Executioner

ExecutionerFor weeks during the early Alabama spring of 1983, Fred Smith regarded the growing stacks of messages with disbelief. The previous January, when he was appointed Alabama corrections commissioner by Governor George Wallace, Smith had known that as head of the state prison system, he would face the most vexing test required of any appointed or elected official--supervising the execution of another man. To handle the task, he had mentally steeled himself for months, memorizing and rehear...