Gloria Rubac is an extremely dedicated death penalty abolitionist who has been fighting to bring an end to the death penalty in Texas for decades, increasing her dedication to abolition in 1982, when executions resumed during what has been deemed the modern death penalty era. Since that time 577 executions have taken place in the state of Texas and Gloria has been outside of the Huntsville prison protesting well over 500 of these executions, from the first one in 1982 through to the one that took place on the evening that she agreed to be interviewed for my study. This picture was taken on November 9, 2022, in Huntsville, Texas, at the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery, which is the cemetery where prisoners are buried when they die in a Texas prison and their bodies are not claimed by family. After my interview with Gloria, I accompanied her to a protest outside of the Huntsville prison, to protest the execution of Tracy Beatty. In my interview with Gloria, she described the trauma that she experienced from witnessing the executions of two people over the years of her work as an abolitionist.
Click on the above video to see Gloria speaking at the 19th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, which is held in Texas every year.