:08:00
With an execution system,
:08:02
if it doesn't
function flawlessly,
the person lives,
:08:05
but he doesn't live
as a human being.
:08:08
He lives as an injured,
brain-dead vegetable,
:08:11
which is probably far worse
than being executed.
:08:14
[ Film Projector Running ]
:08:16
[ Film Projector Running ]
:08:24
My father worked
in the Massachusetts
correctional system.
:08:29
He was a superintendent
of transportation
for many years,
:08:32
first at the old state prison
in Charlestown,
:08:36
and then at the new prison
in Walpole,
:08:39
which has now since been
renamed Cedar Junction.
:08:43
As many youngsters do,
:08:46
I went to work
with my father.
:08:50
I'd been
accompanying him to work
since I was four years old.
:08:56
I visited all of the cell areas,
including the death house area.
:09:04
I was in the same room that
people like Sacco and Vanzetti
were executed in.
:09:17
I learned a number of things
from the inmates that
normally would be illegal...
:09:21
but have proved
very useful to me
in my later life,
:09:26
things like picking locks
and cracking safes and--
:09:29
I learned all kinds
of strange things
as a youngster.
:09:40
I came into
the execution field...
:09:44
from a back-door
standpoint,
:09:46
because I was very concerned
about the humanitarian aspects
of death by torture,
:09:52
similar to what happened
in the state of Florida
two years ago...
:09:55
with Mr.Jesse Tafero,
:09:57
where they actually
set the man's head on fire.