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Nawinda Malikhao
Section : 1205
5761075
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Psychology of Executioner
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Judicial Execution involves an act where one person legally - executes - kills - another

person. This leads to the question for an essay that does Judicial Execution psychologically harm

the executioner?

Executioner is a job which one person takes responsibility to execute prisoner who the

court already decides to put him or her to death legally. They were trained to have the same

mindset that killing people who was killed an innocent people to prevent more crime. This leads

to an effect on their thought,behavior, and also socialization to the public. There are three

psychological theories which effect executioner psychological process that are Social Learning

Theory, Social development,and Role taking.

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Society is one of the influence which shapes the executioners mind to think and act

differently from regular way. This causes by the Social Learning Theory by Albert

Bandura(1977) ,a psychologist who is the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social

Science in Psychology at Stanford University. Social learning theory describes how people learn

through observing and mimicking others.1 The root of this theory is environment around the

executioner in making he psychologically change. For instance, in the prison there are many

prisoners who are waiting for the punishment that the court decide for them. Due to this kind of

1Bandura, A. (n.d.). Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from http://www.esludwig.com/uploads/

2/6/1/0/26105457/bandura_sociallearningtheory.pdf
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environment the executioners feel that they are protector, and people they are killing is a bad guy

and should be killed to prevent them doing more crimes in the future. Because the surrounding

around the executioners have an idea that being executioner is one of the job like office worker

or bakery worker, they is just performing job and go back home after finish their duty each day.

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According to ABC news report, it provides an interview article of Jerry Givens , a

professional executioner who spent 17 years as a professional killer. From 1982 to 1999, he

killed 62 people and he was never punished. In the article it said if any have revealed the

emotional toll the job can take on a person or the mind-set of the man behind the proverbial

mask. Givens told ABC News that his experiences in the death chamber have caused him to

change course and oppose the death penalty. He defies the stereotype of the cold-souled

executioner. A deeply religious layman, Givens claimed he prayed with many of the condemned

men he was about to execute, a bold gesture at odds with the grim, emotionless solemnity with

which executions are often portrayed in the movies.He said he'd suggest to a condemned man

that this was a last chance to repent and seek forgiveness from God. And he said he'd join the

men in prayer. No one's tomorrow is guaranteed, he said. "This could be my last chance too.'

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When he took the job -- he said he was simply picked at the age of 30 by a superior at the

Virginia penitentiary where he worked -- there was a nationwide moratorium on the death

penalty and violent crime and murders were on the rise in Virginia, he said. Givens said that at

the time, he believed the death penalty was an effective deterrent, but said he no longer does.

After the death penalty was reinstated in Virginia, Givens noted, ruefully, "crime went up.''
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Givens described himself as a loyal employee who felt a duty to the state to accept his

part-time post as executioner, even though his salary as a corrections officer did not increase.

He approached it simply as a job that somebody had to do."Taking a life is not a pleasant thing to

do,'' he said. "You have a condemned that didn't do anything to you. "I didn't do it to make you

suffer,'' he said. "I didn't do it to inflict pain on you. I don't want to really hurt nobody. I was just

performing a job.2

On Givenss perspective, he thinks that he was a person who gives peaceful to the society

by killing bad guy. He said that after the death penalty was restored,the rate of crime went up

rapidly. He also was not told his wife about his job because for him he is feeling okay with it,but

for other peoples like his family and wife can not accept this job because they think it is cruel to

kill somebody. This can obviously show that Givens has changed by the environment

surrounding him which makes he thinks that his role as an executioner is right.

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Moving forward to the second theory that is Role Taking Theory. Role-taking ability

involves understanding the cognitive and affective such as moods, emotions, and attitudes.

Realization the difference between other perspective and oneself. This theory affects indirectly to

executioners psychological by the role he has taken. The executioner himself has different

perspective from regular person because he thinks that his job is as same as working man. The

executioner doesnt feel guilty to his job, he feels that he just performing his job.

2 Avila, J. (2007, December 17). Interview With an Executioner. Retrieved November 25, 2016,
from http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/interview-executioner/story?id=4015348. "
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In the same study of Givens case study but in the same part. Givens described himself as

a loyal employee who felt a duty to the state. He approached it simply as a job that somebody

had to do."Taking a life is not a pleasant thing to do,'' he said. I don't want to really hurt

nobody. I was just performing a job. 3

From this It can be seen that Givens doesnt feel bad with peoples he was killed, but he

thinks that he just performing his job. This implies that the Role-Taking theory has a big effect to

his thought about the job. His emotion towards the death penalty is neutral because as it is

already mentioned at the beginning he said that he just prevent the rate of crime and also protect

innocent people from danger.

