Michael Graczyk saw someone die for the first time in March 1984. Graczyk, a reporter with the Associated Press, walked into a Texas prison to watch the execution of James David Autry, who had been sentenced to death for killing a convenience store clerk four years earlier.
Graczyk watched as Autry — a 29-year-old known as Cowboy who had been convicted of killing Shirley Drouet, a mother of five — took his final breaths. It was the second time Graczyk had gone to the prison expecting to see Autry’s execution; a few months earlier, a Supreme Court reprieve halted the lethal injection with the needles already in Autry’s arms.
When it was over, after the lethal drugs were injected and after Autry’s eyes fluttered open one last time, Graczyk sat down to write his story. His dispatch was circulated to readers across Texas and the nation. He wrote about how Autry had unsuccessfully tried to have his execution aired on television and about the heavy fog outside the prison and about Autry’s final meal (a hamburger, fries and a Dr Pepper).
Not long after, Graczyk returned to the prison to