The Importance of Meals in Inmates

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Frank Thompson went to college to study medicine, but left school to serve in the Army during the Vietnam War. He returned to Arkansas, finished college, and got a job with the Arkansas Department of Corrections. Years later, it would become Frank Thompson's job to learn how to perform an execution step by step.

Not long into his job as prison superintendent, Frank Thompson was asked to write the manual on lethal injection for the state of Oregon. Capital punishment had not been implemented in more than 30 years, and no one knew how to do it. Frank had to travel around the country learning how other states do it, and he asked his staff to practice. They simulated every step, including seating witnesses in the gallery, interacting with the press, and strapping each other to the gurney.

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