Another study from Mike Pearl,a journalist, who focusing on the role taking of the

executioner. He had interview one of the executioner in America whose name is Frank

Thompson. He said that Think of them as soldiers," he advised, "in the war against crime" who

are "sent into a tiny room to kill somebody. He also warned that anyone thinking about

becoming an executioner that there are drawbacks. "All staff who volunteer to be a part of an

execution feel the stress," he said, and pointed out that PTSD can reach all members of an

execution team, no matter how indirect their involvement. Thompson was also concerned about

stigma. 4

3 Avila, J. (2007, December 17). Interview With an Executioner. Retrieved November 25, 2016,
from http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/interview-executioner/story?id=4015348
4Pearl, M. (Ed.). (2015, May 27). What It's Like to Be a Death Row Executioner in America.
Retrieved November 29, 2016, from http://www.vice.com/read/how-do-you-get-a-job-as-an-
executioner-in-america-526
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Frank implies that even though he thinks that being a executioner is like a crime

protector, he was warned the effect from joining to be part of the execution that is stress and

sometimes may reach to disgraceful to themselves.

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The last theory is Social learning Development which is connected to the second theory

that has already mentioned earlier,Social Learning theory. As human learns to observe and

mimic others, they start to develop themselves to be harmonious to prevent difference. The

Social Learning Theory explains qualitative changes in the structure and framework of society

that help oneself to better realize aims and objectives. Development is a process of social change.

It is the result of society's capacity to organize resources to meet challenges and opportunities. 5

There is an interview from the atlantic.com by the Stanford psychology student Michael

Osofsky, social cognitive theory pioneer Albert Bandura, and Stanford prison experimenter/

psychologist Philip Zimbardo.

His interviewer is Martin, Jim Willett who was spent his youth working in corrections,

starting at the Huntsville penitentiary as a college student in 1971 until he was made an offer that

he initially turned down: the position of head warden. Willett ended up becoming Huntsville's

head warden during Texas' three busiest years for executions, 1998-2001, when he oversaw a

staggering 89 of them. He said that "To be honest with you," Willett says, "They rarely cross my

mind. They rarely cross my mind at all.

5 E, A. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/amp/sample.aspx"

"
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At the end of the interview, Osofsky was mentioned the reason why Willet doesnt feel

regret or scare with his past actions as an executioner. He said that "The core thesis is that

individuals must morally disengage in order to perform actions and behaviors that run opposite

and are counter to individual values and personal moral standards," Osofsky says. "Capital

punishment is a real-world example of this type of moral dilemma where everyday people are

forced to perform a legal and state-sanctioned action of ending the life of another human being,

which poses an inherent moral conflict to human values, he said "I began to realize that this is

how these things happen, executions. We do these things that personally you would normally

never be involved in, because they're sanctioned by the government. And then we start walking

through them in a mechanical fashion. We become detached. We lose our humanity. 6

Looking at Willets answer in an interview, he wants to say that the feeling of regret is

rarely come across his mind, and Osofsky explains the reason why the executioners feel nothing

with their action that is killing people. He describes that they slowly get into it and eventually get

lose of humanity.

In conclusion, executioner is the job which blow a person who are in that position mind

and affects them to behave and think differently from the ordinary people. The Social Learning

theory is related to executioner by changing the mindset of the executioner to think that their

actions are right in forbidding the rate of crime. For the Role taking theory, it makes

executioners think separately with another people which causes by the environment around

themselves. After the long time, the executioners start to feel nothing toward execution which is

6Moselley, T. (2014, October 1). The Enforcers of the Death Penalty. Retrieved October 1,
2014, from http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-enforcers-of-the-death-
penalty/379901/
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related to Social development theory. They begins to lose the way they were and then finally

their humanity are gone.

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Citations
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1. Avila, J. (2007, December 17). Interview With an Executioner. Retrieved November 25,

2016, from http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/interview-executioner/story?id=4015348

2. Moselley, T. (2014, October 1). The Enforcers of the Death Penalty. Retrieved October 1,

2014, from http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-enforcers-of-the-death-

penalty/379901/

3. Pearl, M. (Ed.). (2015, May 27). What It's Like to Be a Death Row Executioner in America.

Retrieved November 29, 2016, from http://www.vice.com/read/how-do-you-get-a-job-as-an-

executioner-in-america-526

4. Bandura, A. (n.d.). Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from http://www.esludwig.com/

uploads/2/6/1/0/26105457/bandura_sociallearningtheory.pdf

5. E, A. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/amp/sample.aspx

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