Secondary Trauma Associated with State Executions: Testimony regarding Execution Procedures

Abstract

Secondary trauma associated with state executions refers to distress. harm. and injuries suffered by individuals other than the condemned prisoner. This article reviews the available research on this topic presenting findings, suggesting risks to correctional officers, judges and judicial staff, journalists. as well as the family members of the death row inmate. and the family members of the victim of the homicide. The literature review was prepared for testimony before a state department of corrections hearing regarding execution procedures. According to the authors, secondary trauma associated with state executions warrants further research and should be considered in the context ofpublic policy regarding state executions.

“It’s Not Gonna Leave Any Scars”: Trauma and Coping Among Execution Team Members

“…In their literature reviews, Gil et al (2006) and Seemungal et al (2016) theorized that secondary trauma affects execution teams. In the execution context, Gil et al (2006) literature review defined secondary trauma as "the distress, harm, and injuries that are visited upon those other than the condemned" (p. 27).…”

“…In their literature reviews, Gil et al (2006) and Seemungal et al (2016) theorized that secondary trauma affects execution teams. In the execution context, Gil et al (2006) literature review defined secondary trauma as "the distress, harm, and injuries that are visited upon those other than the condemned" (p. 27). The experience of secondary trauma does not have to qualify as a disorder; rather, in taking this approach, one looks at the cumulative effects of indirectly experiencing recurring potentially traumatizing events, such as observing executions at close range or being exposed to death house banter about the horrors, real, and embellished, of capital crimes.…”

Examination of Decision Making and Botched Lethal Injection Executions in Texas

“…. are not limited to the condemned citizen” (Gil et al, 2006, p. 33). Adcock (2010) provides detailed descriptions of how capital punishment negatively affects judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, jurors, expert witnesses, prison officials, governors, ministers, the inmate’s and victim’s family and friends, witnesses to the execution, and opponents of capital punishment.…”

“…Adcock (2010) provides detailed descriptions of how capital punishment negatively affects judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, jurors, expert witnesses, prison officials, governors, ministers, the inmate’s and victim’s family and friends, witnesses to the execution, and opponents of capital punishment. To fully understand the secondary impacts of executions on the criminal justice system and society, Dr. Matthew B. Johnson, testifying at a New Jersey Department of Corrections Office of Legal and Legislative Affairs hearing, stated, “[p]ress and public access to the entire state execution process is essential to insure that the full extent of the human costs are known and recorded to fully assess the effects” (Gil et al, 2006, p. 33). Yet the extent to which Texas’ death penalty decisions have resulted in antitherapeutic consequences is unknown, given the TDCJ’s unilateral decision making concerning execution protocols, and state secrecy laws that hide the identity of loosely regulated compounding pharmacies that supply lethal injection drugs.…”

Albert Pierrepoint and the cultural persona of the twentieth-century hangman

“…Academic research has also explored the secondary trauma of execution. Lifton and Mitchell (2000) identify ‘executioner stress’ as responsible for symptoms such as depression, nightmares and lack of emotional feeling amongst former execution team members in the United States, and Gil et al (2006) argue that executioners can experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to their repeated direct exposure to death. In addition to Pierrepoint , films The Green Mile (1999) and Monster’s Ball (2001) also explore the impact of capital punishment on prison guards and the executioner (Papke, 2012).…”