This week in 1985

“Yes, I’d like to say I’d like to give my blessing to all the people that seeked to save my life, and I’d like to curse everyone that seeked to take my life. Farewell.”

— Van Roosevelt Solomon, convicted of murder, electric chair, Georgia.
Executed February 20, 1985

A former Baptist assistant pastor, Solomon sat in the electric chair for the murder of Roger Tackett, a Georgetown University honors graduate and convenience store manager. Outside the prison, the Associated Press reported, fifty opponents and eight proponents of the death penalty stood in the rain. One held a sign reading “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Another placard read “Let me pull the switch.” Newspapers reported Solomon’s last words as “I would like to give my blessings to all the people who tried to save my life.” A longer recording of his final statements was part of a collection of subpoenaed Georgia execution tapes, later made into the audio documentary “The Execution Tapes.”