Well Executed?
A haunting new documentary examines the real-world implications of capital punishment.
Written by Filed under Arts & Entertainment, History
Reverend Pickett never imagined he would spend his career counseling death row inmates. In the summer of 1974, he was minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, a city of 18,000 in the heart of Walker County, 170 miles southeast of Dallas and 70 miles north-northwest of Houston. Until July 24 of that year, Pickett had no direct interaction with any of the area’s prisons, in spite of the fact that the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) was then—and now—the county’s largest employer, with more than twice as many people on the payroll as the next-largest organization (Sam Houston State University), and more than six times as many as the county’s public school system.
But on that fateful midsummer day the young minister received an urgent phone call from the director of the TDC, W.J. (Jim) Estelle, Jr.—a member of Pickett’s church and a good friend—admonishing him to hurry over to The Walls, where three armed convicts (Frederico “Fred” Carrasco, Rudolfo “Rudy” Dominguez and Ignacio “Iggy” Cuevas) had seized control of the third-floor prison library and taken four inmates and 11 civilian employees hostage.
When he arrived at the scene, “[Estelle] said, ‘I want you to minister to the families of the hostages’,” recalls Pickett in At the Death House Door. After a moment’s hesitation, Estelle added, ‘Two of your church members—our church members—are hostages’.” The director was referring to Mrs. Julia (Judy) Standley and Mrs. Elizabeth Yvonne Beseda, best-friends who were among the most upstanding, well-respected members of the congregation.
From the outset, a peaceful resolution to the standoff seemed unlikely. The convicts’ ringleader was Carrasco, former leader of an international narcotics ring who was serving a life sentence for assault with intent to murder a police officer. While authorities didn’t know it at the time, the cunning 34-year-old had arranged to have a pair of .357 Magnums and a .38 pistol (not to mention hundreds of rounds of compatible ammunition) smuggled into the prison inside a five-pound ham and assorted packaged meats.
It soon became apparent that the psychopathic drug lord had a death wish, and wouldn’t hesitate to take others down with him. “I’m going out of here, whether it’s alive or dead,” pronounced Carrasco early on, one of many ominous statements he made during the course of the 11-day siege, which has since been documented in the 2004 book “Eleven Days in Hell” (University of North Texas Press) by William T. Harper, former reporter-writer-editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
At first, the drama failed to attract significant media attention, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, which on the day the crisis began, ordered President Richard M. Nixon to surrender recordings of White House conversations about the Watergate affair. But as the siege dragged on, the national media descended on Huntsville, and Carrasco—looking to generate as much publicity as possible—began granting phone interviews. He even allowed his hostages to speak with the press, their family members and spiritual counselors, allowances that belied the otherwise harsh treatment the captives received.
Exponent: The Company That Failure Built
Buckley’s Mixture
Spatially Challenged
That Used To Be Us (January/12)
Remedy and Reaction (December/11)
The End (December/11)
