Capital Punishment

Truman Capote does a very excellent job of portraying the death penalty in In Cold Blood by explaining its proceedings through the eyes of witnesses. For example, Dewey expresses his surprise of the warehouse-setting of the gallows: “He had anticipated a setting of suitable dignity, not this bleakly lighted cavern cluttered with lumber and other debris.” (p.337) Dewey also finds the casual conversations of the other witnesses (about Dick and Perry’s last meals, about rain ruining a new Chevy, and referring to the executions as “the festivities”) to be disturbing. A guard tells a reporter that the victims do not feel anything in their execution and the reporter replies, “Are you sure? I was standing right close. I could hear him [Dick] gasping for breath.” (p.340) The guard also mentions that it’s against the rules to give the victims sedatives before their executions. After the trap door of the gallows is released, the prison doctor checks the victims periodically with a stethoscope until they are pronounced dead. Dick notes the doctor’s actions during Andrews’s hanging: “I wouldn’t say he was enjoying his work—kept gasping, like he was gasping for breath, and he was crying too… I guess the reason he stepped outside was so the others wouldn’t see he was crying. Then he’d go back and listen to hear if Andy’s heart had stopped.” (p.332) I am against capital punishment, but if it’s legal I think that the executions should be quick, without pain, and that the victims should be made to feel as comfortable as possible. Through Capote’s descriptions, however, it seems that the only comfort that the prisoners on death row get is a choice of their last meal. Out of the three hangings in part 4, only Perry’s neck brakes. Both Andrews and Dick remain alive for nearly twenty minutes. To me, this does not seem like a just execution.