highest priority. When that safety is infringed upon, we must respond with punishment.”
Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn has stepped up to make sure that when the court mandates that punishment, the prison system can respond. I talked to Mr. Dunn in his office last week and he seemed sincere. It all sort of reminded me of a line from “To Kill a Mockingbird” when it was said, “There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us.” Atticus Finch was one of those men. I believe today, Jeff Dunn is also one of them.
