Crime Blog | Your filter to El Paso area police blotters and court dockets

Texas Tribune: Man holds record for witnessing most executions as chaplain

Rev. Carroll Pickett holds the world record for witnessing the most state executions as a chaplain. He saw 95 men die by lethal injection during his career as the death house chaplain.

In the years since he left the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Pickett has written a book and starred in an award-winning documentary that chronicled his work at the Walls Unit in Huntsville. He sat down with The Texas Tribune recently to talk about how he "seduced the emotions" of the condemned, why his views about the death penalty changed and how he now copes with all the death he has witnessed.

Read and watch the interview here.

Death row facts

A combination sink and toilet sit in the open in the recreation room in a section of death row at the Texas prison system's Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2001.(AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Death row facts from Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice

The Polunsky Unit houses death row offenders separately in single-person cells measuring 60 square feet, with each cell having a window.  Death row offenders are also recreated individually. Offenders on death row receive a regular diet, have access to reading, writing, and legal materials.

The following crimes are Capital Murder in Texas: 

murder of a public safety officer or firefighter;

murder during the commission of kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, or obstruction or retaliation;

murder for remuneration;

murder during prison escape;

murder of a correctional employee;

murder by a state prison inmate who is serving a life sentence for any of five offenses (murder, capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, or aggravated robbery);

multiple murders;

murder of an individual under six years of age.

Lethal Injection Consists Of:

Sodium Thiopental (lethal dose - sedates person)

Pancuronium Bromide (muscle relaxant-collapses diaphragm and lungs)

Potassium Chloride (stops heart beat)

The offender is usually pronounced dead approximately 7 minutes after the lethal injection begins.

Cost per execution for drugs used : $86.08

Average Time on Death Row prior to Execution:

10.26 years

El Pasoans on death row

Fabian Hernandez, 2009.

Justen Hall, 2005.

David Renteria, 2003.

William Josef Berkley, 2002.

Irving Alvin Davis, 2002.

Rigoberto Avila Jr., 2001.

Ignacio Gomez, 1998.

Steven Brian Alvarado, 1993.

Tony Egbuna Ford, 1993.

David L. Wood, 1993.

Angel Rivera, 1987.

Cesar Fierro, 1980.

 Source: Texas Department of Corrections.

More links:

Interview with William Josef Berkley, El Pasoan scheduled to die today at 5 p.m. local time

Scheduled executions in Texas

Chart: executions, 1930-2009