Any Last Words?
Emma Sossamon
Introduction
There are many ways to break the law, and there are many ways to die. In Texas, if you break certain laws you are sent to death row. Death row in Texas has been around since 1923, before this each county was responsible for dealing with their own convicts. Since 1976, Texas has had the largest death row population. Before the state began regulating and having more control over the criminals in the state, counties would hang those convicted of such heinous crimes. After 1923, the electric chair was put to use for those on death row. This eventually shifted to lethal injection in 1977 and Texas has continued this practice ever since. 542 people have died due to death row in Texas in the past 80 years. The data containing the information about the convicts includes their age of conviction, age of death, gender, county they committed the crime in, and their race. The following are facts about the death row in Texas, data from Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Average time spent on death row: 10.1 years
Youngest individual to ever die on death row: 24 years-old
Longest time ever spent on death row: 31 years
Total number of people that have been on death row: 542
Total number of women that have been on death row: 3
With so many people in Texas being convicted of capital punishment, it is interesting to see the trends and outliers in the convicts. While there are categories that these convicts can be grouped into, the most interesting aspect of these convicts is what they all share- the fear of their approaching death sentence. Humans are by nature like one another. By analyzing the final statements of those on Texas’s death row, it will be apparent that while race, age, region, and gender affect sentiment, all convicts have similar last words as they walk to their sentencing.
Procedures
In this in-depth analysis, convicts will be grouped into race and analyzed and compared to one another. The dataset used includes only three races: Black, White, and Hispanic. The sentiments of the offenders’ last words will be analyzed by race, as well as the geographical location of the crime. By having the offenders grouped by race, there is a deeper analysis of how the convict is feeling before being sentenced to death, as well as a more cultural look at how different races emotionally feel as they face death. Bringing this racial grouping into the next layer, the dataset includes the county of each crime committed. By grouping the crimes by county, and later grouping the crimes by county and race, there will be a better understanding of where the crime is in Texas—as well as who is doing it.
The first step in analyzing the sentiments of the last words is looking at what words were the most commonly used—positive and negative. Once the sentiments have been grouped by race, the comparison of who is saying what to their loved ones can begin. The most commonly used words will be visualized so that there can be a visual comparison in the most frequent words used in the last words. Like stated earlier, humans by nature are similar and when faced with death—probably having the same things to say. However, the differences will explain the deeper emotions of each culture in the face of death.
The second aspect to the analysis will be plotting the location of each crime to the county the crime was committed in. By creating a map with the frequency of the capital punishment crime visualized, there can be a deeper analysis of where these crimes are. This visualization can be compared to the overall crime that occurs in the state of Texas (data found from Texas Defense).
The data to be used is from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The first step in cleaning the dataset is removing all offenders without any last words recorded, so that the sentiments are based on offenders with usable data. These offenders without any last words will be considered later when analyzing the location of every crime. When analyzing the locations of the crimes, the county is the most specific location the dataset gives. Every county will display how many crimes that led to capital punishment occurred and this map will be compared to data found online. Texas Defense has created a map of Texas, outlining similarly how much crime occurs throughout the state. Their visual representation will be laid side by side with the map created in this research, as to see if there are trends or outliers.
Results
To analyze the sentiments of the convicts, the data was loaded in R Studio and cleaned and organized. First the data had to be categorized as textual and grouped by race. Then the sentiments could be run. I chose the “bing” filter to analyze the sentiments because it clearly defines text as positive and negative.
The next step in organizing the data was to create word clouds for each race.
Finally, the convicts were to be looked at by the location they committed their crimes. The data was organized by county and this was added to a map of Texas.
