WITNESS TO MY BROTHER’S EXECUTION: Introduction

Most Catholic Italian families would be wailing and fingering rosaries. My family took its cue from my stoic father: We drove 150 miles in silence.

What does a family talk about while driving to your brother’s execution?

I slept most of the trip. When I allowed thoughts, they were these: How far would I sit from my brother as he died on a steel gurney? Would the lethal injection work quickly? Would he finally be at peace and be reunited with the 2-year-old daughter he killed?

Three years before America’s 1,000th modern-day execution on Dec. 2, 2005, the death penalty became more than a debate for my family.

We lived it. Executed in South Carolina on Sept. 13, 2002, my brother was No. 797.