News about Robert Alton Harris

After languishing on Death Row for almost 25 years, convicted murderer Richard Moore (inset) now faces an agonising decision - choosing how he will be executed. The 59-year-old American has less than a week to pick his fate for fatally shooting a shop assistant in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, during a botched robbery in September 1999. Jail officials have told him he has three options : death by firing squad, electric chair, or lethal injection. If he can't make up his mind come Friday, he will be electrocuted by default on November 1. And as Moore mulls over how he will ultimately end his life, his Death Row dilemma has once again thrust the debate over state-sanctioned executions back into the spotlight. Although deemed 'humane' methods of death, each of his options come with their own nightmarish risks, which could see Moore facing a tortuous and excruciatingly painful end.

A spree of five executions in the US has reignited both horror and interest in the death penalty - which is retained in 23 states - and has once again ignited the debate over its use. Reporting on the five cases has also reignited a morbid fascination in the final words uttered by those about to be executed. While it is not a constitutional right, it has long been tradition to allow prisoners to make a final statement. In some states, officials place a limit on how long this statement can last, while others have tried to make such statements written only. Regardless of how they have been delivered, America's history of final words is greatly varied, with the five in the past week alone have demonstrated this. The executed men pleaded their innocence, reassured their family members watching on, said their final thanks, prayed to their god - or simply said 'bye'. Here, DailyMail.com takes a look back at some of the most notable final words, beginning with the five from the past week:

The uptick of capital punishment in recent years, as well as the brutality of methods used around the world, has brought state-sanctioned executions back to the forefront. Wide reports indicate that thousands of people are killed every year in a horrific 'conveyer belt' of death, with the Chinese Communist Party adopting anachronisms such as firing squads and mobile death vans to expedite state executions. The United States has been charged with the industrial murder of civilians, which has been chastised by human rights organizations for regulating an increase in the number of crooks put to death by various lethal means.