Final Statement - Examples

Examples

• Arthur Gary Bishop: "Give my apologies to the families of my victims."

• Ted Bundy: "Give my love to my family and friends."

• Robert Erskine Childers: (Facing a firing squad) "Take a step or two closer, lads. It will be easier that way."

• Edgar Edwards: (To the chaplain, on the way to the scaffold) "I've been looking forward to this a lot!"

• Edward Ellis: "I just want everybody to know that I think the prosecutor and Bill Scott are some sorry s.o.bs."

• John Wayne Gacy: "Kiss my ass."

• Johnny Garrett: "I'd like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me, and the rest of the world can kiss my ass."

• Kenneth Edward Gentry: "I'd like to thank the Lord for the past fourteen years to grow as a man and mature enough to accept what's happening here tonight. To my family, I'm happy. I'm going home to Jesus."

• Gary Gilmore: "Let's do it!", before being executed by firing squad. Gilmore is also oft-quoted as saying a few minutes earlier, as he walked past the Hi-Fi Murderers on his way to be executed was: "Adios, Pierre and Andrews. I'll be seeing you directly."

• G.W. Green: (Echoing Gary Gilmore) "Lock and load. Let's do it, man."

• Roosevelt Green: "I am about to die for a murder I did not commit, that someone else committed ... I love the Lord and hope that God takes me into his kingdom, and goodbye, other."

• Irma Grese: "Schnell." (English translation: Quick, get it over.")

• Donald Eugene Harding: Declined to make a final statement, but signaled the executioner to get started. His asphyxiation in the gas chamber took 11 minutes before death was finally confirmed, and Harding spent his last moments cursing Arizona's state attorney general Grant Woods and giving him the middle finger.

• Robert Alton Harris: "You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the grim reaper." (This is a line taken from the 1991 film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.)

• Joe Hill: When on November 19, 1915, Deputy Shettler, who led Joe Hill's firing squad, called out the sequence of commands preparatory to firing ("Ready, aim,") Joe Hill shouted, "Fire -- go on and fire!" Just prior to his execution, Hill had written to Bill Haywood, an IWW leader, saying, "Goodbye Bill. I die like a true blue rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize... Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state line to be buried? I don't want to be found dead in Utah."

• Daryl Holton: "Two words, I do."

• Ned Kelly: "Such is life."

• Gansgster Tony Mancini: "Cheerio!" was his last statement, before the trapdoor was spring at Pentonville prison, London, on 17 October 1941.

• Timothy McVeigh: Convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing, McVeigh chose "Invictus" (Latin for "unconquered"), an 1875 poem by the British poet William Ernest Henley, as the final statement prior to his execution.

• Ronald Clark O'Bryan: "What is about to transpire in a few moments is wrong! However, we as human beings do make mistakes and errors. This execution is one of those wrongs yet doesn’t mean our whole system of justice is wrong. Therefore, I would forgive all who have taken part in any way in my death. Also, to anyone I have offended in any way during my 39 years, I pray and ask your forgiveness, just as I forgive anyone who offended me in any way. And I pray and ask God’s forgiveness for all of us respectively as human beings. To my loved ones, I extend my undying love. To those close to me, know in your hearts I love you one and all. God bless you all and may God’s best blessings be always yours. Ronald C. O’Bryan. P.S. During my time here, I have been treated well by all T.D.C. personnel."

• James W. Rodgers: (Facing a firing squad) "I done told you my last request ... a bulletproof vest."

• Madame Roland: "O Liberté, que de crimes on commet en ton nom!" ("Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!")

• John William Rook: "Freedom. Freedom at last, man."

• John Thanos: "Adios."

• William Tyndale, before being strangled and burned at the stake: "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."
• Harry Morant, to his firing squad. "Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it!"