Volunteer (capital punishment)

In capital punishment, a volunteer is a prisoner who wishes to be sentenced to death. Often, volunteers will waive all appeals in an attempt to expedite the sentence. In the United States, execution volunteers constitute approximately 10% of prisoners on death row. Volunteers can sometimes bypass legal procedures which are designed to designate the death penalty for the most serious offenders. Other prisoners have killed in prison with the desire of receiving the death sentence. Opponents of execution volunteering cited the prevalence of mental illness among volunteers comparing it to a form of suicide. Execution volunteering has received considerably less attention and effort at legal reform than those who were exonerated after execution.

History

Since the 1976 reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States, there have been at least 150 documented cases of execution volunteers. The first documented case since 1976 was of Gary Gilmore in 1977 who "withdrew his rights of appeal from Utah’s legal system and requested that the courts enforce his death sentence as soon as possible". A notable, recurring pathology of criminal requesting execution is serial killers, including Westley Allan Dodd and Michael Bruce Ross.

In 1996, Robert South decided to waive his right to appeal due to a benign tumor which "significantly disrupted his sleep cycle, made him extremely sensitive to noise, and caused frequent and severe headaches". He had also suffered from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.

Robert Comer was executed in 2007, after making pleas for his execution since around 2000. Comer testified to his capital murder charge in 2002 to add incentive, and after his spree that included murder, kidnapping, and rape, he was also known for numerous crimes and infractions during his time in prison.

In 2013, Robert Gleason was executed after killing two inmates in prison while serving a life sentence for a murder committed in 2007. After killing the first inmate, Gleason said he would not stop killing until he received the death sentence. Similarly, Rocky Beamon was imprisoned for murder in 2005, then killed two child sex offenders in the coming years and also demanded an execution to prevent him from killing again. Beamon ended up dying by suicide in 2020.

In 2016, Scott Dozier voluntarily waived his appeals and wrote a letter to District Judge Jennifer Togliatti asking her to expedite his execution. Dozier died of suicide on January 5, 2019 after repeated stays of execution.

Studies

John Blume of a professor Cornell Law School published an article in the Michigan Law Review which examined the relationship between "volunteering" for execution and suicide. Blume found a strong correlation between volunteering and mental illness. According to Blume "nearly 88% of all death row inmates who have 'volunteered' for execution have struggled with mental illness and/or substance abuse".

Death row phenomenon

Many inmates experience a "death row phenomemon" as a response of a capital punishment sentence, in which traumatic effects are experienced from being placed in death row custody due to the conditions or the impending death sentence. A consequence of the syndrome is that inmates’ changes in health and behavior turn in the direction of volunteering for execution, or offering cooperation with the law at the risk of capital punishment based on the crimes the inmates are facing accountability for.

Known volunteered inmates

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Inmates executed after successful volunteering

