Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Texas reaches milestone: 25 years, 405 executions By JOHN MORITZ
HUNTSVILLE -- No prison warden in America has ordered more executions than Jim Willett. And perhaps no warden anywhere has searched deeper into his soul in wondering if he was doing right by the state, right by the inmate, right by the crime victim and right by his God.
"An overwhelming feeling comes over you as you give the signal to take a perfectly healthy human being and cause his death," said Willett, who ran the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Walls Unit in Huntsville from 1998 until he retired in 2001. "You can't help but wonder whether what you're doing is right."
The former warden's reflections come as Texas prepares to mark this week's 25th anniversary of the resumption of the death penalty. And they come during a rare lull in the pace of executions in Huntsville as the U.S. Supreme Court once again weighs the question of whether the execution process passes constitutional muster.
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