The testimony of Etienne Bowmont. My name is Etienne Bowmont and I am the man who should have died on October 17th, 2024 at exactly 6 p.m.
In the execution chamber of Huntsville State Prison in Texas. But that evening, something happened that overturned all the laws of nature, science, and human justice.
That evening, strapped to a cold gurnie with intravenous catheters in both my arms, ready to deliver the substances that would end my life, I spoke a name, just one name, and the witnesses present behind the glass were plunged into a state of shock from which some have still not recovered.
That name was Carlo Acutis, a young Italian who died at 15 in 2006. A blessed that I didn’t even know 3 years earlier, but who would become my savior in the most terrifying moment of my existence.
When I think back to that evening, every detail remains engraved in my memory with crystal clarity.
The cold vinyl of the gurnie against my back. The chemical smell of the sterile room.
The hum of the fluorescent lights above me. My mother’s gaze through the glass. Her hands pressed against the window as if she could touch me one last time.
And then that light, that impossible light that flooded the room when I cried out his name.
That presence that everyone felt, that no one can explain, that skeptics still try to rationalize, but that witnesses know in the depths of their being, was divine.
But before I tell you what happened in that cold and sanitized chamber, I must explain how I got there.
How a boy born in Houston to French immigrant parents became prisoner number 999547 on Texas Death Row.
My parents, Marie and Jean-Luc Bowmont, had left Lyon in 1985 to achieve the American dream, carried by the optimism and ambition that characterized that era.
My father was a petroleum engineer, brilliant in his field, hired by a large Texas company that offered him opportunities he would never have had in France.
My mother, a French teacher at the Alliance Francaise of Houston, had devoted herself to keeping our cultural heritage alive in this new world.
I was born in 1990, 2 years after my older brother Thomas, in a private clinic in Houston that seemed to me at the time to represent everything that America had best to offer.
We grew up in a quiet suburb of the city in a two-story house with a perfectly mowed lawn between two cultures, speaking French at home and English at school.
My parents raised us in the Catholic faith with a very French rigor. We went to mass every Sunday at St.
Anne’s church, a small French-speaking parish in the neighborhood where French immigrants would gather after the service to share croissants and talk about the homeland.
I remember those mornings, my shirt collar too tight, the smell of incense, the priest’s voice reciting prayers I knew by heart.
At the time, all of this seemed like a tedious obligation, an empty ritual imposed by parents disconnected from modern reality.
But I abandoned this faith in adolescence when I began to frequent the wrong people, to use drugs, to seek an identity elsewhere than in the values my parents were trying to instill in me.
I wasn’t a bad child at first. I was intelligent. I had good grades. I played football on the high school team.
But something in me sought excitement, adrenaline, rebellion against the established order. At 15, I smoked my first marijuana cigarette with friends behind the high school gym.
At 16, I was experimenting with pills, cocaine, anything that could make me forget the boredom of my privileged suburban life.
My parents worried, of course. There were tense conversations around the dinner table, punishments, threats, attempts to get me back on the right path.
But I was stubborn, arrogant, convinced I knew better than them what was good for me.
At 17, after a particularly violent argument with my father, who had found drugs in my room, I left home.
I took my backpack, some clothes, and left, slamming the door on my mother’s tears and my father’s shouts.
I wanted to be free, to live my life, to make my own choices. What terrible irony to think of that freedom today after spending 12 years locked in a 2×3 m cell with guards deciding every minute of my existence.
The years that followed were a whirlwind of bad decisions, each worse than the last, each pulling me deeper into a world whose dangers I didn’t really understand.
I first survived by doing odd jobs, living in shabby apartments with roommates who didn’t ask questions.
I started dealing drugs for a local gang. First marijuana, then harder substances, ecstasy, cocaine, opioids.
Money flowed freely. I felt powerful, invincible, respected on the street in a way I had never been in my suburban life.
At 20, I was driving a BMW, wearing designer clothes. I had an apartment overlooking downtown.
I believed I had succeeded, proven to my parents they were wrong, that I didn’t need their bourgeois lifestyle to get by.
I was 22 when I met Marcus. He was an older guy, 35, with scars on his face and tattoos that told a story of violence.
He was respected in the underworld, even feared. And when he offered me to work with him on an easy job, I was flattered that he considered me trustworthy.
The plan seemed simple, almost mundane in its design. A pharmacy in a quiet suburb received large shipments of opioids every Tuesday evening, stored in a safe that, according to Marcus’ information, could be easily opened with the right tools.
We were to enter after closing when only an elderly security guard was present, neutralize the guard without violence, take the medications, and leave.
All in less than 15 minutes. Marcus had a buyer ready to pay $100,000 for the merchandise, 50,000 for each of us.
It was more money than I had ever seen. It was my chance to reestablish myself, to become independent, to maybe even leave the business and start my life over somewhere else.
The evening of March 15th, 2012 will remain engraved in my memory as the night I lost everything.
