10 Disturbing Interviews With Killers Before Being Executed

10 Disturbing Interviews With Killers Before Being Executed

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at some of the most unnerving statements made by homicide offenders on death row.

Steven Lawayne Nelson

The Oklahoma native received the death sentence in 2012 after being found guilty of murdering a pastor named Clinton Dobson the year before. The incident happened at the NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. Nelson had reportedly intended to carry out a robbery, but also took Dobson’s life, while another victim, 69-year-old Judy Elliott, suffered a severe head injury. Nelson claimed he was innocent, and in his final interview before being executed, told NewsNation that the judicial system had failed him by allegedly ignoring evidence. Furthermore, he insisted on the importance of second chances. Steven Lawayne Nelson was executed by lethal injection in 2025.

Benjamin Ritchie

31-year-old police officer William Toney reportedly lost his life to a fatal gunshot. The man found guilty of pulling the trigger was Benjamin Ritchie. He had stolen a vehicle and was running away from Toney to avoid arrest. During the pursuit, Ritchie shot the policeman four times. One bullet hit him in the chest and ended his life. Years after being sentenced to death in 2002, he spoke to esteemed journalist Trevor McDonald, expressing his relief over pharmaceutical companies refusing to sell their products for use in the lethal injection, which he saw as a sign of hope. Shockingly, he also bragged about violating visitation rules while on death row. In 2025, at the age of 45, Benjamin Ritchie was executed.

Daniel Lee Lopez

In 2009, during a police chase, this man took the life of police lieutenant Stuart Alexander in Corpus Christi, Texas. The victim, who was 47 years old at the time, was attempting to prevent Lopez from fleeing by deploying a tire-deflation device at the highway exit. However, the suspect drove into him with his SUV, resulting in his death. Lopez was eventually convicted of Alexander’s murder and put on death row. During an appearance on the documentary “Life and Death Row”, the inmate admitted with unsettling calm that he wanted to be executed. He explained that it was the only way for the victim’s family to get closure, and his own loved ones to move on. Lopez was given the lethal injection in 2015.

Carl Wayne Buntion

He was 78 when he was put to death, making him the oldest death row inmate to be executed in Texas history. Carl Wayne Buntion was convicted of capital murder after he fatally shot police officer James Irby, who had pulled him over. He received the death penalty in 1991. Decades later, as he neared his execution date, he spoke to KHOU, claiming his actions were self-defense. Though he expressed remorse and acknowledged the suffering faced by the victim’s family, he emphasized his own hardships during his incarceration. Buntion passed away in 2022 after the lethal injection was administered to him.

Michael Selsor

In 1975, this man entered a convenience store to carry out an armed robbery and came face-to-face with Clayton Chandler, a clerk. Selsor mercilessly shot him six times, causing his death. The following year, he was placed on death row, and in 2012, his execution took place. While he was alive, he spoke to Al Jazeera’s Josh Rushing in what is said to be the only interview he ever gave. He recalled a violent childhood and expressed his disapproval of capital punishment, but confessed that he’d rather be put to death than die of old age in confinement. He rejected the idea of begging for his life and seemed to have come to terms with his end long before he was given the lethal injection.

Richard Cobb

In 2002, a convenience store in Rusk, Texas, was robbed. The perpetrators, Richard Cobb and Beunka Adams, abducted the shop clerks, Candace Driver and Nikki Ansley Dement, as well as a customer, Kenneth Vandever. Later, Cobb shot Kenneth, who succumbed to the injury. One of the women was sexually assaulted by Adams, and both were shot, though they survived. In a rare appearance on the BBC’s “Life and Death Row”, Cobb blamed the state for his lack of rehabilitation, describing his existence as malignant in the eyes of the law. He stared straight down the camera as he spoke of non-attachment and denounced capital punishment. Richard Cobb was executed in 2013, and per reports, he disturbingly yelled, ‘Wow’ after being given the lethal injection.

Aaron Gunches

On a fateful day in 2002, this man fatally shot his girlfriend, Katherine Lecher’s ex-husband, Ted Price. He was placed on death row for the crime, and he repeatedly requested that his execution be carried out. While incarcerated, Gunches spoke to journalist Emily Holshouser for the Arizona Mirror. Explaining his decision to be an execution volunteer, he said he considered death better than imprisonment. He insisted he wasn’t, quote, ‘freaking out’ and dismissed the concept of death row being ‘the worst of the worst’, calling such a description a mere ‘sound byte’. In 2025, he was given the lethal injection.

Joseph Garcia

He was imprisoned at the John B. Connally Unit in Texas for the 1996 murder of Miguel Luna when he escaped with six other prisoners in 2000. The group was dubbed the ‘Texas Seven’. Following their escape, they robbed a Sports Authority store in Irving. When policeman Aubrey Wright Hawkins arrived to stop them, he was fatally shot. Garcia maintained he never fired at the cop, but was sentenced to death. He later told the Houston Chronicle he wished he could ‘take everything back’. Speaking with Texas Public Radio, he compared the act of being strapped down for execution by lethal injection to a crucifixion. On the show “On Death Row”, he said he dreamt of his 99th birthday. Joseph Garcia was executed in 2018.

Blaine Milam

In 2008, Jesseca Carson’s young daughter, Amora, passed away. Her fiancé, Blaine Milam, reported her death to the police, claiming she was deceased when they found her. The couple later said they were performing an exorcism on Amora. Milam was eventually found guilty of taking the child’s life, and it was even reported that he had tortured her. He was sent to death row in 2010 and was featured on the docu-series “On Death Row”, where he vehemently claimed he was innocent. Reflecting on his relationship with Amora, he said he loved and missed her, but when asked if he thought of himself as the devil, he didn’t exactly deny it. In 2025, moments before execution, he professed his faith in Jesus Christ.

Ramiro Felix Gonzales

In 2002, a young woman named Bridget Townsend was found deceased in a Southwest Texas field. Ramiro Felix Gonzales, who, at the time, was locked away for life for the abduction and sexual assault of Florence Teich, confessed to murdering Bridget and was sentenced to death. He was executed in 2024, on Townsend’s 42nd birthday. In one of his final interviews, which is featured in “Life and Death Row”, he reflected on the morbidity and comicality of preparing for execution. He also spoke with The Marshall Project, opening up about finding freedom through faith and building genuine relationships with some of the officers in prison. Gonzales expressed doubt that his execution would provide closure to the victim’s family, but hoped they’d accept his apology.

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