The Role of an Executioner [Arizona]

Jim Klein spent 20 years as a correctional professional who has spent much of his time as a correctional officer preparing for the most controversial task given to a corrections official in the role of the state of Arizona’s executioner in the death chamber. Realizing this story is sensitive in nature and restricted to the data made available for the public or outside the agency individuals, Jim has agreed to talk about his role that very few executioners in the United States have ever talked about or revealed to the public.

Introduced to Jim just about a month ago, we met in a Mesa restaurant to discuss some issues related to the agency as we were contemplating a partnership in consulting employees with their administrative problems. Never asking this man’s personal opinion or feelings about the death penalty, this story is told to show what type of person mentally prepares and trains to perform strictly confidential and regimented procedures related to the death penalty in Arizona. Jim Klein is no doubt a true professional with an outgoing personality that one would not connect with that of an executioner. Finding no stereotype for such a job, it can be said that Jim is an earnest man with empathy and concern for many of his coworkers, peers and comrades. A perfectionist at heart, he does his job and carries out orders well. Without exception, the execution policy has some of the most rigid criteria ever written to ensure the process is performed with integrity, honor, and respect. It is fair to say that after every execution, another element was discussed, either medically, legally or conditionally making the process a little bit more refined or dignified than it was before. Cloaked with secrecy for intentional purposes, the policy is refined constantly to meet recent law cases and litigation related to the death penalty and rulings accordingly. This writer has participated in three execution practice rounds and two actual readings of the death warrant involving inmates Jeffery Landrigan and Daniel Wayne Cook. Both executions were put on hold pending a U.S. Supreme ruling on the method of lethal injection challenged by an inmate in the state of Kentucky. Today, the state is preparing to execute inmate Cook as all legal hurdles have been cleared and a date is to be set. Knowing first hand how tedious and detailed this process actually is, meeting this legend was most informative as he shared a large portion or Arizona history with me that Thursday afternoon. Stressing how important it was that the execution team practiced and practiced over and over until the agency director is satisfied with its proceedings, he shared some insight on his role as an executioner.

Jim has performed the duties assigned to participate “in a total of twelve.” He goes on to say “I ran the controls on the two lethal gas executions, and either performed escorts or worked behind the mirror on the rest. Working behind the mirror meant we did the needle sticks and pushed the drugs through the syringes when the order was given. I only did escorts on two.” Asking Jim to recall the names of those he participated in executing, he ran off a list of death row inmates that started with Don Harding, April 6, 1992, the first inmate executed in Arizona for the past 29 years. He then goes over a few more names and identified Jimmy Wayne Jeffers, Bob Vickers, Michael Poland, Karl Legrand, Walter Legrand and Randy Greenwalt. Some of them were high profile criminals that did some hideous crimes in the state but Jim said he never took his job personal. When asked if any of them were most strange or eerie, he replied “None of them were eerie. If asked, he would surely say that the nights and days were particularly challenging for him before and after an execution. The strangest was one of the LeGrand brothers, I can't remember which, but he was the first to go. They had made a pact to go by the gas chamber, but he kept flip flopping on which way to go, so we actually were set up to carry out either method right up until the last minute. 30 minutes before, he decided on lethal injection. It took a lot of time to clean up that night, because we had to clean up the injection side, as normal, then the gas chamber, because it was all set to go.”

Jim stated that his selection to the execution team was by coincidence as he was involved in a disturbance inside Cellblock 6 where he took a shot at an inmate [Steve James] with knee knockers while “I was a sergeant when he was attempting to kill a child molester with a prison made spear. He was hiding behind a mattress. My first shot bounced off the wall and hit him in head, my second shot hit him directly in his right knee when he lift the mattress to cover his head.” After the CB 6 incident, he was asked by his Tactical Support Unit (TSU) commander, Tim O’Conner to describe what was going through his mind when he prepared to shoot the inmate and said he replied with “The principals of marksmanship, sight picture, sight alignment, breath control, trigger squeeze." He said, "No, I mean about the fact that hitting him in the head might kill him." My reply was to repeat the same thing over again. It was at that moment that “he asked me to join the Special Operations Team.” However, it is more likely that it was the manner of Jim’s professional demeanor and his self-control of the matter that drew attention to him rather than the incident.

Jim Klein’s resume is that of a person whose humility and courage is hard to describe with words as his deeds were best described as exceptional and valorous. His employment with the Arizona prison system started in Florence Arizona, a prison town that is currently one of the largest in the nation as a CSOI and CSOII at East Unit, a Sergeant at North Unit, a Lieutenant at East Unit, a Captain at East Unit and CB6, a Major at Central Unit, Eyman Complex, and Florence Complex, an ADW at South Unit, and a Deputy Warden at Bachman Unit, ASPC-Lewis. “I spent 12 years on TSU in Florence and Eyman, and I was also the head of the Florence Negotiator Team. I am FBI certified, and also hold a certification with the National Tactical Officer's Association. I was the first responder to the Lewis hostage standoff, and spent 13+ hours on the phone with Ricky Wassenaar.” On January 18, 2004, two prison inmates, Ricky Wassenaar and Steven Coy, his cell mate, took over the kitchen at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis and set in motion the longest prison hostage stand-off in United States history. It was to last for fifteen days until February 1, 2004.

Retired in 2005, Jim Klein has tirelessly continued to help the employees of the agency through the use of his strength in knowing the policies so well and assisting them with the administrative relief granted through the employee relations grievance process and statutory standards as applied to the agency. Executioners, for obvious reasons by policy and privacy, almost always remain anonymous.