Execution
Under South Carolina law, electrocution is administered to prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed before June 1995 unless they choose lethal injection. Likewise, lethal injection is administered to prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed after June 1995 unless they choose electrocution. Tucker, having committed his capital crime before June 1995, declined to select a method and electrocution was the prescribed method.
Two jolts were required to execute Tucker for the murder of Rosa Lee Dolly Oakley. Witnesses said that his body jerked upwards as the current flowed through his body. The second jolt lasted two minutes. He was officially pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m..
His final statement was read by his lawyer:
- "To everyone, I have thought of a million things to say, but they can all be summed up like this. To those I have harmed, my abject apologies and regrets. I am ashamed. To those who must remain and deal with this insane world, my condolences. But be of good cheer. Christ has overcome the world! I know that my redeemer lives. I am leaving this world with a cheerful attitude. Hallelujah."
For his last meal, he ordered pizza, Mountain Dew and two BLT sandwiches.
He was the 912th person executed in the United States since the Gregg v. Georgia decision in 1976.
Witness to the execution included Mr. Oakley (Rosa's husband), Mr. Mellon (Shannon's father), Major Gary Metts (Sumter County Sheriff's Office), and Wade Kold (Sumter County Solicitor) all seated on the front row directly in front of Tucker as he sat in the electric chair. Seated in the third and final row were the three media witnesses invited to the execution. No one from Tucker's family chose to attend the execution.
Read more about this topic: James Neil Tucker
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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