A 1989 audio recording rattles with static, a prisoner barely audible as he delivers his last words before being executed in Virginia’s electric chair.
“I want to express that what is about to happen … is a murder,” Elton Way – who was convicted of raping and murdering a 61-year-old woman – can be heard saying, before that a prison employee clumsily tries to repeat what Wei said into the tape recorder.
“And he forgives those who are involved in this murder. And that I don’t hate anybody and I love them,” the employee said.
The recording of Wei’s execution, which was recently published by NPR, is one of at least 35 audio tapes in the possession of the Virginia Department of Corrections documenting executions between 1987 and 2017, the department said recently. Just confirmed.
The Wei recordings offer a rare public glimpse at an execution, a government proceeding often shrouded in secrecy and seen only by a select few, including prison officials, victims, family members, and journalists. Even those who are allowed to testify are often prevented from seeing or hearing the entire process of execution.
But the department has no plans to allow more recordings to be released to the public.
The Associated Press sought the Virginia audio tapes under the state’s open records law after NPR recently reported on the existence of four execution recordings, including the Wei tapes, which had long been in the possession of a Virginia library.
But soon after NPR aired its story, the Department of Corrections asked for the tapes back and the library complied. The department then rejected the AP’s request for copies of all execution recordings in its possession, citing security concerns, and exemptions to the records law covering private health records and personnel information.
Several death penalty experts said the four recordings in Virginia and the other 23 Georgia execution tapes released over two decades ago were not allowed in the U.S. It is believed to be the only publicly available recording of the hanging.
Richard Dieter, acting interim director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that monitors and heavily criticizes the death penalty, said he would not be surprised if some other states secretly “just themselves” against the death penalty. To save”. ,
“States are wary that things are being done the right way and are being challenged in court, and want proof of that,” Dieter said.
“There’s so much that’s confidential that I don’t know that if they had the tapes, they would want to reveal it,” he said.
A 2018 report by the Center found that of the 17 states that conducted a total of 246 lethal injection executions between January 2011 and August 2018, 14 prevented witnesses from seeing at least part of the execution, while 15 prevented witnesses from being heard. prevented from what was happening inside the execution chamber.
Long one of the nation’s busiest capital punishment states, Virginia plans to end the death penalty in 2021, and lawmakers have since fended off legislative efforts to bring it back for certain crimes. But researchers and transparency advocates said the department’s decision to withhold the tapes raised concerns and limited its ability to scrutinize or research past executions.
The tapes obtained in NPR’s investigation were donated to the library in 2006 by a deceased former Department of Corrections employee named RM Oliver, the library said in a statement to the AP.
NPR reports that how Oliver ended up with the tapes and why he donated them remains a mystery.
Carla Lemmons, a spokeswoman for the DOC, said that the files that ended up in the library were taken “without VDOC’s knowledge or permission”. The department asked for them back “so that we can properly retain them along with other execution files in the agency’s possession,” Lemons wrote in an email.
The library said it agreed after consulting its legal counsel.
Lemons said the DOC usually keeps execution records in its possession for at least 50 years after execution. She defended the department’s decision to withhold the records.
“While the Department may have discretion to release certain materials contained in execution files, VDOC respects the privacy interests of current and former VDOC employees, victims, and inmates and, therefore, chooses not to publicly release these sensitive materials.” opts for,” he wrote.
Dale Broomfield, an author, journalist, and anti-death penalty opponent who wrote a book about the death penalty in Virginia and its abolition said he received the four tapes covered last year from the NPR library, based on an initial request. was rejected years ago.
Broomfield said he felt the value of the tapes to the average listener was minimal, although he said they provided insight compared to other records and news accounts.
NPR cited accounts from three local reporters who witnessed the 1990 execution of Wilbert Lee Evans—who had been convicted of murdering a sheriff’s deputy—and said that after the administration of the first shock of electricity from the electric chair, Evans started bleeding from his eyes, mouth, and nose.
But the tapes of the execution do not record those details. The DOC employee who played the recording did not mention any evidence of blood.
Broomfield noted that state law has prohibited taking photographs and shooting video during the execution process since the early 20th century.
Brumfield said of the tapes, “It’s the only window into a live performance we’ve ever had.”
Megan Rhine, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said the waiver cited by the DOC in denying the AP’s request to release the tapes follows the pattern of many law enforcement, judicial and corrections agencies.
“There’s a tendency or a knee-jerk reaction to withdraw everything,” she said.
“It takes everything off the table, and the public and advocates and lawmakers are left in the dark trying to figure out what’s the best way to administer our justice system,” she said.
Dieter said that after a spate of executions in recent years, some states that allow the death penalty have passed new privacy laws that prevent the public from receiving information about executions. He said he was in favor of releasing the recording.
Dieter said, “The execution has failed … You don’t know what’s going on, and it’s a matter of life and death.”