In The Death Penalty by Hayley R. Mitchell, William Vance Trollinger Jr. tells about the execution of Missouri death row prisoner Samuel McDonald. Sam was an African American Vietnam veteran who robbed and killed an off-duty police officer in front of the man's daughter in 1981. William befriended Sam three years later after he contacted him through a death penalty support group.
The two men became close friends and began contacting each other on a regular basis. William learned that Sam had been traumatized and addicted to drugs after returning from Vietnam. Sam's assigned public defender repeatedly got in shouting matches with the judge, who refused to allow testimony regarding Sam's troubling war experiences. Sam was sentenced to death. After appealing for sixteen years with no results, Sam was set to be executed on September 24, 1997. He asked William to be there with his other friends and relatives.
The execution took place at the Potosi Correctional Institute outside of St. Louis. Trollinger describes the event in great detail. The viewers were placed in rooms with glass windows and a curtain was opened. There laid the condemned with a sheet up to his neck. The guards injected Sam and soon after he shuddered and closed his eyes.
Trollinger says he had been against the death penalty since his late teens for many reasons. He stated that he never imagined he would ever witness someone being murdered. William wrote Sam with the intention of following through with his convictions and being a Christ-like person. He wanted to help Sam in any way he could. He ended up playing a bigger part in the man's life than he ever imagined he would.
This is a prime example of how people change. These men both benefitted from their new-found friendship in many ways. Sam obviously changed his ways and regretted what he had done. Shouldn't he deserve a second chance?
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