— Walter LaGrand, convicted of murder, gas chamber, Arizona.
Executed March 3, 1999

German citizen LaGrand protested his death sentence by choosing the gas chamber over lethal injection with the hope that his punishment would end up being ruled cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court overruled that logic, but not without protest from the German government and other countries worldwide. The World Court held a thirty-minute hearing in which a Sri Lankan judge urged the U.S. government to prevent the execution, but Arizona governor Jane Hull proceeded with it. LaGrand’s brother Karl had been executed for his role in the crime a week prior.

— Robert Atworth, convicted of robbery and murder, lethal injection,Texas.
Executed December 14, 1999

Atworth shot, stabbed, and robbed Thomas Carlson, then severed the victim’s right-hand little finger, where he’d worn a ring. Upon being apprehended, Atworth blamed the crime on an alternate personality of his by the name of Nino. Later he asked that no appeals be made on his behalf.

— Robert W. Williams, convicted of murder, electric chair, Louisiana.
Executed December 14, 1983

Williams maintained that when he walked into the A&P supermarket to rob it, he never intended to shoot the on- duty security guard; he said that his sawed-off shotgun went off accidentally. Williams was the tenth prisoner executed since the federal government had reinstated the death penalty seven years earlier.

— Angel Diaz, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Florida.
Executed December 13, 2006

It was Diaz’s death that brought a temporary statewide halt to executions by Florida’s then-governor, Jeb Bush. Diaz’s death took thirty-four minutes instead of the typical fifteen. After the initial dose, Diaz’s lawyer said his client was still conscious, moving his mouth for twenty minutes. It took a second dose to end Diaz’s life. Gov. Bush appointed a panel to investigate whether lethal injection could be considered “cruel or unusual punishment,” and all death sentences were put on hold.

Diaz had been convicted and sentenced to death for killing Joseph Nagy, a strip-club manager, with two accomplices.

— Stanley “Tookie” Williams (aka Big Took) , convicted of murder, lethal injection, California.
Executed December 13, 2005

Williams spent his time on death row writing children’s books with peace and antigang messages, donating the proceeds to anti-gang promotion charities. He was nominated for the Nobel Prizes for Literature and for Peace, but Williams’s life before prison had been exactly the opposite. In 1971 he co founded the violent street gang the Crips, and in 1981 he was convicted for the murders of four people. Williams never admitted to the crimes, prompting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to refuse clemency despite appeals from people including Rev. Jesse Jackson and Jamie Foxx, who portrayed Williams in the TV movie  “Redemption.

— Lem Tuggle, convicted of rape and murder, lethal injection, Virginia.
Executed December 12, 1996

Sporting an arm tattoo saying “Born to Die,” Tuggle was the final man to be executed out of the six who pulled off the largest deathrow escape in U.S. history. Already on death row for the rape and murder of a fifty-two-year-old woman, Tuggle, along with five other inmates, used stolen uniforms to escape in a prison van. Within three weeks all six were apprehended, and by 1993 all but Tuggle had been executed.

— Vincent Cooks, convicted of murder, lethal injection,Texas.
Executed December 12, 2001

Cooks stood 6’3″ and weighed three hundred pounds. Witnesses of a robbery in which a police officer was killed identified a significantly shorter, slimmer man as the perpetrator. However, Cooks stood trial and was convicted of murder.

— Willie Green, convicted of murder, electric chair, Illinois.
Executed December 11, 1931

The Chicago Daily Tribune recorded little about Green, age thirtyone, who faced the electric chair for killing grocer Max Newman. He was executed the same day as three other convicted murderers at the Southern Illinois Penitentiary in Menard. He delivered his last words while shaking hands with a priest.

— Nicholas Viana, convicted of murder, hanging, Illinois.
Executed December 10, 1920

The nineteen-year-old Viana said that he had walked into a pool hall one day and a week later became a criminal. Viana murdered a saloon owner during a holdup. He spent his last hours with his mother singing “Mother o’ Mine” at her request. On the way to the death cell he sang “Miserere.”

— Harvey Allender, convicted of murder, hanging, California.
Executed December 10, 1897

When Allender found that his longtime sweetheart Wilburga Feilner was to marry an ice-cream cart driver, Venanze Crosetti, he stalked both of them. After a few whiskeys one night, he drew a pistol and shot them. With one bullet left, Allender attempted to shoot himself in the head but only punctured his hat.