In the final hours before his death, Harold McQueen handed Paul Ste-vens a coin engraved with the words, "God Loves You. He really does."
The coin, which McQueen carried with him while on Death Row, has little monetary value. But Stevens said he will treasure the gift because it symbolizes McQueen's conversion from a drug-addled killer to a devout Ro-man Catholic.Stevens, who became McQueen's friend and spiritual adviser, was with McQueen from about 6 p.m. Monday to the execution at 12:07 a.m. Tuesday.
They were interrupted periodically as McQueen's lawyers explained his last-ditch appeals. The rest of the time, they chatted, joked and prayed.
"He was perfectly at ease," Stevens said.
"He was worried about the guys on Death Row. He said they need to worry about their spiritual lives."
Stevens' own daughter, Cynthia, was murdered in 1969. Stevens, now 75, struggled with her death for years before deciding that counseling prisoners would heal his wounds. And so, for the past 11 years, he has traveled the 30 miles from his home in Dawson Springs to Eddyville once a week, where he visits with Death Row inmates and celebrates Mass with them.
In recent weeks, Stevens became the man closest to McQueen as McQueen's legal appeals to stop his execution were exhausted. Monday, Stevens was the person most often at Mc-Queen's side, even to the end.
McQueen carried Cynthia Stevens' rosary when he walked to the electric chair.
Just before McQueen was strapped in, Stevens told him, "I love you son. I'll never forget you." McQueen responded, "I love you, father."
Stevens and McQueen had shared a last meal: two cheesecakes, decorated with magnolia leaves and a magnolia blossom. The kitchen worker who brought the food began sobbing when she saw McQueen. He also cried.
"He thought she was a tough cookie and did not care for him, but he was wrong," Stevens said.
At dinner, they talked about McQueen's family. His mother, aunt and several friends visited him early in the day.
About 9:45 p.m., one of McQueen's lawyers, Stefanie McArdle, called to say, "It's over."
When McQueen's head was shaved for the electric chair, he decided to have his mustache shaved, too. Then he wisecracked about how he looked like the Rev. Maurice Tiehl, who is bald.
"He was that relaxed," Stevens said.
Rev. Tiehl took McQueen's confession and performed last rites. Still, McQueen remained calm.
Stevens had given copies of Psalm 23 to the inmates on Death Row and asked them to read the prayer after midnight, when the execution was to begin.
Stevens said the walk from Cell 13 to the death chamber was about 20 paces and quick. Mc-Queen was barefoot, wearing a red jumpsuit with the right leg cut away to allow contact with an electrode.
With McQueen seated in the electric chair, Stevens read him a prayer: "Harold may you be united in heaven with Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Cindy, Rebecca, and all the saints and experience complete forgiveness."
After they said goodbye to each other, Stevens left the death chamber and waited outside instead of going into the witness room because he did not want to see the execution. He did, however, hear the jolt of electricity that passed through McQueen's body, he said.
Afterward, Stevens went to Death Row, where many of the 31 inmates there were shaken - and even crying.
Some have known McQueen since he was sent to the prison in 1981 for the fatal shooting of clerk Rebecca O'Hearn during the robbery of a convenience store in Richmond in 1980.