When I destroyed not only my life, but that of an innocent man and his entire family, we arrived at the pharmacy at 10:30 p.m.
Dressed in black, faces partially covered. Marcus carried a bag with the tools. I carried the empty bag that was to contain the medications.
My heart was beating like a drum in my chest. Adrenaline making me almost sick.
We forced the back door. The alarm was supposed to be deactivated by Marcus’s contact inside, but something went wrong from the start.
The alarm sounded for 3 seconds before being cut off. The security guard, alerted by the noise, appeared in the hallway.
I still see his face. An African-American man with graying hair, thick rimmed glasses, a navy blue uniform a little too big for him.
He looked tired, probably near the end of his shift, probably thinking about going home to his wife.
“Hands up! Police!” He shouted, but his voice trembled. He wasn’t armed. He only had a baton at his belt.
Marcus raised his hands in surrender, slowly approaching the guard. I thought everything would be fine, that we would get out of there without violence, maybe abandon the plan and flee.
But when Marcus got close enough, he suddenly grabbed the guard by the collar, trying to subdue him.
There was a fight, a chaotic struggle with the guard, resisting harder than Marcus had anticipated.
I stood frozen, paralyzed by fear and uncertainty, unable to move, unable to do anything.
That’s when Marcus pulled out his gun, a revolver I didn’t even know he was carrying.
“No!” I screamed, finally finding my voice. “No, Marcus, we mustn’t.” But the shot went off before I could finish my sentence.
The noise was deafening in the small enclosed space, a bang that resonated in my ears and in my soul.
The guard collapsed, first on his knees, then on his side, a red stain spreading across his white shirt.
His glasses slipped from his face. His eyes looked at the ceiling with an expression of surprise and confusion.
I rushed toward him, falling to my knees beside him, trying to press my hands against the wound to stop the blood.
“Call an ambulance. Call an ambulance!” I shouted at Marcus, but Marcus grabbed me by the arm, pulling me toward the exit.
“He’s dead, man. He’s dead. We have to leave now.” I didn’t want to leave him.
I didn’t want to leave this dying man on the cold floor, but Marcus was dragging me.
And in my panic, in my terror, I followed him. We ran to the car.
We fled into the night, leaving Robert Johnson, that was his name, to die alone on the tiled floor of a Houston pharmacy.
He was 53 years old, had three adult children, and five grandchildren he adored. He worked as a security guard to supplement his retirement, and to have something to do after 30 years as an auto mechanic.
And that evening, because of my stupidity and my greed, because of my participation in this heinous crime, he died.
We were arrested 3 days later. The surveillance cameras had filmed us. Marcus confessed everything immediately, claiming that I was the mastermind of the operation, that it was my idea.
It wasn’t true, but it no longer mattered. I had participated in the robbery. I was there when Robert Johnson died, and according to Texas law, that made me a murderer.
My trial lasted 3 weeks. The court-appointed lawyer did his best, but the evidence was overwhelming.
Robert Johnson’s widow, Linda, was present every day in court, her red eyes fixed on me with a mixture of pain and hatred I will never forget.
Her children were there, too, their faces closed, their silence heavier than any scream. The jury deliberated for only 4 hours before rendering their verdict.
Guilty of first-degree murder with aggravating circumstances. Two weeks later, the sentencing phase ended with the words I had dreaded, death penalty by lethal injection.
I was 23 years old when I arrived on death row at Huntsville State Prison.
I was given the number 999547 and an individual cell in the Polunsky unit. The first months were psychological hell.
I couldn’t sleep. Haunted by Robert Johnson’s face, by the sound of the gunshot, by his widow’s tears in court.
I received hate mail, threats, curses. My mother came to see me once a month, her face ravaged by tears, unable to understand how her son had become a murderer.
My father refused to speak to me for 5 years. Thomas, my brother, wrote me a single letter to tell me he considered me dead.
I was alone, completely alone in that cold cell with 23 hours of isolation per day and only 1 hour in a wire cage they called a recreation yard.
I thought about suicide more than once. I even tried once with my shoelaces, but a guard found me in time.
After that, I was placed under constant surveillance for 6 months. The years passed in a monotonous and desperate routine.
Wake up at 5:00. Breakfast in the cell. 1 hour outside if the weather permitted.
Lunch. Television or reading. Dinner. Lights out at 10:00 p.m. Appeals followed one another. My lawyers looking for procedural flaws, errors, anything that could save my life.
But the Texas justice system is merciless. Every appeal was rejected. Every request for a new trial denied.
I saw men leave for the execution chamber. I heard their last steps in the corridor.
I felt the heavy silence that followed their departure. Some walked with their heads held high.
Others had to be dragged away screaming. I wondered what kind of man I would be when my turn came.
Would I have the courage to face my death with dignity, or would I completely fall apart in terror?
In 2021, something changed. A new Catholic priest arrived at the prison. His name was Father Michael O’Brien, a young Irish priest of 35 with sparkling blue eyes and a disarming smile.
