Executed by the state of Illinois on January 21, 1998

The following was written by a friend of Wayne’s:

Wayne Hampton's case received a lot of publicity because he claimed to have murdered a downstate man in order to get the death penalty. At his trial he asked for the death penalty, and as soon as he was admitted to death row at Menard, he requested that his sentence be carried out immediately. He wanted no appeals - he just wanted to die.

Wayne “volunteered” twice to be executed before his appeals were completed. The first time -- when he was in the death house awaiting execution -- his friends, sister, and attorney talked him into stopping his execution and resuming his appeals. The second time, he remained resolute. He seemed not only resigned but almost looking forward to his impending execution.

A psychiatrist would have characterized Wayne as a seriously clinically depressed person. Whatever he was clinically, Wayne truly wanted to die - he saw death as an end to the terrible life he'd had. There was very little joy and love in Wayne's life, and pain in abundance; more pain than anyone should ever have to endure. He had been abandoned by his mother at the age of six, horribly abused by his father, and basically relegated to a lonely and unloved existence at a very young age. Yet, by resuming his appeal after first giving it up, he responded to the love in that ugly cellblock and agreed to live for us; to save us the pain of his death.

When Wayne wasn't in prison, he earned his living singing country and western songs and playing the guitar in bars. His idol was Merle Haggard, who himself had a checkered past. Wayne became a voracious reader in prison. His other idol was Gary Gilmore, the first person to be executed since the 1976 re-instatement of the death penalty, who was famous for his desire to be put to death. His favorite book was The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer’s novel about Gilmore’s life, and he read it over and over. Before he went to Stateville the first time, he gave me the book with these lines circled:

Those of us who loved Wayne miss him greatly. He was a difficult person to love sometimes, but those of us who were allowed to get close to him were changed by the experience. I am grateful to Wayne for allowing me to be a part of his life and to actually witness and be the recipient of such an act of love and sacrifice.

This addendum was written by Charles Schiedel, the head of the state Appellate Defender’s Supreme Court Unit, who represented Wayne:

I felt quite close to Wayne on his good days, when he was not expressing his misery. He could be very demanding and stubborn but it was impossible not to like him. Wayne showed me more gratitude and personal connection than any one I have represented. He also left me with a terrific line: One of the last things he said to me on the night of his execution was that I would never believe how lonely it had been being the only guilty guy on death row!

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