THE STATE
August 12, 1933
Роде
Eleven
HE HAS SEEN 125 MEN DIE!
WARDEN HONEYCUTT, AT THE STATE PRISON TELLS OF ELECTROCUTIONS
★
FOGLEMAN isn't the only one who went to the
choir without confessing his guilt, soys the
Warden. Eleven others ore now on Deoth Row,
oil of them sentenced to die. Warden Honey¬
cutt describes the attitude taken by prisoners,
together with their reactions while awaiting the
call which shall plunge them into eternity.
By W. J. SADLER
“Why don’t, you express
that belief to the Governor I”
lie was asked.
“Because I foci thill the
Governor would ask my
opinion and advice if he do
sired them,” was the reply.
“Don’t yon think it is
your moral duty to eoiiiinii-
nicale such beliefs to the
Governor?" was the rejoin¬
der.
"I IiuVO wen 125 men go
to their dentil in the electric
chair, and, although I pitied
thorn and also the innocent
omw wlm stilTered because of
their crimes, I have become
аи'ИЫопкч!
to it. However.
I cannot understand why-
anyone who is not forced to
do so has any desire to wit¬
ness an electrocution.”
The apeaker was Warden
II. H. Honeycutt, genial,
gray-haired bos* of State's Prison. The
Warden only a day before- had seen
Clay Foglcman pay his debt to society,
and the memory of thecondemned man’s
last momenta was fresh in his mind.
"With the exception of his lawyer
accompanying him to the chair,” said
Mr. Honeycutt, "there was nothing out
of the ordinary in the Foglcman electro¬
cution. A large number of the 125 men
I have seen die in the chair went to
their God without confessing guilt of
the crime with which they were
charged."
There have been 127 electrocutions
at State's Prison since the electric chair
was adopted as the method of exacting
the supreme penalty from those ad¬
judged guilty of capital crimes. That
was in 1010. eight years after Mr.
Honeycutt became associated with the
prison in 1902.
"I starti-d as n guard 31 years ago."
the Warden said, "and I have serve,!
under thr,4- wardens. I was standing
near Warden T. P. Sale when he top¬
pled over dead while signing the ‘death
book’ following the execution of Ed
Walker and Jeff Dorsett, two negroes
who were electrocuted on January 28,
191(1. Mr. Sale, stricken with a heart
attack, «lied just as he had written his
initials, ‘’I’. P.’ in the register. As he
fell over the pen slipped from his lingers
and made a largo blot on the page,
which is there yet.
"At that time,” continued Mr. Honey¬
cutt. "the Warden personally threw the
switch that sent death through the wires
leading to the chnir. Mr. Sale’s health
had not been of the best for some time,
and the strain was too much for him.
For a number of years an executioner
has been assigned the task of throwing
the switch, relieving the Warden of
that gruesome job. But 1 am compelled
by law to be prex-nt when the chair
receives its victim."
Mr. Honeycutt said there art- now
eleven prisoners on "Death Row."
“Among them is Ed Denver, youthful
convicted slayer, who has Imd a number
of respites," he said. "I want you to
see him before you go."
So the short journey was made to
Denver’s small cell. Near him were ten
other humans awaiting the linal sum¬
mons.
It did not sound like a company of
depressed men with only a few «lays or
weeks or months of life left for them,
although the Warden said they were not
feeling so good because of the effect of
Foglcmau’s execution. They were sing¬
ing. jy|iiMliiig. laughing, talking, and
calling to each «ither.
“Hello, Kd," said Mr. Honeycutt
when we reached Denver's cell. "How
are you?"
Deaver, appearing extremely youth¬
ful. was rlean-shaven and d reused in
blu«> trousers and spotless white shirt.
He looke«l up at tin- Warden with «In¬
tended
сум
and fatuous grin, and said:-
"Hello, Mr. Honeycutt, I’m all right.”
While talking to the Warden and
uewspapertnuu, Denver s«sm«d to be ex¬
tremely bored, hut acted ns though there
apparently was nothing lie could do
about it. 1 1 is replies to «piestions were
couched in the fewest possible words,
and always were accompanied by the
grin that made him rex-mlile either a
very mischievous schoolboy or an im¬
becile.
Mr. Honeycutt appeared distressed
when we returned to hi- ofti«4- after tin-
visit to Deaver.
“I, of course, cannot say whet her or
not Deaver is guilty," In- sai«l, “But I
do uot believe In- is a normally sane
person."
“Yes, in a way,” In- re¬
plied- “But I do not wish to
пр|и-аг
to
be overstepping my authority."
Warden Honeycutt said In- was re¬
sponsible for the installation at State's
I’rison of the Bertillon finger-print sy«-
tcm. He took a fiug«-r-print course,
and was instrumental in having that
method of delecting criminals placed
into use at the prison in 1920.
"It is a great system," he said. “Wo
send to the Department of JiiHti««e at
Washington duplicates of all finger¬
prints we take here. They refer to their
records, and we frequently find that a
man who has sworn he had no previous
eriininnl record has I «on charged with
a great many offenses, often in widely
separated sections of the country."
Although he says a good many
“honor" prisoners have violnt«-d the cou-
fi<l«-n«4- place«l in them, the Warden i*
a firm believer in that system.
"We have three grades here, A
В
and
C." he explained. "A new prisoner al¬
ways is placed in Class B. and it is en¬
tirely with him as to whether he is
promoted to Class A or demote.! to
Class C. If a prisoner advances to
Class A he is given ud«liti»nul priv¬
ileges, and many are given tin- rank
of ‘trusty.’ The Class A limit have more
chance of having their si-uteuees re¬
duced than *lo those in other classes.
1 1 a prisoner proves unruly he is placed
in Class C."
Mr. Honeycutt, apparently a kren
student of human nature, said In* had
found «luring his 31 year* at the prison
that most prisoners reacted favorably
to kind treatment.
"Of course," he said, “there lire tunny
instances of refractory men to whom
kind treatment ami efforts t«i help them
in their plight mean nothing. But they
are in the minority, I am gla«l to sav.
(Continued on page twenty-one)