But NPR argued for their public release and obtained the audio in 2022.Īn NPR investigation can now reveal the tapes show the prison neglected to record key evidence during what was considered one of Virginia's worst executions, and staff appeared unprepared for some of the jobs they were tasked to do in the death chamber.īefore Virginia abolished capital punishment in 2021, the state executed more people than any other in America. The library initially restricted them and planned to keep them off limits for decades more.
The tapes from Oliver's bag remained unavailable for 16 years. "I don't even remember seeing that briefcase."
"Dad kept it a secret from us," said his son, Stephen Oliver.
NPR The four tapes were marked as "restricted" in the archives of the Library of Virginia in Richmond. His family said he took the story to his grave when he died. Oliver left his last position with the Department of Corrections in Richmond before any of the executions were taped. But how that government audio ended up in his bag - and why he privately donated it to the Library of Virginia - is a mystery. Oliver, had worked in Virginia prisons for years. The cassettes in the briefcase were recorded by staff, and the donor, R. Prison employees also see what happens in the death chamber – and they sometimes tape it. Since prisons forbid even those journalists, lawyers and family members from recording audio or images, virtually no physical evidence from their vantage point exists from any state. When executions take place, only a few people are permitted to attend as witnesses.
The bag held four execution recordings so rare, similar tapes from another state had been released just once before in history. On a summer's day in 2006, inside an apartment not far from Virginia's old death chamber, an 82-year-old man handed over a briefcase to an archivist.
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