LAST RIGHTS

The Reverend Jeff Hood on the moral injury of ministering to death row inmates

- AL LETSON

You’ve witnessed more than 10 executions. I feel like society would prefer to let this happen in a dark corner and not bring it up. Tell me about your experience.

I don't meet the person who committed the crime as much as I meet the person who's had a lot of time to grow. Most of these guys are committing these crimes at 19, 20, 21 years old. Well, that person is incredibly different than somebody that's 50. These folks are, most of the time, desperate for any sort of touch, any sort of connection, any sort of relationship, any sort of just humanity. They just want to be treated like human beings in a system that has dehumanized them to the point where it wants to kill them.

My job is to come in when somebody has months left to live and become their best friend so that their best friend will be with them when they're executed. You have worked so hard to develop that intimate of a relationship, and your job is to sit there and do nothing while they're murdered.