He wasn’t like the other chaplain I had met, those rigid men who came to distribute communion and platitudes.
Father Michael was different. He sat on the other side of the visiting room and really talked with us as if we were human beings and not just numbers or lost souls.
He asked me if I wanted to start going to mass again, if I wanted to confess.
I refused for months. What could God do for me now? I was condemned. My life was over.
My appeals exhausted. But Father Michael didn’t give up. He kept coming week after week, bringing books, Catholic magazines, talking about everything and nothing.
One day he brought me a small brochure with a photo of a smiling teenager on the cover.
This is Carlo Acutis. He told me a young Italian who died at 15 in 2006.
He was beatified in 2020. I think you should read his story. I took the brochure out of politeness without really being interested.
But that night, unable to sleep as usual, I began to read it. Carlo Acutis was born in London in 1991, the same year as me.
He died of fulminant leukemia in October 2006 at only 15 years old. But it wasn’t his death that made his story remarkable.
It was his life. This ordinary boy who loved video games and animals had lived an extraordinary faith.
He went to mass every day. He had created a website cataloging eucharistic miracles from around the world.
He had dedicated his life to helping the poor and evangelizing his classmates. Before dying, he had offered his sufferings for the pope and for the church.
His last words had been to his mother, “I’m happy to die because I lived my life without wasting a single minute on things that don’t please God.”
I cried reading these words. I who was 31 who had wasted every minute of my life in sin, violence and selfishness felt crushed by the purity of this boy.
How had a teenager been able to live with such holiness while I with all my extra years had sown only destruction and death?
The following week, I asked Father Michael to hear my confession. It had been 15 years since I had confessed.
15 years of accumulated sins, shame, guilt. I confessed everything. The robbery, the drugs, my responsibility in Robert Johnson’s death, my hatred toward myself, my despair.
Father Michael listened to me for more than 2 hours without judging me, without condemning me.
At the end, he gave me absolution and told me something I will never forget.
“Etienne, God has not abandoned you. You are here for a reason. Even in this place of death, God can bring forth life.
Carlo Acutis prayed for lost souls, for those who believe themselves beyond salvation. I believe he is praying for you now.”
These words planted a seed of hope in my withered heart. I began to pray to Carlo Acutis every evening, asking him to intercede for me, to help me find peace, to accept my death when it would come, to do something good with the little time I had left.
Father Michael brought me other books about Carlo, videos on a small tablet allowed for religious visits.
I learned that Carlo had a particular devotion to the Eucharist; he said that the Eucharist is my highway to heaven.
I began to receive communion every week. And for the first time in years, I felt something in me that resembled peace.
It wasn’t overflowing happiness, not ecstatic joy, but a calm acceptance, a sense that maybe, just maybe, my life still had meaning.
Even here, even now. I wrote to Linda Johnson, Robert’s widow. I apologized to her, not to obtain her forgiveness, but because she deserved to know that I was sorry, truly sorry for what I had done.
I didn’t expect a response, and for 6 months, there was none. Then one day, I received a letter.
It was short. Linda wrote that she couldn’t forgive me, not yet, perhaps never, but that she was praying for my soul.
She had signed with these words, “May God have mercy on us all.” It was more than I deserved, and I cried, holding that letter against my heart.
In March 2024, I received the news I had dreaded for 12 years. My last clemency request had been rejected by the governor of Texas.
My execution date was set for October 17th, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. I had 7 months to live, 7 months to prepare to die.
The initial panic gave way to a strange clarity. Father Michael came to see me the next day.
“Etienne,” he told me, “these seven months can be the most important of your life.
You can spend them in fear and despair, or you can use them to prepare to meet your creator.
Carlo Acutis had only a few days between his diagnosis and his death. You have 7 months.
It’s a gift.” A gift? I laughed bitterly at that word, but deep down I knew he was right.
I began to pray the rosary every day, something I hadn’t done since childhood. I read the Gospels.
I meditated on the passion of Christ, on his own unjust death, on his compassion for the good thief crucified beside him.
Today you will be with me in paradise. Would Jesus say these words to me, too?
Could I dare to hope? The months passed too quickly. June, July, August, September. Each passing day brought me closer to my death.
My mother came to see me every week now, her face increasingly emaciated by grief.
My father finally came in August. He sat on the other side of the glass, silent for 10 minutes.
Then he simply said, “I forgive you, my son.” We cried together, separated by that transparent barrier, unable to touch each other, to embrace each other, to say goodbye as a father and son should.
Thomas wrote me a letter in September. He couldn’t come. He couldn’t see me, but he wanted me to know that he didn’t hate me.
It was enough. Father Michael brought me a small image of Carlo Acutis in July, a prayer card with his photo.
That young smiling face, those eyes full of life and joy. I placed it on the small wall of my cell and every evening before sleeping, I looked at it and prayed, “Blessed Carlo, intercede for me.
