The Job | Criminal Podcast | Forensic Files

my name is um Frank Thompson born in Arkansas educated in Arkansas when I grew up it was of course the
segregated South but I was quite fortunate I was raised in a very loving family my parents were together
we were involved in the church so we had our social Outlets through our church we
were brought up in a very cohesive black community and quite frankly I think I really became
alive on a social social issue setting when Emmett Till was killed in 1955 Emmett Till was visiting family
in Mississippi when a white woman accused him of whistling at her in her family's grocery store and making sexual
advances a few nights later the woman's husband and his half-brother kidnapped tortured
and Shot 14 year old Emmett Till they tied a 75-pound industrial fan around his neck and through his body
into a river a month later both men were acquitted by an all-white jury Frank Thompson remembers it well he was
13 years old just a year younger than Emmett Till oh boy you know every mother every father
related to having lost a child that's one level uh even though there had been lynchings
all across the South Emmett Till's death just sort of punctuated the sensitivities to where
even though Christians are against uh killing I came up in a a church where many of
the black Christians felt that capital punishment was a an appropriate social sanction against
those who would kill as they killed Emmett Till because every black felt it I mean there
was no youngster that would walk the street that felt like at any moment you might be strung up for a reason let me
give you an example I can remember the within three weeks of Emmett's death I got on a bus
which was segregated where I was required to sit in the back of the bus and I can almost sense right now as I'm
talking to you that feeling I had when I got on the bus I was walking down this aisle
looking at the ceiling of the bus or looking at the floor of the bus because I did not want to inadvertently
look in the eyes of some white woman and be accused of flirting I'll never forget that feeling I didn't
have the freedom of looking where I felt I didn't have the freedom of looking where I felt like I wanted to look
on a public bus because somebody might say I winked at a white woman that's how Emmett Till's murder began to
affect my psyche about racism in the south so that was the beginning quite frankly
of my accepting capital punishment as being something that should be administered against
those who were so guilty of acts as was perpetrated against Emmett Till [Music] since Job to learn how to perform an
execution step by step and how to identify which of his colleagues were best suited to help him
do it I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal [Music] Frank Thompson went to college to study
medicine but left school to serve in the army during the Vietnam war he was a military police officer
he returned to Arkansas finished college and got a job with the Arkansas Department of Corrections
Arkansas has been a capital punishment state for quite some time and a number of executions took place I was
never apart of an execution directly personally but whenever executions took place in
Arkansas all institutions would be put on alert and we would go into an operation mode of reduced
activities higher control activities uh monitoring and make behaviors monitoring inmate associations trying to
get a feel for the pulse of the institutions regardless of where we were located and you never know how the
execution of One inmate might affect the quiet the uh atmosphere and any institution males
are very very important to the inmate population they'll inmates will go off even if there is not an execution taking
place but this is a period of time you don't want to put out a bad meal so particular attention is paid to those
kinds of subtleties those kinds of things that you and I take for granted in the Free World are
exponentially more important to the inmate population while locked up behind the bars and the
walls he was promoted to Warden and stayed in Arkansas for five years before interviewing for a job in 1994 as the
superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary they did tell me Frank you do know that
you are applying for a job in Oregon where there's capital punishment and I told him I did
and they said uh there's a chance you might have to execute somebody before it's all over
here and uh they asked me did I think I could carry out my duties and without hesitation I told them that I could I'm
a good soldier I can I can do my job and the reason I was able to say that um in the military I was trained to take
life if I had to at the same time I was asked that question Oregon had not had an execution in over
32 years foreign [Music] after you started the job did you find out that you would need to execute
someone I think it was about 18 months I could deliver this death warrant from the governor's office
and all of a sudden I am responsible for taking the life of a human being in the name of the public and it had been
30 years yeah I mean you tell me about it that's exactly how I felt I'm saying I'm just getting here
the last execution in the state had been in 1962 when Oregon was still using a gas chamber
since then the laws had changed requiring executions to be performed by lethal injection but no one in the state
had ever done one before so that meant that I had to go in and rewrite the protocols for a lethal
injection execution I had to train the staff including myself there was no one who had been an
executioner I had to go out and identify someone who was willing to be confidentially identified and
performed the execution if I had come to Oregon and they had done two or three executions within the past two or three
years I would have called my team together and say okay folk let's get in here and let's get this thing done how
let's get the rule book out how did it go to the last time what are the protocols and I would have had a team of
people there to help me pull this off and if that had been the case I imagine I could have
gone through two three four five executions without it bothering me nearly as soon or nearly as profoundly
as it did in having to conduct the first execution for the first time how do you even go about writing
protocols for something you've never seen before where do you go where do you turn you go
and watch somebody get executed a key number of us flew to San Quentin and we witnessed an
execution um I flew a colleague of mine from Arkansas to teach me how to administer the lethal fluids so
that I could train the Executioner here in Oregon how to administer the same process
you go to Texas until Texas to send me your protocols and we didn't want to deviate because
Texas was conducting executions quicker and faster than any other state in the country and if we were ever
question about how did you come up with your protocol Frank one of the first things I'd be able to tell them well we
went to a state that had a history of conducting executions and we use that protocols so quite frankly we pulled
from the experiences of primarily Texas and Arkansas to build the protocols for Oregon
do you remember having conversations with people when you were trying to recruit those to help you with the
execution people saying I I just can't I'm sorry I don't I don't think I can handle that
that was probably one of the more challenging tasks I had to perform um is trying to
know who to choose to put on the team that was going to have to take the life of a human being for the
first time in any of their lives because I had been in the military and I had been trained
to take life and I decided to recruit those who had military experience so I told my assistant superintendent to
comb the Staffing pattern to come up with the names of as many veterans we had on staff
by definition of the fact that they were veterans I know they had fired a weapon
by definition I know that they have gone through the emotional and psychological
