Connecticut’s Hangman and Johnny Cash’s Last Song

hangman With Governor Dannel Malloy’s signature in April 2012, Connecticut became the fifth state in five years to abolish the death penalty. Connecticut makes seventeen states that do not have capital punishment, along with the District of Columbia, as more states are realizing that the death penalty is expensive, unfair, arbitrary, unnecessary, and risks executing the innocent.

Similarly, recently the man who wrote California’s death penalty law and the man who led the drive for that state to adopt capital punishment have changed their position and said that life without parole is a better option than the death penalty. For various reasons, the civilizing trend around the country is leading to more states abolishing the death penalty.

Capital punishment is still used as a political issue, though. Even as Connecticut abolished the death penalty for future cases, it did not overturn the death sentences of the few people currently on death row in the state.

Johnny Cash’s Last Song: “Hangman”

Speaking of executioners, in this video, Marty Stuart tells about his final meeting with Johnny Cash.  Stuart recalls how Cash helped him write the song, “Hangman.”

Stuart was inspired to start writing the song after visiting Folsom Prison and seeing where Cash had performed for the inmates. While working on the song, he told Cash about the song, and Cash gave Stuart some help.

As Stuart explains before he performs the song in the video below, it was probably the last song Cash helped write.  Four days after they worked on “Hangman,” Cash passed away on September 12, 2003.

“Hangman” later appeared on Stuart’s album, Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions (2010).

The song begins with the singer talking about killing another man: “I’ve lost count at thirty, and I’ve grown too numb to grieve.” After he tells how alcohol and dope helps him get by, the chorus comes in to reveal the twist. The song is not about a serial killer but the hangman.

Martyh Stuart Ghost Train Hangman Hangman, Hangman,
That’s my stock and trade.
Hangman, Hangman,
Sending bad men to their grave.
But who killed who? I ask myself,
Time and time again.
God have mercy on the soul,
Of this Hangman.

In the video, Stuart tells how Johnny Cash helped him with the chorus and the poetic line, “But who killed who? I ask myself.” The line, and the song evoke the concerns of the Connecticut legislature.

Both the legislature and Gov. Malloy realized that the death penalty is not about what we do to convicted murderers. Capital punishment is about what it does to us when our government kills people already in prison for the rest of their lives. Connecticut is saving the hangman, not the prisoners.

What do you think of “Hangman”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • The Killing of “Two Good Men”
  • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)


    Author: chimesfreedom

    Editor-in-chief, New York.

    3 thoughts on “Connecticut’s Hangman and Johnny Cash’s Last Song”

    1. Thanks for posting this. Johnny’s lyrics are still giving me chills postmortem. The Man Comes Around is such a favorite of mine and still in a regular piece of my music rotation. I can hear this as a bonus track on a ‘Deluxe Edition’ that are so popular these days. It would fit right in.

      1. The Man Comes Around is great. It is cool that new discoveries are still coming from Johnny. Thanks for the comment!

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