![]() ![]() The prison staff seemed still more unprepared during the electrocution of Richard Boggs. "We're not using a blank tape?" one worker asks, before a second wonders out loud if the recorder was turned on. ![]() At the beginning of the narration of Richard Whitley's execution in 1987, the staff seemed confused about how they were supposed to record the event. But the other tapes show uncertainty was common in the death chamber. The prison eventually got Waye's words down right. Oliver's briefcase also contained other official execution documents from the prison, like this photo of Alton Waye that was taken before he was executed in 1989. And that I don't hate nobody and that I love them." "I'd like to express that what is about to occur here is a murder," he starts by saying on the tape.Īn employee whispers the rest of Waye's statement into the recorder: "And that he forgives the people involved in this murder. Minutes before he was scheduled to die by the electric chair, Alton Waye used his last words to forgive the workers who would soon have to help kill him. Behind the scenes: "We didn't know for sure" This is the first time audio recorded during any of those executions has ever been published. But NPR argued for their public release and obtained the audio in 2022.Īn NPR investigation can now reveal the tapes show the prison neglected to record key evidence during what was considered one of Virginia's worst executions, and staff appeared unprepared for some of the jobs they were tasked to do in the death chamber.īefore Virginia abolished capital punishment in 2021, the state executed more people than any other in America. The library initially restricted them and planned to keep them off limits for decades more. The tapes from Oliver's bag remained unavailable for 16 years. "I don't even remember seeing that briefcase." "Dad kept it a secret from us," said his son, Stephen Oliver. The four tapes were marked as "restricted" in the archives of the Library of Virginia in Richmond. His family said he took the story to his grave when he died. Oliver left his last position with the Department of Corrections in Richmond before any of the executions were taped. ![]() But how that government audio ended up in his bag - and why he privately donated it to the Library of Virginia - is a mystery. Oliver, had worked in Virginia prisons for years. The cassettes in the briefcase were recorded by staff, and the donor, R. Prison employees also see what happens in the death chamber – and they sometimes tape it. Since prisons forbid even those journalists, lawyers and family members from recording audio or images, virtually no physical evidence from their vantage point exists from any state. When executions take place, only a few people are permitted to attend as witnesses. The bag held four execution recordings so rare, similar tapes from another state had been released just once before in history. On a summer's day in 2006, inside an apartment not far from Virginia's old death chamber, an 82-year-old man handed over a briefcase to an archivist. NPR obtained tapes that recorded their deaths. Wilbert Lee Evans (left) and Alton Waye were executed in 19. ![]()
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