process of contemplating and thinking about what learning how to fire a weapon meant that
they had dealt with this whole notion on some level of killing somebody so the well-being of my staff and some
people think this is that makes sense but the well-being of my staff actually loomed larger in
getting this execution process together larger than my immediate concern about the person who was to be
executed his Destiny was set by law he was going to be executed in my job to be sure that he was executed as humanely
and as painlessly as possible and I knew that if I could get my staff through this
the rest would fall of course as as planned once you had your team assembled did you
practice or rehearse exactly what because of course in fact we rehearsed over and over and over and
I got that from the military I wanted my staff to be able to perform their tasks detached
from the emotions that could become involved in fact that was one time I asked them to strap me on the Gurdy
essay see they normally would Struck One Another they would take roles and they would assume the position of the inmate
on the gurney and they would tie themselves down or each other down and during one exercise I asked them
to use me as the surrogate inmate to put their minds at ease that I was with them
and I will say to you this when it came time for them to unstrap me I was never so glad to get up off my
back as any time I could remember in my life and the hour date and time I don't know
but I can remember saying to my assistant superintendent man I you know this is not
this is not what the state ought to be doing and so I began sharing with key people
and it was through that meticulous and detail I was sitting in a room with a guy that had
been chosen to be the Executioner the one true depressed the plunger into the strange
sending the lethal fluid into the vein of the guy on the gurney and I'm sitting in this room with a
bucket we were both sitting on stools with a bucket sitting between us and I'm drawing the water into the syringe
and I'm instructing him to depress the plunger at a rate that it is not propelled
out of the needle but at a rate almost equal to that being drawn by the force of gravity
so where it just sort of flows out and it's not propelled as I was saying those kinds of things to him
I remember that inner feeling that this just doesn't feel right [Music] leading up to Oregon's first execution
in more than 30 years superintendent Frank Thompson and his staff simulated the process from start
to finish bringing in Witnesses and seating them in the gallery simulating the phone call
from the governor's office to let them know that there is no stay of execution they practice interacting with the press
and informing them of time of death and how long it took for the inmate to die but
Frank says he was also talking with members of his staff about his reservations and making sure that they knew that they
didn't have to be involved if they didn't want to he says no one backed out and in September of 1996 Douglas
Franklin Wright was the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the state of Oregon
Wright had confessed to murdering four homeless men after promising them jobs he didn't appeal his death sentence
he indicated to us that these straps to his wrist were hurting him and I can remember being overcome with
the emotion you know I'm not here to hurt the guy in fact I wasn't even really conscious of the crime that he
committed you got a human being we're down here tying a person to a gurney about to take his life you're not
thinking about the crime that he committed and the least you want to do is go on a record consciously and being
aware that you're hurting him in the process this whole process supposed to be pain listen
so I asked one of the correctional officers on the tie-down team to make an adjustment
to the strap of the wrist that he said was hurting him the adjustment was made and he looked up at me and said thank
you boss and we did what we will call upon to do by the citizens of the state of Oregon
it's difficult to think in terms of being commended for having done your job well
and you've taken the life of somebody and so when I walked away from telling the
media the time of death I remember walking from that room up to my office not knowing
what I was going to do after leaving the office because out of all of that practicing
I had in practice what I was going to do after leaving the prison and I felt a an uncomfortable
void it wasn't even a relief it was a void that that pressure was off of me but that was just this huge emptiness of
is like not really realizing the impact of what I had been through and what my staff had
been through and that carried on for all all of that night and I got in my car the next day
and took off on a long trip Frank Thompson says that some members of his staff left the job afterwards
some said they would never participate again and then nine months later he got word
that another inmate was to be executed and now I'm facing a second one yep that was that came as a surprise
it came as a surprise the fear of something going wrong Ed quite frankly larger the second time
than it did the first time in fact I think the second time I was more aware of what could go wrong
than I was the first time through and I was quite concerned about all of my staff quite frankly so the second one
was not any easier and uh with that answer I want you to appreciate the fact that
take it from me killing somebody it never gets easier Harry Charles Moore had been convicted
of killing his half-sister and her ex-husband he threatened to sue anyone who tried to
stop his execution and petitioned the Oregon Supreme Court to forego the automatic appeal of his sentence
he died by lethal injection in May of 1997. to date there have been no execution
since Frank Thompson oversaw organs only two implementations of the death penalty in
56 years he retired from Corrections in 2010 and has dedicated himself to repealing the
death penalty in Oregon and around the country I've become acutely frustrated where it
appears as ifs that by being against the death penalty ignores the plight of those who lost
loved ones and that I am championing the interest of the person that's been executed
more so than I am the mother whose kid three-year-old kid was shot by a drive-by that somehow or another I'm not
sensitive to those needs I'm very very very sensitive to the victims so much so that
I want to challenge our society to understand that by supporting the death penalty we
create another set of victims by asking decent men and women who know nothing about killing anybody
they are poetry they are less trained than the average Soldier their job every day is to keep peace run
smooth institutions feed inmates they even get to like and know inmates and then they are turned around and asked to
execute them nobody really thinks about taking the lives of a human being until it's taken the life of a human being
becomes a newsworthy but the administration of justice is something that everybody has to take
seriously all the time in the back of my mind I think on some level if we can ask
jurors to send us a person to death they'll role in sentencing a person to death
is just as significant as the Executioner depressing the plunger and administering lethal fluids into the
veins the jurors actually I wish there might be if we're going to keep capital punishment what would be
wrong creating a lottery of citizens in the city out of which they would be selected just
like they're selected to sit on a jury and they be trained to be the Executioner and spread some of
this toil around if we are going to be killing people those kinds of thoughts I don't think
enough people are running through their minds support for the death penalty has been
declining steadily over the past four decades although a Pew research survey found a recent uptick in support
[Music] criminal is produced by Lauren Spore Nadia Wilson and me audio mix by Rob
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[Music]

