Texas: The inmates who refused to die quietly and had to be gassed out of their cells before execution

Former crime reporter Michelle Lyons, who witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, reveals the desperate acts of death row prisoners who refused to accept their fate

After spending years or often decades locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, most Death Row inmates go willingly to their executions. However, some refuse to die quietly - with officers forced to gas them out of cells, strap up their heads and even give chase across prison grounds.

Michelle Lyons, who has witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, exclusively tells Sun Online how certain inmates "fight like hell" in their last moments.

On most occasions, Michelle watched from the witness area, with the killers already on the gurney - the stretcher where they'd be given a lethal injection.

Seven prisoners once tried to escape from the Row in Huntsville - with one shoving magazines and newspapers under his clothes to help him roll over razor-wire fences.

Others have had to be gassed out of their cells with Mace-like spray, while one killer even stole a key to a set of handcuffs, which he spat out with his dying breath.

"I could tell immediately when I went into the witness room if they had fought," recalls 43-year-old Michelle, a former crime reporter and prison spokeswoman.

"Inmates would have five restraints on them - on each of their arms, each of their legs and their torso - but those who had fought had more restraints on their head.

"One inmate even said, 'I'm not going to walk so you'll have to carry me' - so they did."

Murderer Ponchai Wilkerson, the son of a retired police officer, is among those who fought to live.

Wilkerson, who shot dead a jewellery shop worker in Houston nearly 30 years ago, tried to escape from the Row on Thanksgiving night 1998 along with 6 other prisoners.

Dressed in prison garb dyed black with markers, the group carefully placed cushions and sheets in their beds before leaving their cells for dinner and hiding in a recreation yard.

Later that night, they used a hacksaw to cut a hole in the fence and scaled the roof. They then sprinted for freedom, but were spotted by officers who opened fire.

One inmate said 'you'll have to carry me' - so they did

Wilkerson surrendered during the shooting, but escaped from his prison cell 2 years later and took a female officer hostage, while armed with a sharpened piece of metal.

Fortunately, the guard was later released unharmed.

However, Wilkerson's resistance to death didn't end there - on the day of his execution, he had to be gassed out of his cell.

"He fought and they did have to gas him," recalls Michelle, who worked as a reporter for The Huntsville Item newspaper and as a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman.

And even with his last breath, the killer proved defiant.

'His final breath was the moment this key came out his mouth'

Michelle says: "His execution was so unnerving because when he was making his last statement he was murmuring something.

"He was moving his mouth in a strange way. He timed it just right so his final breath was the moment this key came out of his mouth and rested on his chin."

Chillingly, the key was to a set of handcuffs.

"It was believed he had planned to try to escape but he hadn't anticipated being restrained with 2 sets," says the mum, who lives in Huntsville and has penned a book about her life as an execution witness, called Death Row: The Final Minutes.

"He had the key for one set but not the other."

Wilkerson was declared dead at 6.24pm on March 14, 2000, after spitting out the inch-and-a-half key at the Huntsville Unit execution chamber.

'He sunk like a rock in the river'

While he had surrendered during the attempted death row breakout 2 years earlier, one of his fellow prisoners - Latino murderer Martin Gurule - had not.

Gurule, the only 1 of the 7-strong group to keep going, stuffed magazines and newspapers under his clothing so he could roll over 2 razor-wire security fences.

Inmate Martin Gurule successfully escaped from prison, but ended up drowning in a river "The fences have these sharp razor blades," Michelle explains.

"He had wrapped himself in magazines and newspapers so he wouldn't get cut up."

Although Gurule successfully made it out of the Ellis Unit's grounds with bullets flying around him, his makeshift 'suit of armour' turned out to be his downfall.

A week after the escape, he was found drowned in a river.

"He was still wrapped up when he jumped in the river - he sunk like a rock," says Michelle.

The murderer had died - but not in the way the state had planned.

Banging his head until the end

Another Death Row inmate who fought in his final days was Gary Graham, who was 17 when he was sentenced to die for murdering a man outside a supermarket.

During his time behind bars, Graham drew support from the public and celebrities, with many claiming he was innocent of his crime.

Actress Bianca Jagger and civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton were among the witnesses at his June 2000 execution.

"He had became a media darling," says Michelle.

"He had vowed he was going to fight and he did."

She adds: "When we came into the witness area he had been banging his head."

Kept in a cage to stop fighting

Killer Emerson Rudd, who was 18 when he shot dead a restaurant manager during a robbery, also proved difficult to get to the gurney.

Prison guards even put him in a cage to stop him from fighting. Like Wilkerson, he had to be gassed from his cell, with the spray leaving his skin "red raw".

She says of the gas: "It makes it hard to breathe - officers would have masks on to protect themselves. Inmates are given warnings before the gas is used."

Offering up his arm without hesitation

She also, surprisingly, says inmates "barely ever fight" as they prepare to die.

On 2 occasions, Michelle, who has a 14-year-old daughter, watched the executions from within the IV room, where an anonymous medically-trained team would administer the lethal drugs.

During one of these events, she watched through one-way glass as the inmate calmly walked into the death chamber, hopped on the gurney and held his arms out wide.

Within seconds, he had been strapped into a crucifix position by a tie-down team and fitted with IV lines, ready to carry a deadly cocktail of drugs through his veins.

Before long, he was dead, given the ultimate punishment for his horrific crime.

Michelle writes in her book that it "troubled me so much seeing the inmate walk unrestrained to the gurney, hopping up there and offering his arms with no hesitation".

Personal tragedy

Michelle witnessed her last execution in 2012 and now works in legal marketing.

While she felt no sympathy for some inmates, she says she had a harder time with other executions where she felt the prisoner wouldn't re-offend if they were released.

"I felt guilty - but it's easy to feel that way because they hadn't killed anyone I loved," she says.

But in 2016, Michelle was dealt her own heartbreak when her teen stepdaughter Kristine was shot dead.

Kristine, 17, was gunned down in the car park of a California shopping centre, with her killer, Cameron Frazier, later locked up for life for her murder.

Michelle feels the death penalty would have been the appropriate punishment for him.

"I really understood how one single crime could undo so many lives," she tells us.

"My marriage to Kristine's father ended the year after, and her mum's life of course was undone. Her siblings had a very difficult time. One act of violence shattered so many lives."

Which US states have the death penalty?

TEXAS is not the only US state with the death penalty.

Capital punishment is legal in a total of 30 states. These are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.

Death Row: The Final Minutes: My life as an execution witness in America’s most infamous prison by Michelle Lyons is available to buy on Amazon.

Source:  thesun.co.uk, Sophie Jane Evans, April 7, 2019

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde