Families of executed prisoners want death penalty tapes made public
Amy Taylor kept the details of how Robert Gleason Jr. died from their son for as long as she could. But at age 10, Eian Taylor searched for his father's name online at school and saw the headlines.
"Convicted Murderer Who Pleaded for Death Electrocuted in Virginia," stated one, from 2013.
"Va. killer shows bits of humanity before execution," read another.
After Eian came home that day with questions, his mother told him everything she could. But she didn't tell him that Virginia had made an audio recording of Gleason's execution behind the scenes. That's because she didn't know about it. No one had informed their family that prison employees recorded 31 execution tapes between 1987 and 2017 — including the one about Gleason.
Execution tapes are rare and. Earlier this year, in January, NPR from Virginia. Reporters found them after a former employee of the Virginia Department of Corrections donated them to the Library of Virginia's archives in 2006.
