Hostname: page-component-669899f699-g7b4s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-03T23:51:00.298Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“I'll Make Them Shoot Me”: Accounts of Death Row Prisoners Advocating for Execution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Meredith Martin Rountree
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

About 11% of death-sentenced prisoners executed in the United States hastened executions by abandoning their appeals. How do these prisoners persuade courts to allow them to abandon their appeals? Further, how do legal structures and processes organize these explanations, and what do they conceal? An analysis of Texas cases suggests that prisoners marshal explanations for their desires to hasten execution that echo prevailing cultural beliefs about punishment and the death penalty. The coherence of these accounts is amplified by a non-adversarial, unreliable legal process. This article contributes to our understanding of legal narratives, and expands their analysis to include not only hegemonic stories and legal rules, but also the legal process that generates them.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 589 - 622
Copyright
© 2012 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

Mark Warr, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, and particularly Mary R. Rose provided essential intellectual and editorial guidance, as did the anonymous reviewers and editors of the Law & Society Review. The Law and Society Association Graduate Student Workshop was also instrumental in sparking some of the ideas that found their way into this paper. I am grateful to the financial support provided by the American Bar Foundation Doctoral Fellowship, the Harry E. and Bernice M. Moore Fellowship of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the Texas State University-San Marcos Predoctoral Fellowship program, and the University of Texas Graduate Dean's Prestigious Fellowship Supplement. In addition, I thank the staff at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for their cheerful assistance. Finally, I am indebted to Rob Owen for his endless patience and encyclopedic knowledge of Texas's death penalty.

