“. . . Where’s my stunt double when you need one? My Lord is my life and savior, nothing shall I fear.”

— Vincent Gutierrez, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed March 28, 2007

Gutierrez was convicted of killing Capt. Jose Cobo, an air force officer, during a carjacking with an accomplice. According to the Associated Press, “Gutierrez was 18 at the time. Just two weeks before the shooting, he had been released from a two-month stint at a prison boot camp for a burglary conviction. He acknowledged shooting Cobo—and expressed no remorse—saying he fired at the military officer because he didn’t want to go back to jail for another robbery.”

“I am still innocent.”

— Pedro Medina, convicted of murder, electric chair, Florida.
Executed March 25, 1997

As Medina was being electrocuted, blue and orange flames burst from his head, igniting the death mask. The event overshadowed details of the Cuban native’s conviction for shooting a teacher in 1982. After the execution, Attorney General Bob Butterworth said, “People who wish to commit murder, they better not do it in the state of Florida because we may have a problem with our electric chair.”

“The ones who conspired with their underhanded tactics to obtain their conviction will have to live with it for the rest of their lives.”

— Vincent Ciucci, convicted of murder, electric chair, Illinois.
Executed March 23, 1962

When Ciucci’s wife discovered he had a mistress, prosecutors said, the thirty-five-year-old grocer killed their three small children, then his wife, with a rifle. Before his execution, Ciucci himself offered several versions of events, including one in which his wife killed their children.