Death Row Minister on Being in the Execution Chamber: 'It's Devastating'

The Rev. Jeff Hood says he feels "haunted" after witnessing executions up close while offering comfort to condemned inmates in their final moments.

Hood, a long-time anti-death penalty activist, has been a spiritual adviser to dozens of death row inmates around the U.S. over the past decade. But earlier this year, he stepped into an execution chamber for the first time to accompany one of the men he had formed a relationship with as he was put to death.

It came after a Supreme Court ruling last year that said states must accommodate the wishes of death row inmates who want to have their pastors or spiritual advisers pray aloud and even touch them during their executions.

Hood comforted Scott Eizember as Oklahoma executed him in January. Two months later, he was in Texas' dungeon-like death chamber while Arthur Brown Jr. was executed.

Eizember was convicted of the 2003 killings of A.J. Cantrell, 76, and his wife, Patsy Cantrell, 70. Brown was condemned for the June 1992 slayings of four people—Jose Tovar, 32; Frank Farias, 17; Jessica Quiñones, 19; and Audrey Brown, 21—during a drug robbery.

Watching as the lethal drugs are injected into the men's veins and they take their last breaths takes a toll, Hood told Newsweek.

"The nightmare is when you realize that you're still there," he said. "He's gone, and you're still there and you have to continue the work in telling people what you've experienced. It's devastating, and I don't think that most people understand the consequences of these executions."

He recalled the legal battle that preceded him being allowed in the execution chamber for Eizember's execution.

Eizember filed a last-minute lawsuit seeking to have Hood with him during his execution after the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) rejected the request because of Hood's history of anti-death penalty activism. The department later reversed course, after the victims' family raised concerns that the decision could lead to the execution being called off.

Hood in March sued the DOC for $10 million, alleging the agency and its spokesman defamed him in a statement released to the media after deciding to bar him from the execution chamber. The department has been contacted for comment via email.

"So when the execution actually happened, they treated me as if I was the public enemy number one," Hood said, adding that he was led into the chamber by six officers.

"Just really intimidating, awful behavior. But when I got in the execution room, it was almost like all of that just kind of faded away, because there was Scott, just laying there."

They spoke about how far Eizember had come since they first met, he said.

"As the moment got closer, he really looked at me and he said, 'Jeff, I love you'...and it was really an incredibly powerful moment for me."

He added: "It seemed like for a brief second, the clouds of heaven opened up, and we were able to just simply sit there, and I was able to tell him, you know, 'Scott, I love you too.' It was an incredibly powerful, kind of brief interruption in a place of such darkness and hate and evil."

Hood said moments later, he was stunned when the curtains were raised and he could see dozens of people were there to witness Eizember's execution.

"That was really shocking to me that all of these people were there to watch, there was this sort of spectacle of it all," he said.

There was a man who was speaking through a microphone as the execution got underway like "a carnival barker," he added. "So it's an incredibly dehumanizing atmosphere."

When the lethal drugs began to flow through Eizember's veins, Hood recalls shaking violently.

"One of the executioners looked at me and he said, 'Are you gonna make it? Are you okay?' Because I think they thought that I was gonna pass out or something," he said. "But really what it felt like was, it felt like Scott's spirit and my spirit were connected in that moment."

Then, as he was reading the last rites, an executioner "tried to hustle me out of there," Hood said. "I was like, 'No, I'm gonna finish.' And they backed down."

Hood said it's difficult to convey the "horror of watching someone's life being violently ripped from them."

"Nothing can prepare you," he said. Speaking about Eizember's execution, he said: "I watched his face go from white to red to blue to white to almost green to yellow. It's almost like I saw the colors of Skittles go through his face in a few minutes. That has haunted me ever since."

He added: "People say, 'Well, how do you deal with that? Or how do you get over it?' And you don't. I mean, Scott will be with me forever... there's no getting around it. Scott, every one of these guys, resides in me."

On March 9, Hood was in Texas' execution chamber while Brown was being executed. Brown used his final words to insist he was innocent of the 1992 quadruple homicide that he was sent to death row.

"In those final moments where I engaged with him, I was like, you go and tell your truth," Hood said. "I think a lot of people got frustrated with me because I encouraged him on a gurney to speak his truth. I was very proud of him when he did."

Brown "kept shaking his leg" while on the gurney, Hood said. "Because he had told me that him shaking his leg was his way of thanking me for being there and being with him."

He also described how "disturbing" it was to realize that there was a large spread of food just a few steps from the death chamber.

"There's this big buffet of food...sandwiches and meats and fruits and vegetables and all these dips and all this kind of stuff. That spread of food is there for the guards because they have to stay there for the execution," he said.

"And they're all eating, and Arthur can't eat before he's executed. So they kept on asking me, similar to Oklahoma, they kept asking me, 'Do you want something to eat?' And it's like, f*** no, I do not want something to eat. Are you kidding me? And it just goes to show how removed so many of these guys are from the humanity of the person that's being executed."

Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told Newsweek: "This food is set out and available specifically for the inmate to eat if the inmate so chooses."

According to the TDCJ's execution procedure, inmates are served a last meal at approximately 5 p.m. CT on the day of the execution. The meal is the same as what is offered to other inmates in the prison, and was rejected by Brown, Hood said.

In 2011, the state ended the time-honored tradition of allowing condemned inmates to choose their last meal before execution, after Lawrence Russell Brewer ordered an elaborate meal that he did not eat before he was put to death.

Hood also said he had received death threats after it became known that he was speaking to Eizember. "That's how much people hated Scott," he said.

"I want everybody I work with to feel loved," he added. "I kind of see my job as not just to love them, but also to humanize them to the world."

He speaks to Anthony Sanchez, who is scheduled for execution in September, at 8 p.m. every evening. Sometimes, even more frequently than that.

Sanchez was convicted of killing 21-year-old Juli Busken. She was abducted on December 20, 1996, from her apartment complex in Norman, Oklahoma.

He told Newsweek earlier this year that he is innocent. Hood is fighting to stop the execution but if it goes ahead, he will be back in Oklahoma's death chamber to accompany Sanchez in his final moments.

"One of the things that I've told Anthony and I tell a lot of these guys is I want them to know how committed I am to them," he said.

Update 7/27/23, 8:44 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information about last meals for death row inmates in Texas.

Update 7/26/23, 11:10 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Amanda Hernandez.