A small group of people, including five journalists, witnessed the execution of convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith. The Angolite, the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s inmate-run news magazine, published photos revealing the seared flesh of a man who’d died in the chair. Soon after Prejean’s execution, the Louisiana legislature passed laws mandating lethal injections for executions. Around the time I witnessed Prejean’s execution, roughly 80% of Americans said they approved of the death penalty, according to a Gallup poll. Prejean, who was convicted and executed for the murder of Donald Cleveland, a Louisiana state trooper, was 17 at the time of the murder.

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Persons: Jonathan Eig, they’d, Jonathan Eig Doug McGoldrick, Dalton Prejean, clench, Kenneth Eugene Smith, Mr, Smith, gurney, “, Helen Prejean, Dalton, Dalton Prejean’s, who’d, Louisiana hasn’t, Jeff Landry, Landry, Prejean, Donald Cleveland Organizations: CNN, Angola State, The New Orleans Times, Louisiana State, Gallup Locations: Angola, Louisiana, Alabama, The