The Hanging of Westley Allan Dodd: KOIN 6 Special Report with the Media Witnesses, 1993

Name: The Hanging of Westley Allan Dodd: KOIN 6 Special Report with the Media Witnesses, 1993
Uploaded: 2026-04-29T00:00:00Z
Duration: 23 min 59 s
Description: Minutes after Westley Allan Dodd was hanged at Walla Walla, KOIN 6 in Portland carried the live briefing in which the journalists who witnessed the first US hanging since 1965 described what they saw and read out his last words.

Minutes after Westley Allan Dodd was hanged at Walla Walla, KOIN 6 in Portland carried the live briefing in which the journalists who witnessed the first US hanging since 1965 described what they saw and read out his last words.

Subject: Westley Allan Dodd
Recorded: about January 5, 1993
Runtime: 23:59

Content warning: Eyewitness accounts of an execution by hanging, including descriptions of the body after the drop; refers to the murders of three young boys and to Dodd's sexual offenses against children. No graphic detail of the murders.

The Report

This is a 24-minute KOIN 6 (Portland, Oregon) special report broadcast live just after midnight on January 5, 1993, minutes after Westley Allan Dodd was hanged at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. Anchor Eric Schmidt opens and closes the special; in between, the station carries the live briefing at the prison in which the journalists who had served as the media witnesses describe what they saw, with Schmidt naming each in voice-over. Dodd himself is not heard. His last words are read out from the witnesses' combined notes, which they stress are not verbatim. The recording was posted in 2026 by a private channel, apparently from an off-air recording.

Historical Context

Westley Allan Dodd murdered three boys in Vancouver, Washington, and nearby in 1989: two brothers, aged 11 and 10, in September, and a 4-year-old he abducted from a Portland playground in October. He was arrested in November 1989 after a failed abduction in Camas, Washington, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to death in 1990. He refused to appeal and chose hanging over lethal injection. His was the first legal hanging in the United States since 1965 and, as the anchor notes, the first execution in the Pacific Northwest since 1963.

Circumstances

The State of Washington admitted twelve journalists as a media pool to witness the execution. Dodd was hanged at 12:05 a.m.; a physician pronounced him dead at 12:09. Shortly afterward the witnesses gave a joint briefing to the other reporters waiting at the prison, introduced by a spokesman for the state prison system. The father of the two brothers and the mother of the 4-year-old also witnessed the execution.

What the Report Covers

The witnesses describe the upper window opening, Dodd making a short statement, the blind being lowered, the hood and noose being placed in silhouette, and the drop into the lower enclosure. Several say the hanging was far quicker than they had expected and that they saw nothing of the "gruesome" process described by opponents of hanging; some report slight movements of the body afterward, which they took to be involuntary. One witness reads her minute-by-minute notes. The reconstructed last words, read twice, have Dodd saying that he had once said sex offenders could not be stopped and that he had been wrong, and that he had found "hope" and "peace" in Jesus Christ. Witnesses describe the victims' parents' reactions, including a hiss from the father of the two brothers when Dodd spoke of the Lord, and one notes that Dodd offered no apology or expression of remorse. KOIN's Marcia Coffey recounts that in a December 1992 interview Dodd told her he was "in a living hell" and hoped death would end it. Schmidt closes with a summary.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The broadcast preserves, as it went out live, the first accounts of the people who witnessed the first American hanging since 1965, given minutes after the event, including the first public reconstruction of Dodd's last words and the witnesses' disagreement over whether they saw any movement after the drop.

Archival Importance

The recording documents how the press pool system worked at Washington's first execution in three decades and records the witnesses' immediate observations bearing on the debate over whether hanging was cruel and unusual punishment.

Important Caveats

Dodd is not heard; his last words are the witnesses' reconstruction, read by Eric Sorensen of the Spokesman-Review, and the witnesses say it is "definitely not verbatim." Schmidt's opening gives the time of death as 12:15; the witnesses and his closing give 12:09. Coffey's account of what Dodd told her in December is her report of his claims. Most witnesses' names have now been checked against contemporary press (see WARNINGS); one (the Tri-City Herald reporter) has not and should not be named on the page. The page should not name the children or their parents. The uploader is not KOIN, and the YouTube title's "Wesley" spelling in the audio is the broadcast's; his name is Westley.