Not long into his job as prison superintendent, Frank Thompson was asked to write the manual on lethal injection for the state of Oregon. Capital punishment had not been implemented in more than 30 years, and no one knew how to do it. Frank had to travel around the country learning how other states do it, and he asked his staff to practice. They simulated every step, including seating witnesses in the gallery, interacting with the press, and strapping each other to the gurney.

Music in the episode “Setting Pace” by Blue Dot Sessions “Arbic Tallow” by Blue Dot Sessions “Low Force” by Daniel Birch “Our Names Engraved” by Blue Dot Sessions “Haena” by Blue Dot Sessions

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Episode 95 originally published 7/20/2018 https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-95-the-job-7-20-2018

Brief Summary

Frank Thompson discusses his role in Oregon's first execution in 30 years and his subsequent advocacy against the death penalty.

Key points

Emmett Till's Impact. Frank Thompson recounts how the murder of Emmett Till shaped his views on racism and justice.
First Execution in 30 Years. Frank Thompson prepares for Oregon's first execution in over three decades, facing immense pressure.
The Emotional Toll of Execution. After overseeing an execution, Frank Thompson grapples with the emotional aftermath and its impact on his staff.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I didn't have the freedom of looking where I felt like I wanted to look.

Frank Thompson reflects on the impact of racism after Emmett Till's murder.

3:00WatchJan 13, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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