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.
Read more about Final Statement: Examples
Famous quotes containing the words final and/or statement:
“Decisive inventions and discoveries always are initiated by an intellectual or moral stimulus as their actual motivating force, but, usually, the final impetus to human action is given by material impulses ... merchants stood as a driving force behind the heroes of the age of discovery; this first heroic impulse to conquer the world emanated from very mortal forces—in the beginning, there was spice.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The new statement is always hated by the old, and, to those dwelling in the old, comes like an abyss of skepticism.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)