The Texas Monthly profiles Michelle Lyons, former public information officer for the Texas prison system, who witnessed 278 executions over her career. “With each passing year, the act of witnessing executions weighed on Michelle more and more heavily,” the Monthly reports. Says the Grits for Breakfast blog: “Lyons still supports the death penalty but the experience made her more thoughtful about the issue than most folks.”
The agency she worked for, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, has grown “more skittish about media attention” in recent years, and her “attempts to grant access to journalists or be proactive about press coverage were increasingly discouraged.” Eventually, she was demoted over accusations that she kept inaccurate time sheets, and left state government.