AP reporter who observed 400+ executions in Texas, retires

HOUSTON » Associated Press journalist Michael Graczyk, who witnessed and chronicled more than 400 executions as a criminal justice reporter in Texas, will retire Tuesday after nearly 46 years with the news service.

Graczyk, 68, may have observed more executions than any other person in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Millions of readers in Texas and beyond relied on his coverage of capital punishment in America’s most active death penalty state.

He built a reputation for accuracy and fairness with death row inmates, their families, their victims’ fam ilies and their lawyers, as well as prison officials and advocates on both sides of capital punishment. He made a point of visiting and photographing every condemned inmate willing to be interviewed and talking to relatives of their victims. Over time, he became widely known as an authority on the death penalty and a witness to history.

Even after retiring, Graczyk will continue covering executions for the AP on a freelance basis, an arrangement he suggested.

Long ago, Graczyk said, he stopped keeping count of how many executions he observed. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s list of media witnesses includes his name 429 times, though that list is not exhaustive.

DAVID J. PHILLIP — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Veteran Associated Press reporter Michael Graczyk looks through some of many media credentials he has collected over his career with the AP, in Montgomery, Texas.