“It does not hurt me, Captain.  I am innocent and I am prepared to die, so do not think hard of it.” 

Asked if he would give the name of his accomplice:
“Do you suppose that would betray a friend?  No, sir: I would die a thousand times first!  I am ready.”

— Sam Davis, convicted of spying and espionage, hanging, Tennessee
Executed November 27, 1863

As a Confederate spy, Sam Davis was captured in Nashville at age 16. He both accepted the consequences of his actions and refused to give up the name of his confidante, regardless of offers of immunity. “If I have to die, I do so feeling that I am doing my duty to God and my country,” Davis said. In jail, he wrote only one short note to his mother saying that he was to be hanged and that he was not afraid to die. The final offer of clemency came as he stood on the scaffold, which he again refused.

“I’m going to Jesus.”

— Alcee Harris, convicted of murder, hanging, Louisiana.
Executed November 26, 1875

Upon her husband’s discovery of her affair with Tony Hellum, Mrs. Harris and Hellum decided that Mr. Harris needed to be killed. Mrs. Harris pretended to make peace with her husband and offered him a beer to celebrate their reconciliation. However, she had drugged the beer, and as her husband slept, Hellum proceeded to hack the man apart with an ax. The guilty pair both embraced Catholicism right before their executions and professed a belief that they were going straight to heaven. “Jerked to Jesus” read the headline in the Chicago Times—one of the most infamous newspaper headlines in history.

Written in a note to the warden:
“By my death, the state will gain nothing, while I will gain eternal life.”

— Ernest Wishon, convicted of murder, electric chair, Illinois.
Executed November 26, 1943

After the army rejected him and he separated from his wife, Wishon turned to drink. When funds ran out, he “decided to pull a job to get more money for booze.” During the hold-up of a jewelry store, Wishon killed seventy-nine-year-old owner Joseph Schulte.