conceptions of these prisoners as evil, remorseless, and irredeemable. Our reading of last words suggests that the transformation …Life under sentence of death can be a transformative process. One measure of this transformation can be found in last … words, which often highlight the humanity of condemned prisoners on the threshold of execution, in sharp contrast to popular …

-meal requests and last words reported for people executed in the United States during a recent five-year period were examined … windows into self-perceived or self-proclaimed innocence. Knowing one’s last meal request and one’s last words can provide …