Help me accept my death. Help me find courage. Help me do God’s will, whatever it may be.”
In early October, things became very real. I was moved to a special cell closer to the execution chamber.
I now had daily visits from Father Michael. We prayed together. We talked about eternal life, about heaven, about God’s infinite mercy.
He gave me the sacrament of the sick, the anointing that prepares the soul for passage.
I wrote my last letters to my family, my last wishes. I asked that my body be donated to science, that something good come from this death.
I asked Father Michael to be present as a spiritual witness at my execution, and he accepted.
The last week was surreal. I was allowed extended visits with my family without glass in a special room.
I was finally able to touch my mother, hold her hands, hug her. She sobbed against my shoulder for an hour.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m so sorry for everything.” “I know, my baby. I know. God forgives you.
I forgive you.” My father hugged me with desperate strength as if he could protect me from what was to come.
“Be brave, Etienne. Be brave.” On October 16th, the day before my execution, I had my last meal.
I asked for French cuisine in memory of my childhood. Steak and fries, green salad, French bread, apple pie.
I ate slowly, savoring each bite, knowing it would be my last meal on earth.
Father Michael came to spend the evening with me. We prayed the rosary together. At midnight, he gave me communion, the body of Christ, for the last time.
“Etienne,” he told me, “tomorrow, when you’re on that table, remember that you’re not alone.
Jesus is with you. Mary is with you. Carlo is with you. All the saints and angels are with you.
You’re going to pass through the door. That’s all. You’re just going to pass through the door to the true life.”
I tried to sleep that night, but it was impossible. I prayed. I cried. I looked at the image of Carlo Acutis until his features were engraved in my memory.
“Carlo,” I whispered in the darkness. “If you hear me, if you can help me, don’t abandon me tomorrow.
I’m afraid. I’m so afraid.” October 17th, 2024 dawned gray and rainy. It was a Thursday.
At 6:00 in the morning, the guards brought me my last breakfast. I couldn’t eat.
At 10:00, I was allowed a last shower. At noon, I was given my execution clothes.
Simple white pants, a white shirt, shoes without laces. At 2 p.m., I had my last visit with my family.
My mother was inconsolable. My father tried to be strong, but his hands trembled. We said goodbye through our tears.
“I love you. I’ve always loved you. Forgive me.” “We love you, Etienne. We will always love you.”
At 3:00, they left and I found myself alone in the cell waiting. Father Michael arrived at 4:00.
He prayed with me for an hour, reminding me of Christ’s promises, God’s mercy, the hope of eternal life.
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,” he reminded me, quoting the gospel.
At 5:30, the guards came. “It’s time, Bowmont.” I was escorted down a short corridor only about 20 m between my cell and the execution chamber, but it seemed to last an eternity.
My legs were shaking. My heart was beating so hard I could hear it in my ears.
I prayed silently with each step. “Carlo, help me. Carlo, be with me. Carlo, intercede for me.”
The execution chamber was small, clinical, terribly mundane. In the center was the gurnie, padded with black vinyl with leather straps for the arms, legs, chest.
Clear tubes hung above, connected to a small window in the wall where the medical team would administer the lethal drugs.
Three windows with tinted glass looked out onto the witness rooms. Through the first glass, I could see Linda Johnson and two of her children, their faces hard and closed.
Through the second, there were state representatives, the prison warden, some journalists. Through the third, Father Michael, my mother, and my father, their faces already bathed in tears.
The guards made me lie down on the gurnie. The vinyl was cold against my back.
They strapped my arms, stretching my hands on lateral extensions like a crucifixion. They strapped my legs, my chest, my forehead.
I could no longer move at all, only breathe and look at the white and bare ceiling above me.
A medical technician entered, disinfected the veins in both my arms, and inserted the intravenous catheters.
The prick hurt, but it was minor pain compared to the terror rising in me.
My breath was becoming short, rapid. Panic was beginning to take over. The prison warden entered.
“Etienne Bowmont, you have been sentenced to death by the state of Texas for the murder of Robert Johnson.
Do you have any last words?” This was the moment. I turned my head as much as the strap allowed to look toward the window where my family stood.
My mother had her hands pressed against the glass, her lips forming the word “no” over and over.
My father was supporting her, his face ravaged. Father Michael held a crucifix raised, his lips moving in prayer.
I opened my mouth to speak. My voice was weak, trembling. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I did.
I’m sorry for Robert Johnson, for his family, for my family, for all the harm I caused.
I deserve this punishment. But I want you to know that I found God in this prison.
I found hope. I found forgiveness. And I pray that you all find peace.” I looked toward Linda Johnson.
She wasn’t moving, her face impassive. “Linda, I’m truly sorry. May God bless you.” Then I closed my eyes.
The warden gave a sign and I heard the hum of the medical equipment activating behind the wall.
It was at that moment, at the precise moment when the drugs were about to begin flowing into my veins to end my existence, that something happened in me.