Eric Schmidt: I'm Eric Schmidt, and this is a special report on the execution of Westley Allan Dodd. The convicted child killer was hanged at the Washington prison in Walla Walla at 5 minutes past 12 tonight. That's when the trapdoor sprang open and he fell through it. Uh, we understand that he was declared dead at 12:15. Right now in Walla Walla at the prison, Veltry Johnson, who is a spokesman for the Washington prison system, is bringing the, uh, reporters and others who were not witnesses to the execution up to date on the specifics, and then we will hear from 12 journalists who were actually witnesses to the execution. This man is Veltry Johnson of the Washington prison system.

Prison System Spokesman: Your media colleagues. We'll begin with Mr. Hart.

Media Witness: Can I get my phone?

Joe Hart: Um, other than watching somebody die, which is obviously not pleasant, I think, uh, it was carried out as it was supposed to be. There was no sign of a, uh, a struggle. I think we agreed on that, and, uh, it was very quick. And, uh, certainly not the gruesome, uh, process that we've heard and read about, at least that I've heard and read about. You go into something like this after hearing these stories, I think, expecting the worst, expecting to see the worst, and, uh, in my opinion, this certainly was not that.

Joe Hart: What struck me was how quickly it all happened, uh, from the time he spoke, and we have those words to share with you, um, from the time at the upper chamber that the blind was raised, he spoke his last words, a statement that probably took 25 to 30 seconds at the outside, that he stepped to the side, that the blind was lowered, the noose was placed around his neck, um, and tightened by someone standing in front of him and someone behind him, and dropped. It was, it was so very quick, maybe 2 minutes at the most. And when his body hit the bottom of the rope, there was one slight flex of the rope, his body turned sideways, and there was no movement whatsoever. His hands were bound tightly to his chest, his feet slightly relaxed. There was no sign of struggle, no sign of movement, and we witnessed him hanging in front of us for perhaps a minute at the most before the blind was lowered.

Media Witness: Yeah, I [unclear: "just" / "just repeat"] some of what was just said. Just, it happened very fast. They, the blinds were spread apart maybe a foot or two so that he could stand above us and speak down, and when he was finished they closed the blinds, and the scene was backlit, so it was kind of eerie in that you could see the, the hood placed on his head, the rope put on and tightened, the prison person stepped back, and it was just, just like that, and he fell through, and it was just that simple and that quick.

Eric Sorensen: Yeah, I can do that. Uh, keep in mind the audio was not functioning particularly well in the, the cell. So we sat, pooled our recollections of this, and it's as fallible as [unclear: "the cheap Realistic speaker" / "a cheap Realistic speaker"]. "I was once asked by somebody, I don't remember who, if there was some way to stop child [unclear: "what's it" / omitted] molesters, sex offenders. Uh, I said no. I was wrong. I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no peace. There is hope. There is peace. I found both in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord and you will find peace." That was it. Does anybody have any questions? I beg your pardon?

Eric Sorensen: "I was once asked by somebody, I don't remember who, if in any way sex offenders could be stopped, if there was any way..."

Eric Schmidt: This is Eric Sorensen of the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, and he is reading the last words that Westley Allan Dodd gave to the witnesses of the execution tonight in Walla Walla.

Eric Sorensen: "...I don't remember who, [pause] if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped. I said no. I was wrong." I think [unclear: "he said" / "I said"] "I was wrong" again[unclear: ", right?" / omitted]. "I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no peace. [pause] There is hope. [pause] There is peace. I found both in the Lord Jesus Christ. [pause] Look to the Lord and you will find peace." [Long pauses in this passage while the reporters write; the captions also have "You got" before "There is hope", possibly another voice.]

Media Witness: He appeared nervous, but, uh, he's about 20 feet up. I think his hands were bound. He's looking down in that kind of vacant, not necessarily focusing on anyone in particular.

Media Witness: Yes.

Eric Schmidt: This is Julie Havel of the Columbia Cable Television System in Vancouver.

Julie Havel: [Whisper only: "His last words, I guess,"] The only thing I really feel like I can say is to share with you my last words, as far as what I was writing as it was happening. "At 12:05:05, his body," this is after he fell, "his body seems to retch gently twice," sort of in, like this. "His stomach muscles went taut and then relaxed, and then a few seconds later they went taut again, and then nothing. He is still swinging gently. His hands are clasped at his waist. Fists are clenched. It happened much faster than I thought." Something completely unintelligible that I can't read. "Veltry is by phone, waiting for word that he is dead. Jewell has a very calm look of finality, resolve or relief on her face. 12:07, still no word that he's officially dead. No one is saying a word. I am still alive, and Wes is now on his way to another world. And I am still shaking, and he is still. 12:09, a death apparently occurred. And at 12:10, Veltry officially announced that he is dead." And that's it. That's what I wrote. And I am still shaking.

