Carroll Pickett

Infobox Person
name = Carroll L. Pickett


image_size =
caption =
birth_date = 1933
birth_place = Nursery, Texas
residence = Huntsville, Texas
nationality = American
other_names = Carroll L. "Bud" Pickett
known_for = Prison ministry, opposition to capital punishment
education = Ordained minister
alma_mater = Victoria College, Austin College
employer = Texas Department of Corrections (ret.)
occupation = Minister
home_town = Victoria, Texas
title = Reverend
religion = Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
spouse = Jane Pickett

Reverend Carroll L. "Bud" Pickett (b. 1933, Nursery, Texas) is a Presbyterian minister in Huntsville, Texas. In the 1960s and 1970s, Rev. Pickett served two churches in Texas. [http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:urNpdZ_jBc0J:www.victoriaadvocate.com/793/story/207995.html+%22Carroll+Pickett%22+biography+%22First+Presbyterian+Church%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us Bio] , "Victoria Advocate", March 08, 2008, retrieved 2008-05-19, link invalid as of 2008-09-14, original link likely [http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/793/story/207995.html] .] In 1980 he began serving as a chaplain in the Huntsville, Texas, prison, where he spent most of the next 15 years working with prisoners facing imminent execution.Stowers, Carlton, and Carroll Pickett, "Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain", ISBN 978-0312287177, St. Martin's Press, 2002, [http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=JQlIcYytPmkC Google Books] ] Since retiring from the Texas Department of Corrections, Rev. Picket writes and speaks against the death penalty. His 2002 book, "Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain", won several awards. [http://sun.synodsun.com/documents/TheSUN_2006Vol13No4_Aug.pdf From out of Texas to Everywhere!] The Presbyterian Sun, August 2006, retrieved 2008-05-19] The 2008 documentary "" chronicles his prison ministry. [http://www.ifc.com/atthedeathhousedoor At the Death House Door] official web site, retrieved 2008-05-19]

Early life and ministry

Born in 1933 in Nursery, Texas and raised near Victoria, Texas with his 5 brothers and sisters, Carroll Pickett attended Patti Welder High School and Victoria College before graduating from Austin College in 1954. [http://www.austincollege.edu/Attachments/presreport04.pdf Page, Oscar C., "A Decade of Leadership: Austin College President's Report 2003-2004"] , retrieved 2008-05-19] He graduated from seminary in about 1957 and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/pickett.html Frontline: The Execution: Readings: Interview With Reverend Carroll Pickett] , retrieved 2008-05-19] . He married Sonja Cambpell and they raised 4 children. Divorced in the early 1980s, he married his second wife Jane in 1990.Stowers, Carlton, [http://search.dallasobserver.com/2000-09-14/news/death-angel/ Death Angel] , Dallas Observer, September 14, 2000, retrieved 2008-05-19]

He served as pastor of the a church in Sinton, TexasMcCain, Colleen [http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-deathchaplain_01edi.ART.State.Edition1.26991a5.html Rev. Carroll Pickett: The evolution of a death penalty opponent (interview)] , Dallas Morning News, 2008-10-01, retrieved 2008-10-01] and later First Presbyterian Church in Victoria, Texas from 1961-1967 and the First Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Texas from 1967-1980.

Attitudes towards the death penalty

In 1974, the Carrasco Prison Siege of 1974 took the lives of two of Rev. Pickett's parishioners.Harper, William T., "Eleven Days in Hell: The 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege in Huntsville, Texas", ISBN 1574411802, 2004, University of North Texas Press, p. 202, 290-291, [http://books.google.com/books?id=utC2cqXTZ0cC Google Books] ] After this, he was in favor of the death penalty. This was in direct conflict with the Presbyterian Church's established opposition to the death penalty. [http://www.pcusa.org/101/101-capital.htm PC(USA) - Presbyterian 101 - Capital Punishment] , retrieved 2008-05-19]

During his tenure as a prison chaplain in the 1980s and 1990s, his views changed. In 1989 he sought psychiatric help to deal with work-related issues. He came to believe that one prisoner, Carlos De Luna, was wrongly executed. He could not reveal his changed attitudes without jeopardizing his job and he felt a calling to continue to minister to prisoners on the last day of their lives. On the day of his retirement in 1995, he finally announced that he was against the death penalty.Lee, Felicia R. [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/arts/television/27docu.html His Life With the Deaths That the State Carried Out] , The New York Times, May 27, 2008, retrieved 2008-09-14]

In a September 2008 interview, he mentions that his attitude change was a long process, and was in part due to the execution of several men who he believes were innocent.

Campaign against the death penalty

In addition to writing a book and being the subject of a documentary about his time as the Death House chaplain, Rev. Pickett speaks and writes against the death penalty. [http://sun.synodsun.com/documents/TheSUN_2006Vol13No4_Aug.pdf From out of Texas to Everywhere!] The Presbyterian Sun, August 2006, retrieved 2008-05-19]

Recognition

*2002, "Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain", Violet Crown Award [http://www.arts.state.tx.us/artstexas/02winter/crown.asp 2002 Violet Crown & Teddy Book Awards presented in Austin] , "ArtsTexas", Texas Commission on the Arts, Winter 2002, retrieved 2008-05-19]
*2005, "Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain", PEN Soutwest Book Awards, finalist, non-fiction [http://www.pentexas.org/2005%20PEN%20Awards.htm 2005 PEN Southwest Book Awards] , retrieved 2008-05-19]

Publications

*Stowers, Carlton, and Carroll Pickett, "Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain", ISBN 978-0312287177, St. Martin's Press, 2002, [http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=JQlIcYytPmkC&dq=carroll+pickett&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=Lmv5p_r4CU&sig=8WrZzfCx75sYHz5Z1x-UzshM7J8#PPA243,M1 Google Books]

ee also

*Wiktionary's entry for .
*Wrongful execution

References

Persondata
NAME = Pickett, Carroll L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Pickett, Carroll L. "Bud"
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Presbyterian prison chaplain and death-penalty opponent
DATE OF BIRTH = 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH = Nursery, Texas, United States of America