Marc Asnin is the creator of the book Final Words: 578 Men and Women Executed on Texas Death Row. His other books include Uncle Charlie. He is a photographer and has taught at the International Center of Photography and the School of Visual Arts.
Q: What inspired you to create Final Words?
A: Working as a photographer in 1992 for the German magazine Stern, the assignment was a story on death row and the death penalty regarding Texas, Florida, Louisiana - that experience made me aware that this was dehumanization, not criminal justice.
Q: What impact do you think the book has had since its publication, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: The impact is that these executed prisoners will never be forgotten and hoping the readers take away that they are no different from the executed -- we are all humans.
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Q: The lawyer and activist Kerry Kennedy said of the book, “Too often, we think of the death penalty as an abstraction. Final Words replaces statistics with voices, reminding us that each execution represents the end of a human life. This is an important and haunting book about a shameful practice.” What do you think of that description?
A: Kerry Kennedy's description gets directly to the human element and they are not statistics and these words reveal that.
Q: How did you research the book?
A: Through public access works and through the Freedom of Information Act.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am working with a grant writer to obtain grant money to create exhibitions around the world of this work. Received a grant from The Warhol Foundation for an exhibition to be held at Queensborough Community College, Queens, New York, in 2026 called We the People Confess, the intersection of white Christianity and the death penalty.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Check in with www.finalwordsdeathrow.com
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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