- People used to say, "I pulled the switch."
But ain't pulled no switch. There's a button to push.
(laughs)
- And the button will send twenty-three hundred volts
sent through the human body,
enough to kill a horse.
- Okay.
- Hello.
- Hello, how you doin'?
- I'm doing good.
- Pleased to meet you. - Pleased to meet you.
- What's that thing you got in the back of your head.
It look like a knife.
- It's a comb. (camera woman laughing)
- As a pick - As a pick, okay.
- My name is Jules. What's your name?
- Jerry.
- You know what the death penalty is?
- Yes. How are you involved with the death penalty?
- I was the executioner.
- I have several questions.
- Ask 'em. I'm here for ya.
- Did you execute, like, criminals?
- The state of Virginia, where I'm from,
they passed a law so people could be executed.
Now, when they pass a law,
then somebody made bad choices,
and those choices were what?
- To murder people.
- No, but when they murder people what happens to 'em?
- They got murdered.
- Okay then.
- I put to death sixty-two people, sixty two men.
- Oh my gosh.
- I didn't dislike those sixty-two people,
I just disliked what they'd done.
- Yeah.
- If you do a cowardly thing
you should suffer the consequences
for you'd done.
- I don't think that it's a good thing. I don't--
- Why's that?
- Just the fact that people are killing people.
- Okay.
- Do you remember the names of all the people you executed?
- I don't remember the names,
but most of them travel with me,
I got 'em in my briefcase.
- These are the guys that I've all executed,
this some of 'em. - Oh.
- Imma show you a picture of the electric chair.
It's twenty-three hundred volts,
that's enough to kill a horse.
That's the electric chair. - Oh.
- And that's me, when I was young.
- What would you have to do?
Would you put them in the electric chair?
- I would make sure that my crew had him strapped in.
I had a couple guys had an Afro like that,
and I had to shave the head
so the current could make a good connection
because that's where the current going in the head.
And I would shave the right leg.
So it goes through the head, circle your heart,
and out the back of your leg.
- Wow, that's scary.
- Now, the choices that those guys made in life
caused me to do what I had to do.
They caused me to start that chair.
Do you agree it was their choice?
- Yeah,
like, it was them who did the things that got them there,
but that's the only crime that gets thrown back onto you.
If you, like, steal something
you just get thrown in prison,
but if you murder someone you get murdered.
- When I read what you've done to get here
I didn't think at that time that you deserved to be here.
You know, I look at it this way.
When I was asked to be the executioner,
I was only 22 years old.
- Wait, you were 22 years old when they--
- 22 years old, being an African American
that's an executioner.
And I took an oath that I would never disclose my identity.
I kept everything to myself.
I didn't even tell my wife about that.
- Wait, they didn't know that
you were an executioner? - No, no.
So I keep all this balled in, within me.
- Did they give you any options, like,
how to deal with executing people?
- Yeah.
- They had a psychiatrist down there,
and he was just as nutty as a fruitcake.
- And he was supposed to help you?
- No, he couldn't help us.
- Did you have a significant pay raise for joining though?
- [Jerry] No. - Oh, wow.
- If I was paid a lot of money
I would look forward to killing that person
so I can make more money.
- No, I never received no extra pay.
- Wow.
- Did you ever cry when you executed someone?
- Well, I tell you what, I probably cried inside.
This is not something that I enjoy doing.
I had to put my trust in the court system.
- Yeah.
- And then they had a guy by the name of Earl Washington.
He came for nine days, and I would've executed him,
but they found out that he didn't commit the crime.
And then they just opened doors for me
because then I knew that we have innocent people
on death row.
And I wondered, "Wow, did I ever kill an innocent person?"
- Mhmm
- That's something that will live here.
- Do you think like any of the people you executed,
like, were innocent.
- Several guys, but I had to convince myself
that they were 100% guilty
without a shadow of a doubt.
- I don't think that people should die
'cause people could be innocent.
- That's right and that's what I paid for.
Straighten the system model.
- How do you think straighten the system out?
- For one thing, abolish the death penalty.
Instead of killing people
what do you think we should do with people?
- Something that's way less worse then killing them, like,
if you, like, take them to jail
for, like, a long time then--
- What do you call a long time?
- Like five year maybe?
- No. Five years is a short,
they could do that standing on their head.
Let me share something with you.
My alternative is life in prison.
Let him stay around, let him suffer.
Killing him is a way out.
- Is the death penalty still happening in Virginia?
- Yes. We only have two inmates on death row,
and hopefully we can do something to get 'em off.
- Thank you, high five.
- All right.
- You've, like, changed my whole perspective
on life, really.
- Okay, well thank you.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you so much. That was so cool.
- Thank you for coming and talking to me.
- Love you, man. Be strong.
- [camera Woman] Alright, that's a cut.