From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of stories and original documentaries.

It's a part of KCRW's independent producer project.

And the recent botched execution of an Oklahoma death row inmate named Clayton Lockett has once again brought the issue of capital punishment into the national conversation.

The death penalty is an emotional and political issue and it often pits the rights of victims of violent crime

against those accused of committing violent crime, but most of us, thankfully,

will never actually set foot in an execution chamber. But today on the program,

the story of a man who called the death house his office, Carol Pickett observed 95 executions as a minister at the Wall's prison unit in Huntsville, Texas,

and after each one he recorded his own thoughts about sitting with a condemned man on his last day.

But first a warning that this program may be upsetting to some listeners,

especially children.

There are several descriptions of executions

that don't use any graphic language but are disturbing.

On KCRW and KCRW.com, it's unfictional with Ministry of Presence produced Presence. You might call Carol Pickett, speak softly, but carry a big Bible kind of guy.

He was chaplain of the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas for 15 years.

The Wall's unit, that's what they call the prison, is the place where they execute people

in Texas.

And between 1982 and 1995, Pickett ministered to 95 men who were put to death there.

After each one, sometime after midnight, after the witnesses had left the death chamber, and the

dead man's body had been carded away.

Pickett would go to his house across the street, sit down, turn on his little tape recorder, and start talking.

Jesse Delarosa. start talking. Jesse, Della Rosa, death rowed number 713, and about 1110, she made a very unique request. He said I would like for you to have a song played for me. This would be my last request.

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