Al Jazeera journalist Josh Rushing witnessed the May 1, 2012 execution of Oklahoma murderer Michael Selsor, after having interviewed that inmate for a documentary two years prior. He filed this report:
The full 2010 interview Rushing excerpts is transcribed here, part of the presentation of the Fault Lines documentary that originally brought killer and scribbler together.
Selsor’s case was distinguished by a legal oddity concerning the shifting status of the death penalty since the time of his crimes way back in 1975: originally death-sentenced under a statute that was vacated in 1976, he was in non-death row prison when he won an appeal in 1998 — and the resulting retrial enabled Oklahoma to seek the death penalty again under its updated legal regime.
On this day..
- 1813: Adriana Bouwman, guillotined at The Hague
- 1928: Xiang Jingyu, Communist
- 1691: William Macqueen, the Irish Teague
- 1942: Robert "Rattlesnake" James, the last man hanged by California
- 2013: Steven T. Smith
- 1945: Charlotte Rebhun, Righteous Gentile
- 1897: John Gibson, under Jim Crow
- 1861: Anton Petrov, of Bezdna
- 1830: The slave Jerry, the last American execution by burning?
- 2009: Delara Darabi, "Oh mother, I can see the noose"
- 1820: The Cato Street Conspirators
- 1461: James Butler, War of the Roses casualty