Looking first at the overall sentiment from the convicts on death row, the basis of each last statement given is to thank their family and apologize for what they have done. There is an overwhelming amount of the words “sorry” and “love”, an accurate representation of how these convicts feel before their sentencing. The two categories, positive and negative, illuminate the two aspects of the statements that were given. In the positive category we see offenders saying “thank you” and “I love you”, asking for mercy and blessings for their journey. The other half of their statements are them apologizing for their actions and discussing their crimes. This is evident by the use of the words: sorry, pain, murder, kill, and hurt. Seeing how the two sentiments are divided into the two parts of their statements, the further analysis of race and sentiment can begin.
Looking at all three races and their visualized word-usage, there is a lot of cross-over in word usage. However, by looking at the word clouds, it is evident that there are differences. All three races used the word “love” the most in their last statements. However, looking at the words used by white convicts, there is a lot more negative sentiment overall. Words that are bold and prominent are “pain” and “death”, unlike the black and Hispanic convicts whose word clouds are primarily made with positive sentiment. This means that the white convicts are in fact more negative as they approach their death.
Another trend found by looking at the word clouds was Hispanic convicts use of religious sentiment as they said their goodbyes. While seen in the sentiments of the white and black offenders, the popular words used by Hispanic convicts were—peace, holy, bless, and heaven. This gives insight to what they truly value. Returning back to the original theory that the last words are divided into saying goodbye and then asking for forgiveness for what they have done, this may mean that Hispanic convicts believe that their last words are a time to not only say goodbye to their family, but they are asking God for forgiveness.
Word cloud for white convicts
Word cloud for black convicts
Word cloud for Hispanic convicts
The next approach to finding meaning in these words is to look at what words were not used. Looking at the overall sentiments, there are popular words that are missing from lists when organized by race. The word “hate” is the fourth most used negative word, however is not on the top ten list for white convicts. Another missing aspect is that all three races use words pertaining to their crimes, such as “killing” or “murder”, but when analyzing the Hispanic sentiment, there is less of a focus on the acts committed, and rather the emotions that come from their actions. This adds to the commentary that Hispanic convicts are having a larger conversation in their last words, rather than addressing the current situation. The final analysis of sentiments is the use of the words “right” and “wrong”. Both words are found on each list, and what is “right” is always more discussed than what is “wrong”. Looking into what this could mean, it is apparent that overall, convicts are more positive than negative in their last words. Whether this is because they accepted their pasts or are trying to give hope to their families outside, death row convicts are positive as they approach their sentencing.
Conclusion
There have been 542 people who sat on death row and ultimately paid for their crimes by the hand for the law in the past 37 years. Of these 542, only three were women, and only one of them chose to give a statement. The rest of these were men, who also paid their time and lives for their crimes. Their final words were grouped and analyzed to find deeper meaning and insight into the lives of these criminals.
While all of the men sitting on death row were given the option to give a final statement, not all did. But for those who said their goodbyes in the eyes of the law, they have now passed and the deeper truths behind their goodbyes have begun to be analyzed. By dividing the convicts by race we found that there are differences in how cultures approach death and confront their own pasts. The final words of many convicts were divided into two sections, their goodbye to their loved ones, and their apology and closure with the law. The black convicts were least negative group seen in the analysis, having very few negative words, excluding the word “sorry”. The white convicts were the most likely to say they were sorry for their past and say give their thanks and love. The Hispanic convicts were surprisingly religious in their word choices, and similarly gave thanks and love to those around them.
The location of the crimes committed were reflective of what was seen in the overall crime reported in the state of Texas. We saw cities being a hub for crime, and a general trend of crime in the east. The less populated areas, known for less crime, were still found to have capital punishment crimes, as found in the report. This outlier may be due to overall lack of crime committed in the west, since the red map does not explain the severity of the crimes committed but only the number.
In the end, the people who sat on death row committed crimes deserving of capital punishment and said their goodbyes. Their last words serve to give insight to the human experience as it approaches death. To end this analysis, and out of respect for those who faced capital punishment, I have chosen to conclude with the last words of Derrick Charles, whose finals words reflect the communal truth found in many of the convicts: