https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/what-it-was-like-to-witness-the-execution-
of-willie-james-pyes/KTLQ6VO2OBBWNJP7JUGNX7CTBA/

What it was like to witness the execution of Willie James Pye
By Jennifer Peebles

3 hours ago

Willie James Pye lay strapped to a gurney in the death chamber. No one in
the witness room spoke. No one moved.

The 54th execution carried out by lethal injection in Georgia began
shortly before 11 p.m. at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison,
which houses the state’s male death row inmates.

Witnesses were taken by vans to the small building on the prison campus
that houses the state’s death chamber. Each group was led single-file by a
prison officer up a short cement ramp, the base flanked by two members of
the prison’s tactical team in full riot gear. They cradled assault rifles.
The face shields on their helmets were lowered.

The outside darkness gave directly into the full light of the execution
witness room. By the time media witnesses crossed the threshold, the
warden had pulled back the curtains over tall windows. The condemned man,
strapped in place, was in full view.

The gurney was positioned to face the witnesses and tilted so Pye’s head
was elevated, his feet lowered. His arms were splayed out on either side
and each was hooked up to intravenous lines. A sheet covered most of his
body.

Pye, 59, who had been on Georgia’s death row for nearly three decades,
accepted a prayer from a prison chaplain but declined to speak from the
death chamber.

Pye was convicted in the 1993 kidnapping, rape and murder of his former
girlfriend, Alicia Lynn Yarbrough. She was found shot to death on a rural
road in Spalding County. Court records say Yarbrough had recently had a
baby Pye believed was his, and Pye was upset that the new man in her life
was listed as the father on the birth certificate.

After Warden Shawn Emmons read Pye’s death warrant, he and the chaplain
exited the death chamber. Then a fatal dose of pentobarbital began flowing
into Pye’s veins.

The execution took five, maybe 10 minutes. Witnesses were not allowed to
wear watches or bring in cellphones. The clock on the wall was visible to
the officials in the death chamber but not to those on the back row of the
gallery.

Multiple groups of witnesses were present. Their identities were not
immediately available and prison officials kept the groups sequestered,
except for the few minutes everyone had to squeeze into the witness room.
There was no opportunity for small talk.

Witnesses had one thing in common: somber, grave looks on their faces.

The groups had been driven across the sprawling prison grounds, past a
basketball court and neatly trimmed grass that would have resembled a
public park if not for the massive fences topped with concertina wire that
glowed in the reflection of the prison’s security lights.

The execution was officially scheduled for 7 p.m. During the hours of
waiting, press witnesses were situated in a staff kitchen.

When the time came, Pye briefly glanced up at the ceiling, then shut his
eyes and didn’t open them again. For a moment, he began to snore.

His cheeks puffed with air few times as he took his final breaths. His
head shuttered slightly at one point, briefly. He tilted his head to one
side, and after a little bit, to the other.

After a few moments, Pye stopped moving. The warden reappeared with two
men in white coats with stethoscopes. They evaluated Pye, then nodded
slightly to each other.

The warden announced the time of death as 11:03 p.m., and a Department of
Corrections officer in a light blue shirt closed the curtain.

In the previous article, Big Mongo <bigmongo1963@biteme.com> wrote:
> The warden announced the time of death as 11:03 p.m., [...]

Obviously anyone can "announce" anything he likes, but is there some
special authority granted in this situation to *declare* death? Was
it just understood that the guys in white coats with stethoscopes were
assenting in an official declaration of death by nodding to each
other? What's the paperwork like, here?
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / baldwin@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer
***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 22 Mar 2024 18:56:32 -0000 (UTC), J.D. Baldwin wrote:

> In the previous article, Big Mongo <bigmongo1963@biteme.com> wrote:
>> The warden announced the time of death as 11:03 p.m., [...]
>
> Obviously anyone can "announce" anything he likes, but is there some
> special authority granted in this situation to *declare* death?

They usually do, but if they're wearing roller skates, pinwheel hats, a
Napoleonic uniform and having full-on conversations with their alter egos
that no one else can see or hear they cannot be taken very seriously as
they don't have the authority to announce much of anything. The
industrial prison complex would never get anything done otherwise as the
process if grueling enough as it is without listening to random yahoos and
yabboos. Now, if you're the Warden of an institution whose stock and trade
is to put down societies miscreants in a fine double-breasted suite and a
kipper tie or a 10 gallon Stetson hat on your head and a pearl handled
pistol on your hip folks are going to respect your implied authority when
you stand at the podium, looking dour with a death warrant clutched firmly
in your fist. At that late date, most arguments that remain have little
merit and probably aren't worth letting your dinner get cold.

> Was it just understood that the guys in white coats with stethoscopes
>were assenting in an official declaration of death by nodding to each
>other?

They are bound by the sanctity of their position and the oaths
they took when assuming them. The white coat guys want to get home for
dinner and cocktails and perhaps get a leg over just like the rest of us
so they're unlikely to muck about and prolong the process. It's
unpleasant enough as it is without prolonging it further by asking a lot
of silly questions about violating the Hippocratic oath or pointing out
minutia that couldn't possibly matter a wit in the big picture.

> What's the paperwork like, here?

Epic, I would assume, but once the final T's are crossed, the last I's are
dotted and last legal gambit played gangway for justice boys!!! Once that
train's got a full head of steam and is heading for you there's no going
back!!!!