Eric Schmidt: Carl Dombek is with KING Radio in Seattle.

Carl Dombek: I don't have a lot to add to what the other people said about the mechanics of it. It was, um, it was very quick. It was very sudden. And with the hood over his head, the glass partition between us, it almost seemed too sterile. We didn't see any of the horrific tales that the opponents of the death penalty have been regaling us with for the last, oh, I don't know, weeks now. Uh, it was so quick that they put the hood over his head after drawing the shade, you heard a bang, and he appeared in front of us. And, uh, although I saw the gentle swing Julie mentioned, I didn't see any twitching. It may have been there and that I was just so madly making notes that I didn't see it. I looked, and it was, [unclear: "it was all" / "oh,"] I was looking through a department store window.

Carl Dombek: You try to prepare yourself. I think we all tried to prepare ourselves for the possibility that we'd be witnesses, and I thought how I would react. And, as many of you, having spent 15 years on the street as a reporter, I've seen people dead. I've seen people die in front of me, and it's always been horrible. It's been very difficult in some cases to deal with, and I thought that would be the case this time. I have to tell you, honestly, it wasn't. It was almost surreal. It didn't seem like it was happening. And maybe part of that was the fact that nobody said anything from the time we went in to well after we were out and on our way back. All you heard was the rustle of pages and the hum of what I presume was a heater, and the occasional sniffle, maybe from the cold, maybe from emotion, maybe both. Um, it's, um, it was distinctly different than anything we could have prepared, or that I could have prepared myself for. Uh, but again, I just have to say that in this case anyway, if there's any validity to the arguments that the anti-death penalty people have been making, they were not manifest, as far as anybody outside just watching from the death chamber could tell.

Unseen Reporter: How many feet away were you, or to the [inaudible]?

Carl Dombek: Right. I'd guess eight, eight feet. Six feet to the glass, and Mr. Dodd was a couple of feet beyond, perhaps.

John Wiley: I don't know if there was, there was some confusion earlier about the windows. Um, what I've got is that at, um, when we went in, that the top window, which is about 4 feet by 8 feet, was, um, covered over by a screen, or looked like brown kraft paper or something like that. Um, at about 12:02 the screen raised, uh, Mr. Dodd was in front of the window. He made his statement. About 2 minutes later the screen dropped. Uh, you could see the silhouette of, um, a man chewing gum, um, to Mr. Dodd's left. Somebody on his right placed the hood over his head. The man chewing the gum placed the rope around his neck, and at, I think it was 12:05, you heard the pop and, and saw the body come down, uh, into the, um, bottom enclosure, which was open. The glass was open, um, I mean, excuse me, the, um, the curtain was open. And, um, about a minute later, or maybe two, the superintendent came by and then closed that, uh, curtain on the bottom. And then, just a few minutes later, uh, it was announced that a physician had, uh, set the time of death at 12:09.

Eric Schmidt: That's John Wiley of the Associated Press in Spokane.

John Wiley: Um, I, I don't think that, um, there was some... what?

Media Witness: I heard a sigh of disgust from Jewell when his last words were uttered. Sort of a [inaudible]. And I didn't watch them afterwards, but I think Julie did.

Media Witness: I was watching Jewell walk down. They left very quickly. They left almost immediately after the curtain was lowered. She, she, uh, she patted, uh, Mr. Lee on the back. Uh, Mr. Neer shook his hand, and then they went out very quickly.

Unseen Reporter: [inaudible]

Media Witness: We couldn't. We were precluded from doing that. She had a look of very almost satisfaction on her face. Almost like, it's over, I can put this to rest now. It was almost a smug look.

Unseen Reporter: John, you said Mr. Neer shook the hand of, uh, Jewell? Is that...

Media Witness: Of, uh, Darrell Lee, Mr. Dodd's attorney.

Unseen Reporter: And did the superintendent give an actual order? Did you hear them say that?

Media Witness: [We couldn't] hear any order. It just happened after that.

Unseen Reporter: And you were watching him from the silhouette. He was pronounced dead at 12:09. What time did he actually...

Media Witness: 12:05.

Media Witness: And there was, he wasn't, you know, struggling or anything after that. I mean, it's just... Dodd's voice was the only voice you heard during your time in there.

