OCT-NOV 97 - HOME

Bobby and Larry (X731-07/29/97 and X733-04/26/94)

SO, BObby West has been executed. On his papers he was Robert West. If he is now buried in the prisoners' cem-etery, he is only "X" (for executed) 731 and a date 07/29/97. That's it-no more, no less. Well, honestly, how "less" can he be?

I didn't know him for a long time, I just exchanged a few letters with him for a few months after I decided to write him. He wrote me back that our correspondence would probably not last very long. He was right! He knew! I never met him. I never heard his voice. I wasn't able to come to Texas this year, I have just seen his face on a photo! But for me he was someone I knew, and for what I knew of him, he was someone I appreciated. He was fighting for himself, for others, and for me that deserves respect.

He was not famous, so no one, almost no one, cared about his execution! He was not a serial killer. He had no criminal notoriety so he was simply executed as part of the Texan routine! Soon no one will remember his rank in the 97's serial executions!

He had killed some one. He was wrong-this is not acceptable. He was murdered after more than fourteen years of premeditation-this is also totally unacceptable!

I miss him, as I miss all the executed death-row prisoners I have been in contact with. They were human beings!

I remember the first friend I had on death row to be executed. His name was Larry Anderson. He taught me quite a lot about this horrible cold blooded machine, which carries a man from a death sentence to the gurney. It was frightening for me to get into this world. When Larry forwarded me his death warrant, he wrote, "I don't understand. I can't understand how they can send this paper as if they were sending an order for a sandwich. It is so cold."

A few days before his death Bobby-oh, excuse me-X (for executed) 731-07/29/97, sent me the way his day had been scheduled, how he would get notes from his lawyer, how he was taken from the one before the last hope in the clemency process, to the last chance to save his life (which, in fact, exists only on paper), to the end, to the no chance at all, and the needle. He showed me how cold blooded his death was premeditated! And this brought me back to that day, the end of April '94, when Larry was put to death.

On the day of X (for executed) 731-07/29/97, I received a letter from Larry's mother! She still writes to me; I still write to her. She is so desperately sad, she misses her son so much!

Has Larry's death brought back the victim? Has the sadness, the abysmal pain of a mother losing her son changed anything for the victim's family? No, it has just brought two mothers to face the same emptiness. I know what that can be. Destiny made me the doctor for more than ten years of the mother of a young girl raped and killed by the son of another of my patients. He was the one before the last to "benefit" in France from the efficiency of the guillotine.

Are really two horrible sadnesses and despairs better than one? I don't think so. We should never forget that if there is one sacred thing in life, it is human life!

In a previous article, I was worried about American "routine." Well let's face it, European stupidity is also quite alive. On the Belgium coast, at Blanken­p;bergue resort, they have found a new way of making money. They showed how grotesque can be the run for $, how nauseating the search for "something new that can bring some money into my bank account"! For the amount of $1 in Belgium money, you can enjoy the electric chair-fantastic feelings! You get a shake (not an electric one, but something that looks like it!) and of course you get a certificate! Everyone can sit on this electric chair except pregnant women and people with heart problems!

It is a shame that they didn't made it more realistic, with flames like the recent execution in Florida! What do you think, Mr. Medina?

And in France, to the kids who follow the latest fashion of walking with one trouser leg rolled up I am trying to explain, every time I have the opportunity, what this is supposed to mock. When they learn that this imitates preparing to have an electrode fixed before being executed, most of them roll it down, so maybe we can carry on a little hope!

Dr. Pierre Duterte works in a French association taking care of refugees, victims of torture or repression in their homeland. He writes to death-row prisoners and prisoners in general population in a number of states in the U.S. He has been to the Texas death row twice.

OCT-NOV 97 -- HOME -- Archives -- Electrons to the Editor