It wasn’t a rational thought. It wasn’t a planned or considered decision. It was a pure impulse, a cry from the heart, a desperate call to the one who had become my invisible friend these last months.
To this young saint who had transformed my life since Father Michael had given me that brochure.
In the absolute terror of those last seconds of what was to be my life, I felt an irrepressible need rise in me to speak his name, to invoke him, to ask him to be with me in this passage toward death.
I opened my eyes, staring at the white ceiling above me, and I cried out as loud as I could with the little breath I had left, with all the desperate faith that remained in my broken heart.
“Carlo Acutis, blessed Carlo Acutis, intercede for me. Don’t abandon me, Carlo.” My voice resonated in the small chamber with an intensity that surprised even me, hoarse and desperate, almost animal in its supplication.
I saw the warden startle, turning abruptly toward me with an expression of surprise mixed with irritation.
I saw the guards exchange uncertain glances. I saw the witnesses straighten behind their glass, surprised by this sudden outburst.
And then, at the very moment I spoke his name for the third time, something absolutely impossible happened.
I first felt an intense heat spread through my left arm, starting exactly at the point where the intravenous catheter was inserted in my vein.
But it wasn’t the heat of the lethal drugs I expected to feel. It was a different heat, alive, almost electric, that pulsed through my flesh and bones with incredible force.
Then the same sensation spread through my right arm. This vibrant and intense heat that seemed to come from within my very veins.
My heart beat harder, not from fear this time, but from a kind of inexplicable excitement, as if my body recognized something my mind didn’t yet understand.
And simultaneously, the entire chamber was flooded with a brilliant light, an extraordinary light that came from no visible source that was not like the artificial light of fluorescent lamps or the natural light of the sun.
It was a golden and white light that seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once, that filled every corner of the room, that even penetrated through the tinted windows of the witness rooms.
This light had an almost liquid quality, as if the air itself had become luminescent, transforming the cold and clinical space of the execution chamber into something that resembled a celestial chapel.
I heard cries of surprise coming from the witness rooms, confused and frightened voices. “What is this?
What’s happening? Is this a power outage?” But it wasn’t an outage. The normal lights were still on, visible through the extraordinary brilliance of this other light that completely surpassed them.
I heard the warden shout, “What is this? What’s happening? Stop the procedure. Stop everything.”
His voice was filled with a panic I had never heard from him. Through the medical window, I saw the technicians hastily step back, their faces petrified with astonishment and fear, their hands raised to protect their eyes from the brightness that seemed to intensify even more.
One of them fell backward against the wall, his medical instruments falling from his trembling hands.
The light became more and more intense, more and more beautiful, but unlike what one might expect, it didn’t hurt the eyes.
On the contrary, it was soothing, comforting, filled with a palpable presence that I can only describe by saying it was pure and infinite love.
It was as if all the love God had for humanity had concentrated in this small chamber, manifesting through this miraculous light.
And in that light, while I was still strapped to the gurnie, unable to move, but my eyes wide open and my senses extraordinarily sharp, I saw form slowly materialized at the foot of my gurnie.
At first, it was just a denser shadow within the light. Then, gradually, the contours became more defined, clearer, until I distinctly saw the silhouette of a young boy.
He was translucent but clearly visible, as if woven from the light itself, but with perfectly recognizable human features.
He was dressed in faded jeans and a gray hooded sweatshirt, exactly like in the photos of Carlo Acutis I had seen, exactly as he dressed in his earthly life when he was a normal teenager who loved video games and animals.
But his face, oh, his face was transfigured by a joy and peace that surpassed anything one can see on an ordinary human face.
He was smiling, a radiant smile that seemed to contain all the happiness of heaven.
And his eyes shone with an inner light that reflected the very glory of God.
He didn’t speak to me with his mouth. His lips didn’t move. But I heard his voice in my heart, as clear and distinct as if someone had spoken directly in my ear.
His voice was young, full of life and tenderness, carrying a quiet assurance that dissolved all my fear.
“Don’t be afraid, Etienne. Don’t be afraid. This is not yet your hour. God has heard your prayers.
He has heard the prayers of your mother, your father, Father Michael, all those who interceded for you.
And he has listened to my supplications on your behalf. This is not yet your hour.
God has other plans for you, my brother. You must live. You must witness to his mercy.”
Then, in a gesture of incredible tenderness that made me burst into sobs, Carlo raised his right hand and placed it above my heart without touching me physically, holding his palm a few centimeters from my chest.
But I felt a wave of energy traverse my entire body, starting from my heart and spreading through every cell, every tissue, every bone of my being.
It was like an electric shock but without any pain. Only power, life, pure force that seemed to rebuild my body from within that seemed to wash away all the toxins, all the corruption, all the evil that had infected my flesh and spirit for so many years.
My entire body arched on the gurnie, pulling against the straps that held me, not in agony, but in ecstasy, in a physical and spiritual joy so intense I thought my heart would explode.
