Michelle Powlowski Executed.
Eye witness report by Madeline Carter Chief Crime Reporter
This morning I was present as the official media representative at the execution by breaking of the terrorist Michelle Powlowski.I arrived at the Central Women's Prison at eight o'clock and after a short wait was taken with some other witnesses to a barred balcony looking down into the courtyard where executions are carried out. The yard is small, surrounded on three sides by cell blocks that reach five floors high. The yard contains two low concrete platforms. One holds the thick metal stake to which women are chained for burning and on the other is the X frame on which the most notorious prisoners are broken. The frame is made of wood and stands on short legs. It has a central section for the prisoner's body and four arms for the limbs. On the arms there are raised blocks placed so that they will be under the prisoners wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. The fact that the joints are resting on these raised blocks makes breaking the prisoner's long bones easier and the blocks also ensure that the joints are readily crushed. The prisoner is placed, spread-eagle on the frame and then held firmly in place by leather straps around the wrists and ankles and just above the elbows and knees. The prisoner is disrobed to prison issue black bra and thong for execution. They are not blindfolded or hooded. Once the prisoner is secured the sentence is read by the prison warden. It is at this point that the prisoner learns how many strokes they will be given and if the mercy of strangulation by the garotte has been allowed. If mercy is granted then the executioner will deliver a stated number of blows to the prisoner's body before using a lever beneath the prisoner's head to tighten a cord around their throat and choke them to death. The maximum number of blows a prisoner can receive is 34. The executioner moves clockwise around the bound prisoner breaking them with a heavy iron bar. The hands and feet are broken first with single blows. Then the fore arms and shins with two blows to each. Single blows break the elbows and knees and then double blows to the upper arms and thighs. Single blows to the shoulders and hips finish the breaking of the limbs and then there is a short pause before the final blows are delivered. Three strokes to the stomach and three to the chest. I have been told that no prisoner has ever lived beyond the first stroke to the chest.
The prison is quiet. Many prisoners are at their cell windows that look down into the yard and will watch in hushed awe as the terrible sentence of the law is carried out on one of their number.
As we stand at the edge of the balcony the execution team, all women enter the courtyard via a small door in the wall beneath us and make their way to the execution platform. There are three of them. The executioner carries the bar with which she will carry out the sentence. The other two are there to help the escorting guards secure the prisoner and to remove the remains from the frame after the execution is over. As the tension mounts we all stand silently awaiting the arrival of the prisoner.
Suddenly a small door in the side of the yard opens and Michelle appears flanked by two guards. She looks younger than her 19 years and curiously vulnerable in her black bra and thong, her shoulder length blonde hair ruffling slightly in the breeze. her wrists are chained together in front of her and joined to her ankle chains by a series of thick links. She walks slowly but steadily towards the platform and its deadly frame. Two burly guards, their faces blank, hold her arms tightly. When they reach the narrow steps to the platform they move into Indian file, one guard leading the prisoner and the other one following, both still holding her firmly. When they reach the platform Michelle stands looking at the frame as her chains are removed by the execution guards. Then with a guard taking each limb she is lifted and placed spread-eagle on the frame. The executioner moves forward to order small adjustments and when she is satisfied Michelle is strapped tightly, first at the ankles and wrists and then at the elbows and knees. She lies there gazing upward toward us witnesses. Her expression betrays no sign of fear and she smiles. The prison Warden mounts the scaffold carrying a sheet of paper and reads the sentence. The prisoner Michelle Powlowski is to receive 34 blows with the bar and the mercy of the garotte has been denied. Michelle shouts out in a strong voice "Long live the revolution!" the warden nods and the execution begins.
The first blow lands with a thud on Michelle's right hand reducing it to pulp. She jerks on the frame, her head lifting slightly and gasps but does not scream. The executioner moves her position to the left of the frame and strikes the left hand. This time Michelle has clenched her fist and her hand seems to explode under the strike of the bar, some blood spraying upwards. Slowly rythmically the breaking continues. The executioner moving position around her victim, raising the bar, taking careful aim and then striking with sufficient force to break the targeted bone. At first the prisoner just jerks and gasps and remarkably she suffers 12 blows without screaming. Eventually the agony takes control and as her right elbow is smashed she cries out "Oh God!" With each subsequent blow her cries become more frantic and high pitched with the gaps between blows being filled with agonised groaning. Her head twists from side to side in her agony and then jerks up at little as a blow lands her mouth gaping wide in an anguished scream. The process continues relentlessly gradually reducing Michelle's limbs to broken, contorted pools of agony. Once the breaking of the limbs is completed the executioner lays down her bar, takes a drink from a metal flask. and wipes her brow with a handkerchief. One of the assistants lifts Michelle's head slightly and she is given a drink from a plastic glass. She no longer screams, just moans weakly. It seems incredible that she is still alive and conscious. Her dimmed eyes look up towards us but she no longer smiles. Then the executioner puts down the flask, pockets the handkerchief and picks up the bar. We are about to witness the final strokes. Michelle's whole body jerks and looks as if it might bounce off the frame as three blows land on her stomach. Gasps escape from her mouth and her face contorts but she does not scream. A fourth blow lands on her chest and with a crunching sound her ribcage breaks. Blood starts to pour from her mouth, her head lolls to the side and her eyes become blank. Two further blows land on Michelle's chest reducing it to a pulp with shards of broken bone and protruding at various points. The prisoner Michelle Powlowski has paid for her crimes against the state.
Once the prison doctor had certified that she was dead Michelle's broken body was unstrapped from the frame, placed into a black plastic sack by the executioner's assistants. As the frame was washed down and Michelle's body was taken away for incineration by the two guards who had brought her out I wondered if her accomplices had been watching from their cells. One is soon to suffer the same fate as Michelle and the other two are to suffer the more merciful punishment of burning alive. I hope to be providing more eye witness reporting on these executions for this paper when they occur.