Lori Williams: I was going to say that the family was very upset by his last words. They were shaking their, uh, Mr. Neer was shaking his head, and, um, they were looking up at him, and he was looking down more at the, the media. I don't think he looked over at the family members. It didn't seem to me. They, they seemed very upset when he was talking about, uh, the Lord. And they, and right after that, um, when he was dangling there, they just looked at him, and Mr. Neer looked forward through the window, almost like he didn't know if that was really him hanging there or if he was really dead. It was almost an act of disbelief.

Eric Schmidt: Lori Williams is a reporter with the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick.

Unseen Reporter And Lori Williams: [Question:] [inaudible] visible signs of [inaudible]? [Answer:] The scoff, the shaking of the head, just like, you know, I can't believe he's saying that type of, disbelief. [Question:] Any tears? Did they show emotion? [Answer:] I don't think so. [Question:] Did they allow you, did they allow you to talk to them in any way? [Answer:] No.

Lori Williams: One of the things I, uh, made a note of after the, uh, initial flurry of trying to jot down as much of Mr. Dodd's last words as I could were my observations that, uh, he had made his own statement without any expression of sorrow or regret or remorse. And I can only guess at the, uh, reasoning behind the family's reactions, but as you look at him, there was nothing to say, "I'm sorry," or "I found Jesus and I ask forgiveness." It's just, "I have found peace." Uh, nothing that would indicate that he regrets what he did, and that's...

Media Witness: His voice was broken up, though. You could tell his voice, I thought his voice was very...

Unidentified Voice At The Briefing: Can we continue in order and then come back? [unclear: "Harry's" (captions); probably "Terry's"] next. Okay.

Eric Schmidt: Terry McConn is with the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.

Terry McConn: We were in there about 15 minutes. The, this whole thing happened so very quickly, and what we saw, we probably, you know, saw about 2 minutes' worth. The other time seemed interminable. We did absolutely nothing but sit and scribble [unclear: "of that" / "about"] our thoughts, maybe, about what was in the room, uh, just waiting for something to happen. Um, one thing that's going to be debated, probably, because of the, the controversy over the hanging, cruel and unusual punishment. I agree with everything everybody said here. He didn't seem to, there didn't seem to be anything gruesome happening. He dropped, and that was it. About the retching, some people saw that, some people didn't. What I saw, I believe, was, was with his hands, as they were, they were bound up a little bit, about 45 seconds to a minute after. I thought I saw him breathing, or, or saw some, some movement in the abdomen, too. But, and we were discussing that afterwards, and, and that's probably something clinical, uh, that occurs after, after this type of death. But it seemed, the death seemed instantaneous, really. He didn't... That's all.

Media Witness: Um, I really don't have much to add, especially detailed account. It is extremely hard to take notes when someone's dying in front of you. I've never seen anyone die, let alone anyone speak to me from 20 feet above, and, and then fall and die right in front of me. So I don't know if I have much to say. It was the quickness surprised me, the speed of it all, and how no one said, "These are his last words," or "Dodd, do you have any last words?" He just appeared before us, spoke, and then the curtain was pulled. And it was almost like a movie in a way, because of the shadows. And another thing that I found very eerie was we walked from this room to the gallows outside, in the snow, in the cold temperatures and the bright lights of the prison. I don't really know how I feel right now. I don't [unclear: "know if regrets" / "regret"]. Not now. Maybe later.

Media Witnesses And Unseen Reporters: Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Schmidt: [unclear: "Will that account for Mary Clayton" / "We're that account for Mary Clayton"] [inaudible].

Media Witness: [Whisper only, unclear: "I didn't want to say this ... because"] Because you said, you, nobody asked if there were any last words. I thought I heard Superintendent Wood ask if he had any, if you had any final words, or whatever. I thought I heard that.

Media Witnesses: I heard something to that effect. I, I thought I heard something like that, too. It was very hard to hear. The last words were, yeah, this, this account that we gave you is probably not, is definitely not verbatim, and it was as close as we can get.

Unseen Reporter: Hm? Did Dodd attempt to look at the witnesses?

Media Witnesses: He looked in our direction. You don't know if he made eye contact. Nor with me. It didn't seem as if he made eye contact with anyone. He may not have been able to see us very well, because it's rather dark where we were. It was almost like a movie.

Unseen Reporter And Media Witnesses: [Witness:] Huh? [Reporter:] What color was the hood? [Witnesses:] Black. Black. [Reporter:] How far did it go down his body?