• Herman Ashworth – American murderer
• James Barnes (murderer) – American murderer (1962–2023)
• Rocky Barton – American murderer (1956–2006)
• Murder of Ronald Johnson – 2011 murder of a corrections officer in South Dakota
• Wilford Berry Jr. – American murderer (1962–1999)
• Arthur Gary Bishop – American serial killer (1952–1988)
• Jesse Bishop – American murderer (1933–1979)
• Gerald Bordelon – American murderer (1962–2010)
• Scott Carpenter (murderer) – American murderer (1975–1997)
• Edward Castro – Executed American serial killer
• Marco Allen Chapman – American murderer executed in Kentucky (1971–2008)
• John Christie (serial killer) – English serial killer (1899–1953)
• Terry D. Clark – American murderer (1956–2001)
• James B. Clark Jr. – American murderer (1957–1996)
• Carroll Cole – American serial killer (1938–1985)
• Harvey Collins – Executed American serial killer
• Robert Comer
• Eric Edgar Cooke – Australian serial killer
• Frank J. Coppola – American murderer (1944–1982)
• David Neal Cox – American murderer (1970–2021)
• Leon Czolgosz – American laborer and assassin (1873–1901)
• Gary Lee Davis – American convicted murderer (1944–1997)
• David Thomas Dawson – American murderer (1957–2006)
• Derrick Dearman – Mass killing in Citronelle, Alabama
• Westley Allan Dodd – Executed American serial killer and sex offender
• James Homer Elledge – American murderer (1942–2001)
• James French (murderer) – American murderer (c. 1936 – 1966)
• Gary Gilmore – American murderer (1940–1977)
• Harvey Glatman – American serial killer (1927–1959)
• Robert Gleason (murderer) – American executed criminal (1970–2013)
• Thomas J. Grasso – American murderer (1962–1995)
• Guo Longhai – Executed Chinese serial killer and rapist
• Murder of Bobby Greenlease – American child kidnapping case in 1953
• Hiroaki Hidaka – Japanese serial killer
• David Mark Hill – American spree killer (1960–2008)
• Paul Jennings Hill – American minister and anti-abortion terrorist
• Daryl Holton – American mass murderer (1961–2007)
• Ralph Hudson – Last person executed in New Jersey (c. 1920–1963)
• Phillip Ingle – American murderer
• Shannon Johnson (murderer) – American convicted murderer (1983–2012)
• Steven Timothy Judy – American mass murderer (1956–1981)
• Sokrat Kirshveng – Bulgarian serial killer
• Andrew Lackey – Executed American murderer (1983–2013)
• Terry Langford – American murderer (1966–1998)
• Daniel Lee Lopez
• Daryl Mack – American murderer (1958–2006)
• Hiroshi Maeue – Japanese serial killer (1968–2009)
• David Mason (murderer) – American serial killer (1956–1993)
• Robert Lee Massie – American murderer executed in California (1941–2001)
• Eddie Lee Mays – Last person executed in New York
• Timothy McVeigh – American domestic terrorist (1968–2001)
• Scott Andrew Mink – American murderer (1963–2004)
• Luis Monge (mass murderer) – Puerto Rican murderer who received the death penalty in the U.S.
• Execution of Carey Dean Moore – 2018 execution in Nebraska
• Harry Charles Moore – American murderer executed in Oregon (1941–1997)
• Eliseo Moreno – American murderer (1959–1987)
• Stephen Morin – American serial killer
• Leon Moser – American murderer (1942–1995)
• Murder of Alijah Mullis – 2008 child murder in Texas
• Christopher Newton (criminal) – American murderer
• Shojiro Nishimoto – Executed Japanese serial killer
• Kiyoshi Ōkubo – Japanese serial killer and rapist
• Murder of Chester Poage – American murder victim (1980–2000)
• Carl Panzram – American serial killer (1891–1930)
• Joseph Mitchell Parsons – American executed 1999, for a Utah murder
• Steven Brian Pennell – American serial killer
• Andrew Pixley – American executed murderer (1943–1965)
• Murder of Shankar Suppiahmaniam – 2001 murder of a detainee at Queenstown Remand Prison, Singapore
• James Allen Red Dog – American serial killer
• Asbury Respus – Executed American serial killer
• Christina Marie Riggs – American murderer (1971–2000)
• Murder of Ronald Johnson – 2011 murder of a corrections officer in South Dakota
• Michael Bruce Ross – American serial killer (1959–2005)
• Jeremy Vargas Sagastegui – American murderer
• John Martin Scripps – British serial killer
• Murder of Wilson Mannon – 1992 murder in Wilmington, Delaware
• Ronald Gene Simmons – American mass murderer (1940–1990)
• Clay King Smith – American mass murderer (1970–2001)
• James Edward Smith (murderer) – Executed American murderer (1952–1990)
• Arnold Sodeman – Australian serial killer
• Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky – American spree killer
• John Albert Taylor – American executed in 1996 for a Utah murder
• John Thanos – American murderer (1949–1994)
• William Paul Thompson – American spree killer
• Michael Torrence – Executed American serial killer
• Charles Walker (murderer) – American murderer (1940–1990)
• Keith Wells – American murderer (1962–1994)
• Alan Willett – American murdererPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Hastings Arthur Wise – American mass murderer
• Frederick Charles Wood – Executed American serial killer
• Douglas Franklin Wright – American serial killer executed in Oregon
• Aileen Wuornos – American serial killer (1956–2002)
• Yukio Yamaji – Japanese serial killer
• Giuseppe Zangara – Would-be assassin of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1900–1933)
• Keith Zettlemoyer – American murderer (1955–1995)

Inmates not executed after volunteering

• Roberto Arguelles
• Rocky Beamon
• Scott Dozier
• William 'Billy' Patrick Castillo

See also

• Suicide by cop – Someone provoking law enforcement to kill them

External links

• Death Penalty Information Center volunteer execution database