June 11, 2003, was the most painful day of my 11 years of incarceration . Since being on death row many executions have taken place but none of them will ever compare to what I witnessed on this particular day.
Kia Johnson is a friend of mine and was scheduled to get executed this day. I arranged with a friend of mine from the free world to come visit me during the same time he would have his final visit with his family. Everything worked out and I found myself sitting next to Kia in the visiting room laughing and talking with he and his family. His mother was beautiful and his brother was funny . We all tried to keep the mood as light as possible because we knew that in time Kia would have to deal with the date of the executioner...
Kia and I spoke a little about what he was getting ready to experience in the awkward conversation between us told me that my friend was scared and I wanted to be there as much as possible for him.
At 11:55 a.m. the officers came to get him and told him that he only had 5 minutes left to say his good-byes. At that moment waves of feelings came over me that I wasn’t prepared for . I knew I had to be strong for him so I fought back the tears as best I could.
The officers finally handcuffed Kia and opened the cage to let him out. He came out and walked right to the cage that I was sitting in . I stood up and we looked each other in the eyes for what I knew was the last time.
"Anthony", he said to me... I replied, "Keep your head up, man... Just go over there and eat a lot of stuff and come on back". " Ain’t no secret ", was his response, and then was lead away with several officers following him... At this moment I turned around to face his visitors , who were watching him walk away, and looked into the eyes of his mother . Words cannot describe the emotions I saw in this beautiful woman’s eyes, while watching the officers take her son away to be murdered like some wild animal... At this point I lost control of my emotions and a river of tears began to pour down my face..
I don’t know if I was crying because of my friends fate , or because of all the pain I had seen in his mother’s eyes. As I sat in that cage and watched his mother and friends walk away, a million thoughts began to creep through my mind all at once. I felt suffocated , helpless, weak.. A part of me was dying at that moment.
After everyone left the visiting room an eerie silence took over the whole room. All of a sudden I heard a guard and another inmate talking..." How long has Kia Johnson been here", ask the officer. "He hasn’t been here long", "Man, I’m ready to go back to my cell" said the inmate. "We have to wait for them to put that inmate in the van and pull off before I can take you back because no one can be in the hall way while they are loading an inmate to be carried to the execution table". "Man, It’s a good day to go fishing " the officer said.." Yeah, I use to go fishing all the time", responded the inmate. "Okay, it’s time to go they just pulled out with him" said the officer . "Man, Don’t forget to stop by the kitchen and get me a tray because I heard that they were having chicken today", replied the inmate.
As I left , I sat there baffled at the exchange of conversation I had just heard between the officer and the inmate. A man was in the process of being executed, and from both ends of the spectrum I had witnessed , in a matter of minutes, a lot of pain and sadness, to someone thinking it was just another good day...
I don’t know where I am going with this story , but I can tell you as I sit here and write about it, another day has come, my friend was executed, I’m sure the officer went fishing, and the inmate got his tray of chicken.
But there is a mother who has just become a victim of another senseless murder...
When will it all end ?
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