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	<title>Last Words of the Executed</title>
	<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com</link>
	<description>A death penalty book by Robert K. Elder, with a foreword by Studs Terkel.  Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, has praised the project and called it, “A dangerous book…” This is the history of capital punishment in America, told from the gallows, the front of the firing squad, the electric chair, the gas chamber, and the lethal injection gurney. This is a nonpolitical work, simply asking, “If these are the most reviled, outcast members of society—why does it remain a cultural value to record what they say?”  Other keywords: hanging, noose, execution</description>
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		<title>This week in 1962</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A circled passage in the section “He Is Sentenced to Death,” in Plato’s “Apology”: “The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways, I to die and you to live. Which is better God only knows.” — James Dukes, convicted of murder, electric chair, Illinois. Executed August 24, 1962 Dukes was executed for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/09/04/this-week-in-1962/</link>
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		<title>This week in 1927</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“Viva l’anarchia!” [Italian: Long live anarchy!] A moment later, in English:  “Farewell, my wife and child and all my friends.” After the death mask had been fitted:  “Farewell, mia madre!” [Farewell, my mother!] — Ferdinando Nicola Sacco, convicted of murder, electric chair, Massachusetts. Executed August 23, 1927 Sacco and friend Bartolomeo Vanzetti, both Italian immigrants, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/09/03/this-week-in-1927/</link>
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		<title>This week in 1927</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“I wish to say to you that I am innocent. I have never done a crime, some sins, but never any crime. I thank you for everything you have done for me. I am innocent of all crime, not only this one, but of all, all. I am an innocent man.” Just before execution: “I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/09/02/this-week-in-1927-2/</link>
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		<title>This week in 2000</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“Mr. Bryant, I have wronged you and your family and for that I am truly sorry. I forgive and I have been forgiven. Death is but a brief moment’s slumber and a short journey home. I’ll see you when you get there. I am done, warden.” — David Gibbs, convicted of murder, lethal injection,Texas. Executed [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/09/01/this-week-in-2000-3/</link>
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		<title>This week in 1998</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“There is no man that is free from all evil, nor any man that is so evil to be worth nothing.” — David Castillo, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas. Executed August 23, 1998 Castillo, an Illinoisan, served time in prison for aggravated robbery and was released on a bench warrant before being convicted for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/08/31/this-week-n-1998/</link>
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		<title>This week in 1993</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“I’m an African warrior, born to breathe and born to die. [After a pause:] I feel the poison running now.” — Carl Kelly, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas. Executed August 20, 1993 Kelly, initially sentenced to prison for robbery, was released before the end of his term but couldn’t maintain his good behavior on [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/08/30/this-week-in-1993/</link>
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		<title>This week in 1986</title>
		<description><![CDATA[”Goodbye to my family; I love all of you, I’m sorry for the victim’s family. I wish I could make it up to them. I want those out there to keep fighting the death penalty.” — Randy Woolls, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas. Executed August 20, 1986 Woolls struck, stabbed, and set fire to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/08/29/this-week-in-1986-2/</link>
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		<title>This week in 1692</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Paraphrased account from Robert Calef, later a critic of the witch trials: “[Burroughs] made a clear Speech for the clearing of his Innocency, with such Solemn and Serious Expressions,as were to the Admiration of all Present. [Burroughs then perfectly recited the Lord’s Prayer, which] drew Tears from many.” — George Burroughs, convicted of witchcraft, hanging, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/08/28/this-week-in-1692-2/</link>
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		<title>This week in 1995</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“I am the happiest man in the world. I’m not afraid to die. I’m not crazy. Jesus, your baby is coming home. I love you. I love you, Lord.” — Sylvester Adams, convicted of murder, lethal injection, South Carolina. Executed August 18, 1995 Despite numerous appeals and a plea by his mother and death penalty [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/08/27/this-week-in-1995-3/</link>
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		<title>This week in 2001</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“For almost nine years I have thought about the death penalty, whether it is right or wrong and I don’t have any answers. But I don’t think the world will be a better or safer place without me. If you had wanted to punish me you would have killed me the day after, instead of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com/2010/08/26/this-week-in-2001-3/</link>
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