Tears flowed from my eyes, soaking my temples, running into my hair. “Thank you,” I murmured over and over.
“Thank you, Carlo. Thank you, my God. Thank you. Thank you.” The light peaked in an almost blinding brilliance for what seemed to me to be an eternity, but probably lasted only 3 or 4 seconds, filling my entire field of vision with a golden white, so pure it seemed to contain all the colors of creation.
Then it began to fade gradually like a sunset in slow motion. Carlo’s silhouette became less dense, less defined, gently merging into the ambient light.
His smile was the last thing visible, persisting filled with love and promise before disappearing completely.
The chamber returned to its normal lighting, the cold and white fluorescent lights from the ceiling that had seemed so sinister to me a few minutes earlier.
But something had fundamentally changed. The air itself seemed different. Charged with a residual energy, a sacred presence that refused to dissipate completely.
The silence that followed was absolute. No one moved. No one spoke. All in shock from what we had just witnessed.
Then gradually chaos erupted. In the confusion that followed, no one knew what to do.
No one understood what had just happened. The warden was shouting into a walkie-talkie, trying to contact his superiors, his voice trembling and incoherent.
The guards were rushing around, some trying to understand if it was an equipment malfunction, others checking on the witnesses to make sure everyone was okay.
Through the windows, I could see total chaos. Linda Johnson was standing, hands on her mouth, her eyes wide with shock.
The journalists were standing, too, some taking photos, others simply frozen. In my family’s room, my mother had collapsed in a chair.
My father was holding her and Father Michael was standing, the crucifix still raised, tears flowing down his face, his lips moving in silent prayer.
Then a medical technician came out from behind the wall, his face white as a sheet.
“Warden,” he said in a trembling voice, “the intravenous lines, they’re completely blocked. The drugs couldn’t be administered.
It’s it’s impossible. The catheters were perfectly in place. We had checked three times, but now it’s as if something blocked them from the inside.”
The warden approached me, looking at me as if seeing me for the first time.
“Bowmont, what just happened?” I tried to speak, but my voice was only a hoarse whisper.
“Carlo. Carlo Acutis. He was there. Didn’t you see him?” The warden shook his head, but his expression wasn’t mockery.
It was total confusion. “We all saw the light. We all saw something, but I don’t know what it was.”
He turned to the technicians. “Can you repair the lines? Can we proceed?” The chief technician entered the chamber, examined the catheters in my arms.
He tried to push a saline solution through, but nothing passed. He checked the tubes, the connections, everything.
Finally, he raised his hands in helplessness. “It’s impossible, Warden. The catheters are completely blocked.
We should remove them and install new ones. But honestly, I don’t understand how this could have happened.
It’s as if the blood in his veins solidified around the catheters, but that’s not medically possible.
His pulse is normal. His blood pressure is normal. There’s no sign of systemic coagulation.”
Another technician murmured something I barely heard. “It’s a miracle.” The warden glared at him.
“Don’t talk nonsense. There must be a rational explanation.” But I could see the doubt in his eyes.
For the next 20 minutes, they tried different things. They removed the catheters, tried to install new ones in other veins, but each time the same thing happened.
As soon as the catheters were in place, they mysteriously blocked. On the third attempt, the chief technician refused to continue.
“I can’t do this, warden. Something is really wrong. I’m not going to torture this man with repeated sticks when obviously something is preventing the execution from proceeding.”
The warden left the chamber to make frantic phone calls. I was still strapped to the gurnie, my heart pounding, not daring to hope what seemed to be happening.
Was this real? Was this really happening? Father Michael obtained permission to enter the chamber.
He knelt beside my gurnie, took my hand. “Etienne, what did you see?” “I saw him, father.
I saw Carlo. He was there as clearly as I see you now. He told me it wasn’t yet my hour.”
Father Michael kissed my hand, tears flowing freely down his face. “Blessed be God. Blessed be his holy name.”
The warden returned, accompanied by the assistant attorney general of the state and several lawyers.
They spoke in low voices for several minutes, consulting documents, looking toward me, then toward the medical technicians.
Finally, the warden approached my gurnie. “Mr. Bowmont, due to unforeseen medical complications that prevent the administration of the lethal substances, your execution is suspended indefinitely.
You will be returned to your cell pending a decision from the governor and the court regarding the next steps.”
Suspended indefinitely. The words didn’t seem real. The guards began to undo my straps. My arms were numb, my legs trembling.
When they helped me stand, my knees gave way, and I had to be supported.
As I left the execution chamber, I cast one last look toward the witness windows.
Linda Johnson was still there, but her expression had changed. It was no longer hatred I saw in her eyes.
It was something else. Something that resembled wonder mixed with confusion. I was taken back to my cell, but not the one near the execution chamber.
They put me in a special isolation cell while they decided what to do with me.
That night, alone in that small room, I cried for hours. I cried with relief, with gratitude, with disbelief.
I cried for Carlo, for his mercy, for his intercession. “Thank you,” I prayed over and over.
