How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I wonder what I would say with the microphone before me, knowing that the words I say would be my last. I wonder if I would even know what I was saying. With Pat, the words had been so ordinary, in a way. What made them extraordinary was knowing they were the last. (9.150)
Dying makes everything super important. There's a book about Pat and Robert because they were executed; you'd probably never have heard of them otherwise. You could say that the sense of importance and horror attached to this moment is a sign that this isn't something the state should be doing in the first place.
Quote #8
He looks at me and winks, and then they strap his chin, lower the mask, and kill him. This time I do not close my eyes. I watch everything. (9.380)
This is probably the bitterest line in the whole book. In general, Prejean has compassion for everyone, or tries to have it. She sympathizes with the executioners as well as with the executed. But here she sounds quietly tormented and angry. "…they strap his chin, lower the mask, and kill him." Prejean doesn't use any euphemisms here. She doesn't say they "pull the switch" or they "execute him"; she says they "kill him." She doesn't even refer to the state here; she refers to the executioners and guards as "they," emphasizing their individuality. They kill him, and she watches.
Quote #9
Killing is camouflaged as a medicinal act. The attendant will even swab the "patient's" arm with alcohol before inserting the needle—to prevent infection. (10.42)
Prejean argues that lethal injection is a way to make killing seem like a medical procedure. You swab the injection site to pretend you're clean. What's the point? The "patient" is just about to die, anyway. Why pretend? Is it for the victim's sake? For the executioner's? For society's? It may look clean, says Prejean, but it's killing, no matter how you cut it.