Michael Phillips

I recall a meeting with an editor and they said, somehow they told me that there's a lady at the Capitol or a lady in the government in Austin, which is where I was living then, who was in charge of scheduling the executions.

So I called her up and she said, well, she didn't have any on the schedule, but she could give me the names of, it was either four or five executions.

people who would be first.

And one of them was Candyman,

The fellow who poisoned his own child, putting poison in some candy at Halloween.

Charlie was very alert.

passed on his feet, engaged.

He was not moping around sad.

He had a sense of humor.

He told me in the first interview I had with him that he was innocent and that this was racial discrimination, that they executed more blacks than whites.

And I told him, oh, what you want is for them to execute more white people, huh?

And that stunned me because I think no one had ever said that to him.

But that would do away with racial discrimination, and there's lots of white people who need executing too, was my way of thinking.

And he didn't get mad at me or anything.

He kind of laughed at it himself after he paused to understand the question.

Then he kind of laughed at it himself.

But I would say he was...

Even until they got him strapped down, he was in control of his own body.

His mind was in great shape.

He lied to me about whether or not he was innocent.