“Thank you, Carlo. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Mary. Thank you for this chance. This second chance I don’t deserve.”
The next morning, the story was everywhere. Execution mysteriously interrupted in Texas. Unexplained phenomenon in execution chamber.
Condemned man claims to have seen a saint. Witnesses were interviewed. Some described the light as a power outage with an unusual backup source.
Others admitted they couldn’t explain it. Several, including two of the journalists present, described having felt a presence in the room, something sacred, powerful.
Linda Johnson refused to comment publicly, but I learned later from Father Michael that she had said privately that she had seen something in the light, a silhouette she couldn’t identify, but that had deeply troubled her.
The following days were a whirlwind of medical examinations, interrogations, legal meetings. Doctors tested my blood in every possible way, looking for coagulation abnormalities, rare diseases, anything that could explain the blocking of the catheters.
They found nothing. I was in perfect health. The technicians who had attempted the execution were questioned separately.
All confirmed that the catheters were correctly placed, that the equipment was working perfectly, and that nothing in their professional experience could explain what had happened.
One of them, a man named James, who had participated in more than 50 executions, resigned the following week, saying he could no longer do this work after witnessing divine intervention.
Medical experts brought in from outside to examine the incident were equally perplexed. No rational explanation could be found.
The state of Texas was in an impossible position: how to proceed with a new execution after what had happened?
How to explain to the public that the execution had failed for mysterious reasons? Meanwhile, the story had taken on a life of its own in the Catholic media and beyond.
The church sent investigators to examine the incident, interviewing all the witnesses, collecting testimonies, analyzing surveillance videos.
The execution chamber was equipped with cameras, and the recordings clearly showed the sudden flood of brilliant light in the room, even if the cameras couldn’t capture the source or explain the phenomenon.
Photography experts confirmed that it wasn’t a lens effect, not an electrical failure, not a reflection.
It was simply inexplicable. Father Michael became my constant link with the outside world. He brought me news, letters of support that began to pour in from around the world.
People who were praying for me, people who believed that Carlo Acutis had truly interceded.
People who saw in my story a sign of God’s merciful love. My mother told me during a visit that she had received more than 500 letters from people saying they were praying for me, for my release, for God to continue to manifest his mercy.
3 months after the failed execution in January 2025, something even more extraordinary happened. Linda Johnson asked to meet with me.
I was terrified at the idea of this meeting. What would she tell me? What would she ask me?
We sat on either side of the visiting room glass, the phone allowing our conversation.
Linda had aged since the trial. Her hair was now completely gray, her face marked by years of pain.
She looked at me for a long time before speaking. Then she said, “I saw something that evening, Etienne, in the light.
I saw my Robert. He was there as clear as day and he was smiling.
He was smiling like he did when he played with our grandchildren. And I heard him, not with my ears, but in my heart.
He told me to forgive you. He told me that hatred was destroying me and that it was time to let go.”
She paused, wiping her tears. “I don’t know if I believe all this talk of saints and miracles, but I know what I saw and I know what Robert told me.
So, I came to tell you that I forgive you, Etienne. I forgive you for what you did to my husband, to my family.
It won’t bring Robert back, but maybe it will allow me to live the rest of my life in peace.”
I cried, unable to speak for several minutes. When I finally found my voice, all I could say was, “Thank you.
Thank you. I’m so sorry. Thank you.” Linda placed her hand on the glass and I placed mine opposite.
“Pray for me, Etienne. Pray for my family and pray for your saint, this Carlo.
I think he wants something from all of us.” After she left, I remained in the visiting room for an hour, overwhelmed by the grace of that moment.
The forgiveness I dared not hope for had been freely given to me. Linda’s story spread, adding a new dimension to my case.
More and more voices, even among those who traditionally supported the death penalty, began to call for my clemency.
“If God himself prevented this execution, who are we to carry it through?” Some argued.
In March 2025, after months of public pressure, support campaigns, and faced with the practical impossibility of proceeding with a new execution, the governor of Texas commuted my death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
I would live. I would spend the rest of my days in prison, but I would live.
Today, almost a year after that October 17th, 2024, I am in a medium security prison in Texas.
My life is simple, structured, but filled with a meaning it had never had before.
I spend my days praying, reading, studying the Catholic faith with Father Michael, who continues to visit me every week.
I began teaching literacy classes to other inmates. I helped establish a Catholic prayer group in the prison.
I share my story with anyone who wants to hear it. Witnessing to God’s mercy, the power of the intercession of saints, the incredible love of Carlo Acutis who didn’t abandon a desperate sinner in the darkest moment of his life.
My mother comes to see me every week and for the first time in years, I see joy on her face, not just pain.
My father and I have rebuilt our relationship, talking about faith, redemption, the possibility of grace, even in the darkest places.
Thomas finally visited me 3 months ago. We cried together. We reconciled. We prayed together.
My family is reunited, not physically, but spiritually in a deeper way than it had ever been.
