AP writer as witness to execution
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008Greg Bluestein is a writer with the Associated Press, a former classmate of mine, and a familiar face if you cover anything in Georgia. He’s everywhere, one of the most dedicated journalists out there, and a great guy.
In what seems to be a stray from the norm for the AP, Bluestein was given the chance to write a first-person account of the night Curtis Osborne was executed.
And it’s one of the finer pieces I’ve read about such an event, rich with detail and back story and a glimpse into what a witness to an execution goes through to view the process. The story was posted on the Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty listserv.
Good work, Greg.
JACKSON, Ga. — I’ve never met Curtis Osborne, had hardly heard his name until the last few months. But we shared a powerful and unsettling bond Wednesday night, one that I’ll never forget. His eyes fixed on mine minutes before he took his last breath.
I’ve worked at The Associated Press for three years now and covered more than my share of doom and gloom. But I had never witnessed an execution.
When the chance came up to cover Osborne’s execution, I didn’t think too much about it. I saw it more as a duty than anything else.
But there was also something a bit more primal about it. Very few things we cover as legal reporters ever seem complete, ever seem final. Verdicts are appealed. Sentences can be shortened. Even laws get overturned. There was something unique, though, about a story that has an absolute end.
Click here to view the rest of the story and give the Macon Telegraph and AP pageviews to keep work like this going.
