"As superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary, I planned and carried out that state's only two executions in the last 54 years I used to support the death penalty. I don't anymore...
I was charged with executing two inmates on the penitentiary's death row, Douglas Franklin Wright and Harry Charles Moore...
Regardless of their crimes, the fact that I was now to be personally involved in their executions forced me into a deeper reckoning with my feelings about capital punishment. After much contemplation, I became convinced that, on a moral level, life was either hallowed or it wasn't. And I wanted it to be...
Since I retired from corrections in 2010, my mission has been to persuade people that capital punishment is a failed policy. America should no longer accept the myth that capital punishment plays any constructive role in our criminal justice system. It will be hard to bring an end to the death penalty, but we will be a healthier society as a result."
"What I Learned from Executing Two Men," nytimes.com, Sep. 15, 2016
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