References

References

Alfini, James J., et al. (2007) Judicial Conduct and Ethics, 4th ed. Newark, NJ: Matthew Bender.Google Scholar
Alper, Ty (2011) “Blind Dates: When Should the Statute of Limitations Begin to Run on a Method-of-Execution Challenge?,” 60 Duke Law J. 865–918.Google Scholar
Amsterdam, Anthony G. (1999) “Selling a Quick Fix for Boot Hill: The Myth of Justice Delayed in Death Cases,” in Sarat, A., ed., The Killing State: Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Arriens, Jan (2005) Welcome to Hell: Letters & Writings from Death Row, 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Northeastern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Bandes, Susan (1999) “Patterns of Injustice: Police Brutality in The Courts,” 47 Buffalo Law Rev. 1275–1341.Google Scholar
Banner, Stuart (2002) The Death Penalty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardwell, Mark C., & Arrigo, Bruce (2002) Criminal Competency on Trial: The Case of Colin Ferguson. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.Google Scholar
Blume, John H. (2005) “Killing the Willing: ‘Volunteers,’ Suicide and Competency,” 103 Michigan Law Rev. 939–1009.Google Scholar
Brisman, Ari (2009) “ ‘Docile Bodies’ or Rebellious Spirits?: Issues of Time and Power in the Waiver and Withdrawal of Death Penalty Appeals,” 43 Valparaiso Univ. Law Rev. 459–512.Google Scholar
Clear, Todd R. (1994) Harm in American Penology: Offenders, Victims and Their Communities. Albany, NY: State Univ. of New York Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, Bill, ed. (2006) Texas Death Row: Executions in the Modern Era, 2nd ed. Austin, TX: Mapache.Google Scholar
Creswell, John H. (2003) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Crouse, Jacque, & Donahue, Terry (1985) “Lawyer: ‘Blood’ on Mattox’ Hands,” San Antonio Express-News 13 March, sec. A, p. 5.Google Scholar
Cusac, Anne-Marie (2009) Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Death Penalty Information Center (2012) State by State Database, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state (accessed March 28, 2012).Google Scholar
Donovan, Brian, & Barnes-Brus, Tori (2011) “Narratives of Sexual Consent and Coercion: Forced Prostitution Trials in Progressive-Era New York City,” 36 Law & Social Inquiry 597–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duff, R. A. (2001) Punishment, Communication, and Community. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Duggan, Paul (2000) “In Texas, Defense Lapses Fail to Halt Executions: Attorneys’ Ineptitude Doesn't Halt Executions,” The Washington Post 12 May, sec. A, p.1.Google Scholar
Dunn, Kerry, & Kaplan, Paul J. (2009) “The Ironies of Helping: Social Interventions and Executable Subjects,” 43 Law & Society Rev. 337–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esterberg, Kristin G. (2002) Qualitative Methods in Social Research. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, Susan S. (2005) “Subversive Stories and Hegemonic Tales: Toward a Sociology of Narrative,” 29 Law & Society Rev. 197–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrier, Robert M. (2004) “ ‘An Atypical and Significant Hardship’: The Supermax Confinement of Death Row Prisoners Based Purely on Status—A Plea for Procedural Due Process,” 46 Arizona Law Rev. 291–315.Google Scholar
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2002) “Narratives of the Death Sentence: Toward a Theory of Legal Narrativity,” 36 Law & Society Rev. 549–574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraiden, Matthew (2010) “Stories Told and Untold: Confidentiality Laws and the Master Narrative of Child Welfare,” 63 Maine Law Rev. 1–59.Google Scholar
Garland, David (2001) The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Chicago, IL: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garland, David (2010) Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Haney, Craig (2005) Death by Design. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Harrington, C. Lee (2000) “A Community Divided: Defense Attorneys and the Ethics of Death Row Volunteering,” 25 Law & Social Inquiry 849–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillyard, Daniel, & Dombrink, John (2001) Dying Right: The Death with Dignity Movement. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Holstein, James A. (1993) Court-Ordered Insanity: Interpretive Practice and Involuntary Commitment. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Jackson, Bruce, & Christian, Diane (1980) Death Row. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Robert (1990) Death Work: A Study of the Modern Execution Process. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Kenney, J. Scott, & Slowey, Jacqueline (2010) “Illegitimate Pain: Dimensions, Dynamics, and Implications,” 31 Deviant Behavior 477–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaChance, Daniel (2007) “Last Words, Last Meals, and Last Stands: Agency and Individuality in the Modern Execution Process,” 32 Law & Social Inquiry 701–724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lens, Vicki (2009) “Confronting Government after Welfare Reform: Moralists, Reformers, and Narratives of (Ir)responsibility at Administrative Fair Hearings,” 43 Law & Society Rev. 563–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maroney, Terry A. (2006) “Emotional Competence, ‘Rational Understanding,’ and the Criminal Defendant,” 43 American Criminal Law Rev. 1375–1435.Google Scholar
Mason, Paul (2006) “Prison Decayed: Cinematic Penal Discourse and Populism 1995–2005,” 16 Social Semiotics 607–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mello, Michael (1999) The United States of America versus Theodore John Kaczynski: Ethics, Power and the Invention of the Unabomber. New York: Context Publications.Google Scholar
Mills, C. Wright (1940) “Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive,” 5 American Sociological Rev. 904–913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Library of Medicine (2011) AHFS Consumer Medication Information: Chlorpromazine, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000553 (accessed March 28, 2012).Google Scholar
Oleson, J. C. (2006) “Swilling Hemlock: The Legal Ethics of Defending a Client Who Wishes to Volunteer for Execution,” 63 Washington & Lee Law Rev. 147–230.Google Scholar
Orbuch, Terri L. (1997) “People's Accounts Count: The Sociology of Accounts,” 23 Annual Rev. of Sociology 455–478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oregon Public Health Division (2011) Annual Report 2010. http://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Documents/year13.pdf (accessed March 28, 2012).Google Scholar
Poythress, Norman G., et al. (2002) Adjudicative Competence: The MacArthur Studies. New York: Kluwer/Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ribet, Beth (2010) “Naming Prison Rape as Disablement: A Critical Analysis of the Prison Litigation Reform Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Imperatives of Survivor-Oriented Advocacy,” 17 Virginia J. of Social Policy and the Law 281–317.Google Scholar
Rozier, E. Sanchez Judicial Education Center of New Mexico (2011) Judicial Ethics Handbook. http://jec.unm.edu/resources/judicial_handbook/ethics/ethics07.htm (accessed on February 15, 2011).Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin (2001) When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmeiser, Susan R. (2011) “Waiving from Death Row,” in Sarat, A., & Shoemaker, K., eds., Who Deserves to Die: Constructing the Executable Subject. Amherst & Boston: Univ. of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Scott, Marvin B., & Lyman, Stanford M. (1968) “Accounts,” 33 American Sociological Rev. 46–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snell, Tracy L. (2011) Capital Punishment, 2010—Statistical Tables. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.Google Scholar
Steiker, Carol S., & Steiker, Jordan (2006) “A Tale of Two Nations: Implementation of the Death Penalty in ‘Executing’ versus ‘Symbolic’ States in the United States,” 84 Texas Law Rev. 1869–1927.Google Scholar
Sykes, Gresham M., & Matza, David (1957) “Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency,” 22 American Sociological Rev. 664–670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Texas Defender Service (2000) A State of Denial: Texas Justice and the Death Penalty.Google Scholar
Texas Defender Service (2002) Lethal Indifference: The Fatal Combination of Incompetent Attorneys and Unaccountable Courts.Google Scholar
Texas Department of Criminal Justice (2012) Executed Offenders, http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/dr_executed_offenders.html (accessed on March 28, 2012).Google Scholar
Travis County Courts at Law (2011) Local Rules of Procedure and Rules of Decorum for the County Courts at Law, http://www.co.travis.tx.us/courts/files/documents_forms/rules_civilcriminalcounty.pdf (accessed on March 28, 2012).Google Scholar
Umphrey, Martha Merrill (1999) “The Dialogics of Legal Meaning: Spectacular Trials, the Unwritten Law, and Narratives of Criminal Responsibility,” 33 Law & Society Rev. 393–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vandiver, Margaret, Giacopassi, David J., & Turner, K. B. (2008) “ ‘Let's Do it!’: An Analysis of Consensual Executions,” in Bohm, R., ed., The Death Penalty Today. Boca Raton: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Vollum, Scott, Longmire, Dennis R., & Buffington-Vollum, Jacqueline (2004) “Confidence in the Death Penalty and Support for Its Use: Exploring the Value-Expressive Dimension of Death Penalty Attitudes,” 21 Justice Q. 521–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Brooke N. (2006) “Uniform Application of Habeas Corpus Jurisprudence: The Trouble with Applying Section 2244's Statute of Limitations Period,” 79 Temple Law Rev. 703–736.Google Scholar
Washington Department of Health (2011) Washington State Department of Health 2010 Death with Dignity Act Report. http://www.doh.wa.gov/dwda/forms/DWDA2010.pdf (accessed March 28, 2012).Google Scholar
Zapf, Patricia A., et al. (2004) “Have the Courts Abdicated Their Responsibility for Determination of Competency to Stand Trial to Clinicians?” 4 J. of Forensic Psychology Practice 27–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Cases Cited

Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman, 550 U.S. 233 (2007).Google Scholar
Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742 (1970).Google Scholar
In re Cockrum, 867 F. Supp. 484 (1994).Google Scholar
Comer v. Schriro, 480 F.3d 960 (9th Cir. 2007).Google Scholar
Comer v. Stewart, 230 F. Supp. 2d 1016 (D. Ariz. 2002).Google Scholar
Comer v. Stewart, 215 F.3d 910 (9th Cir. 2000).Google Scholar
Dennis ex rel. Butko v. Budge 2004, 378 F.3d 880 (9th Cir. 2004).Google Scholar
Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162 (1975)Google Scholar
Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402 (1960).Google Scholar
Ex parte Atworth, WR-42,070-01 (Tex. Crim. App.).Google Scholar
Ex parte Barney, No. 351487-A (Harris Cty, Tex.).Google Scholar
Ex parte Beavers, No. 465138 (Harris Cty, Tex).Google Scholar
Ex parte Alexander Martinez, WR-61844-01 (Tex. Crim. App.).Google Scholar
Ex parte Matthews, WR-56,143-01 (Tex. Crim. App.),Google Scholar
Ex parte Tuttle, WR-36,793-01 (Tex. Crim. App.).Google Scholar
Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster v. Johnson, 4:92−CV−00615−Y (N.D. Tex.).Google Scholar
Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349 (1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godinez v. Moran, 509 U.S. 389 (1993).Google Scholar
Groseclose ex rel. Harries v. Dutton, 594 F. Supp. 949 (M.D.Tenn. 1984).Google Scholar
Indiana v. Edwards, 554 U.S. 164 (2008).Google Scholar
Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262 (1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lonchar v. Zant, 978 F.2d 637 (11th Cir.1993).Google Scholar
Lovelace v. Lynaugh, 809 F.2d 1136 (5th Cir. 1987).Google Scholar
Mason By and Through Marson v. Vasquez, 5 F.3d 1220 (9th Cir. 1993).Google Scholar
Medina v. California, 505 U.S. 437 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Rourke v. Endell, 153 F.3d 560 (8th Cir. 1998).Google Scholar
Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930 (2007).Google Scholar
Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375 (1966).Google Scholar
Porter v. Dretke, No. 1:03-CV-448 (E.D. Tex.).Google Scholar
Rees v. Peyton, 384 U.S. 312 (1966).Google Scholar
Rumbaugh v. Procunier, 753 F.2d 395 (1985).Google Scholar
Simpson v. Quarterman, No. 1:04-CV-485 (E.D. Tex.).Google Scholar
Simpson v. Quarterman 291 Fed. Appx. 622, 2008 WL 4155104 (5th Cir. 2009).Google Scholar
Smith By and Through Missouri Public Defender Com'n v. Armontrout, 812 F.2d 1050 (8th Cir. 1987).Google Scholar
State v. Foust, AP-73,130 (Tex. Crim. App.).Google Scholar
State v. Gonzales, AP-72,253 (Tex. Crim. App.).Google Scholar
State v. Hayes, AP-73,830 (Tex. Crim. App.).Google Scholar
State v. Morin, AP-69,028 (Tex. Crim. App.).Google Scholar
State v. Ross, 273 Conn. 684, 873 A.2d 131 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
State v. James Smith, No. 375813-A (Harris Cty, Tex.)Google Scholar
State v. Ricky Wayne Smith, AP-41,742 (Tex. Crim. App.),Google Scholar
State v. Stone, AP-72,405 (Tex. Crim. App.)Google Scholar
State v. Swift, AP-75,186 (Tex. Crim. App.)Google Scholar
State v. Tuttle, AP-72,387 (Tex. Crim. App)Google Scholar
Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702 (1997).Google Scholar

Statutes Cited

Oregon Death With Dignity Act, Oregon Revised Statutes 127.800–890, 127.895, 127.897.Google Scholar
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Ann. Art. 11.071.Google Scholar
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Ann. Art. 37.071.Google Scholar
Texas Penal Code Ann. §19.02.Google Scholar
Texas Penal Code Ann. §19.03.Google Scholar
Washington Death With Dignity Act, Washington Revised Statutes 70.245.Google Scholar

Rules Cited

State Bar of Texas. 2010. Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct. http://www.texasbar.com/AM/template.cfm?Section=Grievance_Info_and_Ethics_Helpline&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=96 (accessed March 28, 2012).Google Scholar