“Yes sir. I would like to ask you to forgive me. I made a mistake and I am sorry for what I did. All I can do is ask you to forgive me. I love you and I will see all of you in Heaven. I love you very much. Praise Jesus. I love you.”

He then recited the Lord’s Prayer.

— Troy Kunkle, convicted of murder, robbery, and abduction, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed January 25, 2005

On their way from San Antonio to Corpus Christi in 1984, Kunkle and three companions offered Stephen Horton a ride. They robbed him of his wallet, which contained thirteen dollars, and Kunkle shot him in the head, after which he sang lines from “No Remorse,” a song by heavy metal band Metallica: “Another day, another death, another sorrow, another breath.” Kunkle, age thirty-eight at the time of execution, spent half his life on death row.

To Eugene Tousley, a prison official:
“You may have a boy and I want you to watch him and see that he does not come to where I have today. I am ready to die. I am trusting in Jesus.”

— Henry Foster, convicted of murder, hanging, Illinois.
Executed January 24, 1896

Foster was attempting to rob another man when Wells ran into the street from a saloon to stop him. Foster fired two shots, killing Wells almost instantly.

“It’s getting light. What’s holding those fellows up?”

— Robert Walter Avery, convicted of murder, firing squad, Utah.
Executed February 5, 1943

“When a man faces death like I am,” said Avery in a prison interview, “life looks good under any circumstances.” Convicted in the murder of Detective Hoyt L. Gates, Avery blamed his criminal ways on a life of drugs. In a ten-page autobiography written prior to his death, Avery wrote: “Death to me is simply the cashing in of a stack of chips all of us receive at birth and while I have lost heavily in the game of life, I intend to face the cashier as a good loser.”