[MUSIC PLAYING] Leviticus — a watch for a watch, a tooth for a tooth I’ll repay, an often-quoted scripture that individuals use to justify the dying penalty. However we by no means ask ourselves, what’s the injury that’s being achieved to an individual after they execute, after they kill one other human being? Jerry was an ideal instance of that. Jerry executed 62 individuals whole. Jerry Givens — a loving husband, father, a religious Christian, and former executioner for the State of Virginia. And me? Nicely, I’ve spent my life working to abolish the dying penalty. However we grew to become associates. I met Jerry late in his life, after he got here round to being a death- penalty abolitionist. Shock. There was a whole lot of uncommon matches that occur on this work. Jerry was a really Christian man. I’m a Jewish particular person. You bond over issues. We might search out good barbecue. Jerry was a bit of pudgy. So am I. Jerry was my pal. “Thanks for arising right here, brother.” “Thanks.” Jerry was born in Virginia, a lifelong resident of Richmond. He misplaced his father to medicine. He wished to be a soccer participant. You know the way that goes for individuals. You’re both in otherwise you’re out. He wished to be a police officer. However he ended up with a job as a corrections officer. And, after all, in 1972, the Supreme Court docket struck down all of the death- penalty legal guidelines within the nation. Any state that wished to have executions needed to write a brand new death-penalty legislation. Many did, together with Virginia. When Virginia resumed executing individuals within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, Jerry was the one who was tapped for that job to move the execution staff. You’re it. On this period, Virginia was No. 2, simply behind Texas as probably the most executing of all of the states. That meant he was the person that pushed the button, 25 electrocutions, and he pushed the syringe for 37 deadly injections. Jerry’s prayer all the time was God, don’t let me execute an harmless particular person. It turned out that there was an harmless particular person named Earl Washington. And so they got here inside days of executing Earl Washington. That was particularly troublesome for him. However it was not his job to kind these issues out. Jerry executed 62 individuals whole. That doesn’t not do injury to you. He wished to guard his household from what he was absorbing. They didn’t know what his job was on the jail till they examine it in information protection when he was on trial for some authorized bother he acquired into for allegedly cash laundering. He ended up going to jail himself, which ended up ending his profession in corrections. Once you’re in jail, you get to spend so much of time considering. And I feel Jerry got here to know the evil of the dying penalty. “So I feel this was a wake-up name from God. The system wasn’t proper.” The burden we ask state staff to tackle after we ask them to kill in our identify is lifelong. Many internalize it and find yourself alcoholic or drug-addicted or committing suicide. However Jerry, he instructed his story. He spent the remainder of his life making an attempt to make amends and repair it. “I’ve to endure by way of this, not the State of Virginia, not the governor, not the those that gave this man the dying penalty, however me. I needed to endure by way of this.” When Jerry spoke, he was heard. His voice was plain. Part of his objective was to guard different jail staff, his comrades. He noticed himself as on a mission to proper some wrongs. That’s the place his coronary heart was. Through the summer season, I simply occurred to be Fb and noticing that any individual was liking particular photos. And so they had been all photos that Jerry was in. So I mentioned, what’s up? And I went to have a look at Jerry’s Fb web page. And that’s the place I noticed — that’s how I discovered that Jerry had died. Once I lastly acquired to have a dialog with Jerry’s household, they requested me to change into a voice to share his story. There aren’t any coincidences. We had been meant to do that work collectively to vary the world. And we did change the world. We’ve abolished the dying penalty in plenty of states — New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, Colorado. The courts have thrown it out in Washington State and Delaware and New York. Virginia, they’re truly, of their legislature, in a dialog about abolishing the dying penalty. And Jerry would have been completely satisfied to know that this risk exists partly together with his testimony. It doesn’t matter that we had been completely different religions or completely different races or completely different generations. What issues is what we got here collectively about one factor — the preservation of life and the dignity of life. He acknowledged the injury that was achieved and did his finest to repair it, make himself proper together with his God. [SOMBER MUSIC]