Saturday, February 20, 1999
Watching Berry die: Nothing like a movie
Enquirer reporter Michael Hawthorne was among those who witnessed the execution
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Even though I knew how the story would end, watching Wilford Berry die didn't turn out as I expected.
By the time prison officials ushered me and seven other witnesses into Ohio's death chamber, Mr. Berry already was strapped to the execution gurney, an IV tube dangling from the crook of his left elbow.
Unlike Sean Penn's character in Dead Man Walking, Mr. Berry wasn't propped up to make an emotional final statement to his family or express any remorse for killing his boss for $32.50.
We didn't see the short walk from his holding cell to the death chamber. Or the warden reading an Ohio death warrant for the first time in a generation.
At that point, the trio of lethal drugs already was coursing through Mr. Berry's veins.
He stared blankly at the ceiling and appeared to be calmly chanting something. He clearly was ready to die.
But even though we were only 4 feet away, the only sounds I could hear were my own furious note-taking and muffled sobs from Mr. Berry's mother in an adjoining room.
The only words spoken were from an assistant public defender, who icily asked guards to escort me and other reporters out of sight.
Any emotions I felt about watching a state-sanctioned execution were channeled into writing down every detail, from the low light illuminating the room to the white, nylon curtain that hid the electric chair from view.
After Mr. Berry took three labored breaths, the chanting stopped. I saw one more small breath before the color drained from his face.
It was 9:30 p.m., eight minutes after we had entered the witness room.
The warden stepped from behind the head of the gurney, drew a curtain and motioned for an unseen, unidentified physi cian to make sure Mr. Berry was dead. When the warden opened the curtain again, he reached to a microphone on the wall and announced the official time of death: 9:31 p.m.
There wasn't any time to process what we had just seen. Prison officials whisked us to an area where we could tell the story to our colleagues. There was a deadline to meet.
BERRY DIES SILENTLY
Watching Berry die: Nothing like a movie
Evanston marks Berry's final hour
Outside prison walls, moods clash
Berry's last day
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