You know you have just minutes to live. What do you say? If you're about to be executed in Texas, you most often mention love, family, life, or God—and that you're "sorry." Those are the words that most frequently pop up in the farewells of inmates before they're put to death in the state. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice preserves every offender's final statement from the last 30 years on its website, and there are plenty of statements to read through, because Texas has executed nearly 500 people since 1982. The Los Angeles Times takes a look. A sampling:
- "Tonight we tell the world that there are no second chances in the eyes of justice," killer carjacker Napoleon Beazley said before he was executed in 2002.Tonight, we tell our children that in some instances, in some cases, killing is right. No one wins tonight. No one gets closure. No one walks away victorious."