The ecclesiastical investigation into the incident continues. Cardinals, theologians, medical experts examine every aspect of what happened that evening.
I don’t know if they will conclude it was an official miracle. It doesn’t really matter to me.
I know what I saw. I know who saved me. Every night before sleeping, I look at the same image of Carlo Acutis I had in my death row cell.
His smile reminds me that God never abandons anyone, that even on the brink of execution, even in the most desperate moment, mercy is possible.
People often ask me what I felt when I saw Carlo, what he really told me.
I always tell them the truth. He showed me that God’s love is stronger than death, stronger than sin, stronger than human justice.
He showed me that every life has value, even a life like mine that had sown so much destruction.
He gave me a second chance not to escape the punishment I deserved, but to live that punishment with meaning, with purpose, with the hope of doing something good with the years I have left.
I often think about Robert Johnson now, no longer with the paralyzing guilt that haunted me for years, but with a holy grief that pushes me to honor his memory through my transformed life.
I established with the help of my family a foundation in his name that helps families of victims of violent crimes.
Every penny I can earn through my work in prison goes to this foundation. It’s little, so little compared to what I took, but it’s what I can offer.
Linda Johnson has become an unlikely friend. She writes to me once a month sharing news of her family, asking me to pray for her grandchildren, for her children.
In her last letter, she wrote something that made me cry. “Etienne, I believe Robert would have wanted you to live.
I believe he would have wanted you to have this chance to do good. Continue to honor Carlo Acutis.
Continue to witness to God’s mercy. That’s what Robert would have wanted.” These words have become my mission.
I witness. I speak to youth groups by video conference, telling them my story, begging them not to make the same mistakes I made.
I share how a young Italian who died at 15 saved my life at 34.
How prayer, faith, the intercession of saints are not abstract concepts, but living and powerful realities.
Father Michael told me that since my story, devotion to Carlo Acutis has exploded in Texas and throughout the country.
Churches have begun displaying his image. Youth groups study his life. Families pray for his intercession.
“You see, Etienne,” he told me, “God used even your terrible mistake, even your condemnation to glorify his name and make his saint known.
That’s the power of divine grace.” I don’t pretend to understand why God spared me that evening.
There were other men on death row, some perhaps less guilty than me, who were executed.
Why me? Why was I chosen for this miracle? I don’t know the answer. All I can do is live each day in gratitude, try to be worthy of this immense grace that was granted to me and witness relentlessly to God’s infinite love manifested through the intercession of blessed Carlo Acutis.
My life will never be easy. I will always carry the weight of what I did.
I will spend the rest of my days in prison. But I am free in a way I never was in the outside world.
I am free in my soul, free in my heart, free to know and love God with all my strength.
When I think about that moment in the execution chamber when I cried out Carlo’s name with all the desperate faith I had left, I realize now that it wasn’t my voice alone calling through space and time toward heaven.
It was my mother’s voice who had prayed for me relentlessly for 12 long years, her daily rosaries offered for my salvation.
It was my father’s voice who had finally forgiven me after so many years of silence and pain.
It was Father Michael’s voice who had never stopped believing in my redemption even when I no longer believed in it myself.
It was the voice of all the saints and angels who intercede continuously for us sinners before God’s throne.
And in some mysterious way I can’t fully understand, it was even Robert Johnson’s voice who from heaven where he now rests in eternal peace had asked for mercy for the one who had taken his life.
All these voices united in that cry and Carlo Acutis, this young saint who had said that the Eucharist was his highway to heaven, became my highway to life.
I now live with an acute awareness that each day is a gift that each breath is a grace I didn’t deserve.
I will no longer waste a single minute of my life on things that don’t please God.
As Carlo said before dying, even here locked up, I can pray. I can love.
I can serve. I can witness. And that’s what I will do until my last breath.
The witnesses of that evening of October 17th were shocked. Yes. But more than the shock, I hope they were touched by hope.
The hope that in an often dark and violent world, divine light can break through.
The hope that God’s justice is tinged with mercy. The hope that no one is beyond salvation.
That even on the brink of execution, even on the brink of damnation, God can reach out and bring us back to him.
Carlo Acutis interceded for me. A condemned murderer, a hopeless sinner. If God can show me mercy, he can show mercy to anyone.
That’s the message I want the world to hear. That’s the testimony I want to leave.
Blessed Carlo Acutis, thank you. Thank you for your prayer. Thank you for your intercession.
Thank you for your presence on that terrible and wonderful evening. Pray for me again.
Pray that I remain faithful to this grace. Pray that I don’t waste this second chance.
And pray for me, you who read or hear this story. Pray that I may live the rest of my life in a way that honors Robert Johnson, that honors Carlo Acutis, and that glorifies God who never stops loving us even when we are in the deepest darkness.
If this miraculous story of divine mercy and extraordinary intercession has deeply touched your heart, I sincerely invite you to entrust your own intentions to blessed Carlo Acutis.
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