The prison car stopped at the entrance of death row and waited for Janice to be brought out. A few seconds later the 42 years old woman was walked out of the door and down the steps to the waiting car. She wore a tan skirt suit with tan pantyhose and brown strappy dress sandals with 3-inch heels. Her neck length medium brown hair was neatly done as she made her way to the car. Handcuffed and shackled and with the aid of two female corrections officers she descended the steps that led to the car that would carry her to the death house. Judy would be the first woman executed since the death penalty was reinstated and the third to die in the state’s gas chamber.
An assistant warden and the warden met Judy as she reached the car. The assistant warden held the door for her as she was placed in the back seat between two female guards. The assistant warden then got behind the wheel as the warden got into the front passenger seat. The warden turned and looked at Judy. “How are you doing?” He asked the attractive slightly buxom woman who still had the figure and shapely legs she did in her twenties, only a few pounds heavier.
“I just want to get this over with,” Judy answered. “There is something I would like to get off my chest, I did kill my husband as well as my first husband. I poisoned them both, I just liked the control I had over them as I slowly feed them arsenic. I deserve what is coming my way. I just want it to be over.”
“It’ll be over soon,” the warden said as the car started moving toward the death house that sat in a small compound just outside the prison grounds. The car stopped just outside the fence that surrounded the death house and a guard opened the back door as another guard opened the gate. The warden got out of the car first and stepped to the rear door, “Ok, get her out.”
One of the female COs slid out of the car followed by Judy. She helped Judy to stand and then they escorted her through the gate and into the death house. As they walked toward the entrance of the building Judy looked up at the fifty-foot exhaust tube that protruded from the roof of the death house and then she looked ahead as they approached the door. A guard opened the door and stood aside as Judy was escorted inside.
As they entered the death house everyone was silent, with only their footsteps being heard. The clicking of Judy’s high heels echoed as she was left to the death watch cell. She had no more then sat down on the single cot in the cell when the door slid open, and the prison doctor entered along with a nurse.
The doctor held a harness that had the front part of a stethoscope inserted through one part of it. He looked at Judy, “Judy, I need to put this on you.”
“We need you to stand up,” the nurse said. “You’ll have to remove your bra so we can fit the harness to you.”
“I see,” Judy said as she stood, slid off her blazer and then unbuttoned her short-sleeved blouse. “You’ll need to listen for when my heart stops beating,” she said as she removed her blouse and then her bra.
The doctor with the aid of the nurse placed the harness around Judy’s midriff and then across her shoulders, forming an X across her body. The doctor adjusted the stethoscope to where it was directly over her heart and then snugged up the harness straps. “I hope I didn’t get it too tight,” he said as the nurse handed Judy her blouse.
She shook her head for no, as she put on her blouse, buttoned it and then tucked it into her skirt, allowing the stethoscope tube to protrude between the buttons just above her navel. She then slid her blazed back on and buttoned the single button as the doctor left the cell.
“Take off your shoes,” the nurse said in a calm voice.
Judy lifted her right foot and unbuckled the strap around her ankle and then slid her shoe off her foot. She then removed her left shoe in the same manner then sat her shoes on the floor beside her. She looked up just as two male guards unrolled a long, narrow runner rug and another placed a short runner in front of the cell door that neatly joined the longer rug.
Judy stood still in the doorway of the cell as she felt the coldness of the floor starting to penetrate her nylons. She looked herself over once more and made sure her clothes were straight and neat. Then, she looked up as the priest and the warden along with his assistant arrived at the cell door along with two male guards.
“It’s time,” the warden said.
Judy nodded her head, crossed herself and then stepped onto the runner rug. She took a few steps and then turned right as she followed the rug down the hallway and toward the gas chamber with the warden and his people at her sides.
A guard standing beside the chamber’s door opened it as Judy neared him, exposing the tow metal chairs and their straps that faced Judy. She stopped her nylon covered feet at the edge of the rug, ending her last walk of slightly more than twenty feet. She looked into the chamber and took deep breath as three a guard entered the chamber and took his place behind the chair to Judy’s left.
The warden then whispered to Judy, “Step inside.”
She nodded her head and stepped up, over the doors oval shaped opening and into the gas chamber. Two other guards followed her into the chamber and quickly seated her. Quickly, they strapped her to the chair. A strap under her arms and across her breast, one over her lower stomach and two on each arm and leg. One guard inserted a connector into the stethoscope tube and then said, “Remember, count to ten or fifteen before you breath the gas.
She remained silent as the guards left the chamber and closed the door. She could hear them sealing the door with the huge hand wheel that was in the center of the door. Judy looked around the chamber as the witnesses looked at her from behind and then guards turned small hand wheels that allowed the distilled water/ sulfuric acid solution to drain beneath the two chairs.
The warden watched the clock on the wall and as the second hand struck 12, he nodded his head and the executioner pulled a lever, allowing the cyanide pellets to drop into the mixing vats beneath the chairs.
Just closed her eyes and slowly counted as she held her breath. She did not stop at ten, she continued to count to fifteen. She then opened her eyes and took a deep breath, then another and another. Seconds later her head was rotating in a small circle as if she was trying to stay awake. Then, he head tilted slightly back and then fell forward. Her shoulders slumped and her body relaxed.
A few seconds passed then a muscle spasm caused Judy’s fingers to grip the edge of the chair arms and her toes, which was the only part of her feet touching the chamber’s floor crunched downward. Her body stayed tense for ten seconds and then relaxed. Her heart slowed, but continued to beat.
Five more minutes passed when the doctor no longer detected any signs of a heartbeat. He waited for another full minute and then declared Judy dead.
As the witnesses were ushered out the reporters grabbed their phones and called in their headlines, “Husband killer dies in chamber.”
Two hours later Judy’s body was carried feet first out of the chamber and once cleaned she was turned over to a waiting funeral home’s hearse. A local TV station’s film crew stood outside the prison gates as then filmed the hearse leaving the death house with Judy’s body in the back covered with a white sheet.

 

very good, thank you

 

You're welcome

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