Eric Schmidt: Michael Rollins is a reporter with the Oregonian, here in Portland.

Michael Rollins: Uh, I, I think, um, I did hear, uh, the superintendent. Uh, it was very, very muffled. I don't know if she was holding the microphone or not, but she did say something to the effect of, "Do you wish to say something?" Then there was something unintelligible, and then he came on, and, and his, his statement seemed, he seemed so detached from it. Although, you know, I guess for all intents and purposes it was a cogent statement, but, uh, it, it was hard for us to take notes, uh, because we couldn't hear very well, but, but still, it was just, I think part of it was that maybe he had, it seemed like he had some trouble getting it out.

Michael Rollins: Couple of other things. I think a, a couple of minutes before midnight, um, hold on one second. I was sitting next to, um, Clair Neer and, and, uh, Jewell Cornell, and, uh, Jewell turned to Clair and asked, "Are you all right?" Uh, and they both nodded, and they patted each other's hands. And, uh, then I believe it was, um, Clair Neer who asked, uh, Jewell, "What time do you have?" And, and she, uh, showed her wristwatch, and then they glanced upwards, uh, to the second level. And I, maybe it's because I was there, but, uh, when Westley Allan Dodd did make his final statement, I believe when he reached the words "in the Lord Jesus Christ," that, that, uh, Clair Neer hissed. Uh, he was unhappy.

Media Witness: Um, well...

Eric Schmidt: Marcia Coffey with KOIN TV.

Marcia Coffey: [unclear: "I feel" / "We can"] we should revisit that for a moment. Uh, I did see movement. It was very slight. Maybe twice. And it might have been as if, uh, it looked to me as if it could have been an involuntary relaxing of his abdominal muscles or something. So it's sort of a, like that. And, um, it was very hard to say whether he would have felt anything. I personally, from watching it, would believe that he did not.

Marcia Coffey: I interviewed Wes Dodd in December, and he told me at that time that he hoped that death would bring him relief, because he is alternately tortured by the memories of what he did and then aroused by the memories of what he did. And he said he was in a living hell, and he hoped that death would bring an end to his living hell. I think we can probably all agree that we would hope for that also. There is, uh, he was ambiguous, I think, in the end, about what he thought would happen to him in the afterlife. We were talking before we went in, and he told me in December that he believed he was going to hell. Apparently he told someone else he believed he is going to heaven. I guess at this point we're all powerless to report where, where Wes Dodd is going.

Unseen Reporter: Any reaction from that, from that person?

Media Witness: No reaction that I saw. He left almost immediately. When the body fell through the hole, [unclear: "that body felt jumped up" / "jumped up"] and sort of [unclear: "jumped at it more" / "looked at it more"].

Eric Schmidt: You have just seen and heard the statements of 12 journalists who were the witnesses to the execution of Westley Allan Dodd shortly after midnight tonight. The journalists told us that, uh, the trapdoor sprung open at 12:05, and Westley Allan Dodd was declared dead at 12:09. All of them basically said the death was very quick. One of them said it was like watching a movie, because of the shadows. Another said it was like watching something in a department store window. Uh, Newsroom 6's Marcia Coffey said that there was some twitching going on, that Dodd's body did have some abdominal movement after he fell through the trapdoor. They all said that, uh, it was nothing like they had expected to see.

Eric Schmidt: They did say that, uh, the family members who watched, the victim, uh, the, the family members of the, of Dodd's victims who were witnesses to the execution tonight, Jewell Cornell, the mother of 4-year-old Lee Iseli, and Clair Neer, whose two boys, Cole and Billy Neer, were killed and molested by, uh, Westley Allan Dodd. They, uh, said at one point Clair Neer hissed at Westley Allan Dodd's last statement, in which he said he had found peace. And one of the journalists, one of the witnesses tonight, said that Westley Allan Dodd said that indeed he had found peace and that he had found some solace in Jesus Christ, but he did not offer any remorse or say that he was sorry for what he had done.

Eric Schmidt: So there you have it. Westley Allan Dodd, who was executed tonight, the first hanging execution in the United States since 1965, the first execution in the Pacific Northwest since 1963. We'll have a complete report on the Dodd execution on Newsroom 6 Tuesday, which is today, at noon, and again Tuesday evening at 5 o'clock. I'm Eric Schmidt. This has been a special report on the execution of Westley Allan Dodd. This is Newsroom 6. [23:49: music; the special ends at 23:59.] ---