Ben Dirs, The Woman Who Watched 300 Executions in Texas. BBC, May 7, 2018 www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43995866
("Michelle Lyons * * * For 12 years - first as a newspaper reporter, then as a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) - it was part of Lyons' job to witness every execution carried out by the state. Between 2000 and 2012, Lyons saw almost 300 men and women die on the gurney")
My comment:
(a) If you can read English, read the original, which is more detailed, with small observations that make us human.
(b) Ben DIRS ("a freelance writer and journalist. He was a sports journalist for the BBC news website from 2001-2017") en.wikipedia.org.
(c) "It is 18 years since Michelle Lyons watched Ricky McGinn die. * * * McGinn's mother, in her Sunday best, her hands pressed against the glass of the death chamber. Dressed to the nines to watch her son get executed. Some farewell party."
(i) Dressed to the Nines. The Phrase Finder, undated https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dressed-to-the-nines.html
(origin unknown)
(ii) some (adj): "REMARKABLE, STRIKING <that was some party>" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/some
(d) "Lyons, whose cathartic memoir, Death Row: The Final Minutes, has just been published."
Michelle Lyons, Death Row: The Final Minutes; My life as an execution witness in America's most infamous prison. London: Blink Publishing, May 3, 2018. 作者: choi 时间: 5-7-2018 16:41
(e) "Since 1924, every execution in the state has taken place in the small east Texas city of Huntsville. There are seven prisons in Huntsville, including the Walls Unit, an imposing Victorian building which houses the death chamber. * * * earned it [City of Huntsville] a reputation as the 'capital punishment capital of the world' * * * Huntsville is a neat little place, set amid the beautiful Piney Woods, on the buckle of the Bible Belt. There are churches everywhere, the locals are polite * * * Over beers in Time Out Sports Bar - the sort of dive you might see on a documentary about a shooting in small-town America - Lyons speaks 19 to the dozen about any subject you fancy. Smart, cultured, and possessing a rapid-fire wit, she makes a mockery of that lazy British stereotype about Americans not doing irony. With Lyons, you bring your A game or get buried. * * * Lyons, in her role as a prison reporter for The Huntsville Item, witnessed 38 of them"
(i) Huntsville. Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsville,_Texas
("is located approximately 70 miles north of Houston"; In 1836, when Pleasant and Ephraim Gray opened a trading post here, and the latter in 1837 named it after his former home town, Huntsville, Alabama)
(ii) Huntsville Unit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsville_Unit
(nicknamed "Walls Unit;" photo caption: "The red brick walls lead to the nickname 'Walls Unit' ")
(iii) Piney Woods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piney_Woods
(iv) Bible Belt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt
(v) dive (n): "a shabby and disreputable establishment (such as a bar or nightclub)" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dive
(vi)
(A) A-game (n; from the use of the letter A to indicate the best): "the best performance a competitor is capable of in a sports contest" www.yourdictionary.com/a-game
(B) A game (n): "mainly US and Canadian informal one's best possible performance (esp in the phrase bring or take one's A game)" https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/d
(f) a bar chart in this report with heading "Executions by US state since 1976 (Top 10)"
capital punishment in California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_California
(section 5 Executions after 1976: 13 men).
(g) "She heard the sounds of offenders' last breaths - a cough, or a gasp, or a rattle - as the drugs did their work and their lungs collapsed, pushing the air out like a set of bellows."
There is no truth in "lungs collapsed."
"Currently, eight states (Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington) have used the single-drug execution protocol" which uses sodium thiopental -- a rapid-onset short-acting barbiturate sedative. en.wikipedia.org.
(h) Napoleon Beazley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Beazley