When a person accused of a crime is convicted and sentenced to capital punishment, the person can make a final statement, or express their "last words", before being executed. Much of the time, the last word is an apology to family, friends, or God. Sometimes though, a final statement includes words of hatred, disgust, or defiance. In the era of public hangings, the gallows speech was often an opportunity to harangue the authorities and seek the sympathy of the crowd; some political criminals enhanced their status as martyrs with memorable gallows speeches.
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Famous quotes containing the words final and/or statement:
“The Germans are always too late. They are late, like music, which is always the last of the arts to express a world condition,—when that world condition is already in its final stages. They are abstract and mystical.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“The parent is the strongest statement that the child hears regarding what it means to be alive and real. More than what we say or do, the way we are expresses what we think it means to be alive. So the articulate parent is less a telling than a listening individual.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)