The death penalty: its history and methods in Mississippi

(Editor’s note: In today’s first of a two-part series, Ricky Swindle examines the history of the death penalty in Mississippi. In the second part, scheduled for Tuesday’s edition, he reviews Parchman’s current death row population and names inmates who have been there 20 years or more, along with their crimes.)
The Death Penalty. The final penalty a society can levy upon another member of that society. There’s only two opinions when it comes to the question. You’re either for it or against it.
Citizens of Mississippi believe in the final penalty. It is the law of the land. My stance has always been pro-death penalty. My raising and beliefs most likely are the major contributors to my point of view. The words are written several times in the Bible “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.”
Most everyone I know personally shares that belief except a few local liberal friends who are true to their beliefs no matter the situation. I respect their opinions and we can agree to disagree.
I got curious about studying the death penalty to reinforce my own beliefs if ever I was challenged on the subject. My reason was not to just spout off the Bible passage but back it up with valid information. I’ve researched hundreds of articles from online newspapers from The Clarion Ledger to The New York Times and a lot of local news sources also. I’ve read countless court documents from cases of death row inmates. It has been an eye opening, sobering and unpleasant journey.
Mississippi used the practice of hanging from statehood in 1817 until October 11, 1941. The condemned inmate would be hanged until dead at the courthouse of the county he was convicted. At times it was a great spectacle, but more often there were only county officials and the hired hangman witnessing the event.
Citizens sought a more updated solution than hanging. Different circumstances led to unique situations when the slack came out of the rope. Some executions snapped the neck bringing immediate death while others strangled the condemned subject to death.
October 11, 1941 in Lucedale, wife killer Willie Mae Bragg became the first person executed using a portable electric chair built by a company in Memphis. Sunflower County, location of Parchman Prison, did not want to be known as the death county. Their leaders lobbied for years not to have executions at Parchman.
So, between the years of 1941 – 1952, 75 executions by electrocution were carried out in the county of the offense, mainly by executioner Jimmy Thompson. The chair had several malfunctions over the years that prolonged carrying out the sentence and the public sought for an even more humane solution to deliver the death penalty.
Sunflower County finally lost their bid to not have all executions in their county in September of 1954 after Governor Hugh White called a special session and the electric chair was replaced with the gas chamber.
Gerald Gallego was the first to be executed in the gas chamber on March 3, 1955. There were 35 executions in the Parchman chamber until the last one on June 21, 1989. Death by gas chamber also had its issues. It truly was trial and error determining the correct amount of cyanide gas to administer.
On September 2, 1983, Jimmy Lee Gray was executed for the anal rape and murder of a three-year-old little girl. There were no head straps on the chamber chair. Soon after the gas was released, Gray thrashed about banging his head on a metal rod behind his head affixed to the chair until he was unconscious. The execution was stopped and started again eight minutes later.
The Legislature passed a law making lethal injection the sole method of execution for convictions after July 1, 1984. The last person executed in Parchman’s gas chamber was triple murderer Leo Edwards on June 21, 1989.
On July 1, 1984 the Mississippi Legislature amended the laws to use lethal injection as the only form of capital punishment. Lethal injection is a series of IV injections, a barbiturate, a paralytic and a type of potassium chloride that causes death quickly and painlessly. Tracy Allan Hansen, murderer of MHP Trooper David Bruce Ladner, was the first prisoner executed in MS by lethal injection on July 17, 2002. There have been 17 lethal injection executions in Mississippi until the last on June 20, 2012 of Gary Carl Simmons Jr.
Mississippi has not had an execution since then. In 2012 alone, six inmates paid the ultimate price for their crimes by way of lethal injection.
Our Republican Governor Phil Bryant and our Democrat Attorney General Jim Hood have no qualms about upholding that particular state law. That fact was well proven in 2012. Around 2014, drug manufacturers like Phizer stopped supplying the drugs used by states for lethal injection because of bad publicity. The subject of the lethal injection ingredients has been challenged and debated in courts across the land including our own State Supreme Court.
The Mississippi Legislature has countered that move this session with HB 638, a law to also add back along with lethal injection and whatever drugs are available to complete that task, the ability to use death by gas chamber, electrocution and even firing squad.  I trust our Supreme Court will uphold our State’s laws fully and these evil people on death row will finally realize death is imminent. Justice will be carried out. I have full faith that our Governor and Attorney General will uphold their respective ends.
Another valid argument for and against the death penalty comes down to what everything comes down to… money. Statistics show in 2014 the average cost to house and provide for a state inmate in Mississippi was $67.95 per day. Death row inmates are quite a bit more expensive. I’ve read different quotes that state housing a death row inmate is 4 – 5 times higher. $67.95 X 4 = $271.80 per day per inmate. Almost $100,000 per year per death row inmate.
However, if there was not a death penalty the cost, in my opinion, would remain close to the same because the criminals on death row are not your average criminal. They are evil. If they were placed in the general prison population they would kill again. Murder comes easy for them.
You may have said at times that you “could kill” this or that person.” Odds are you could not unless your human instinct takes over at a time of self- defense when you are fearing for your own life or the life of a loved one.
Death row inmates have no fear when it comes to murder. They are the predators. Putting a death row inmate in general population would be like putting a shark in a pond. There will always be a heavier expense when you are dealing with an evil, violent, non-remorseful criminal.