NewsChannel5 anchor Curtis Jackson was invited to watch the execution of James Filiaggi from the death chamber at Lucasville Prison. Jackson shares his thoughts in this blog.

4 p.m.

The death house is an unassuming building in a prison courtyard. On a normal day there would be nothing foreboding about it. But today, there was a hearse parked less than 50 yards across from the death house. It was waiting for James Filiaggi.

Inside, the death chamber has a clinical setting. Straps loosely hang from a lethal injection gurney bathed with a soft light.

The small observation room is divided by a built-in partition that separates inmate witnesses from victim witnesses.

Each side had its own closed-circuit television to watch as Filiaggi was prepared for execution, and each side had its own private window into the death chamber to watch him die.

There was a calmness about Filiaggi as he entered the chamber. He laid and let the execution team restrain him. The warden then held a microphone over Filiaggi who made a final statement.

"We all gotta go sometime," he said. "Some sooner than others." He then joked, "When you see the Browns in the Super Bowl in the next five years, you know I'm up there doing my magic."

He then turned serious. "Maybe the state will find out this ain't the answer for crime."

Someone in another room began the lethal injection process. First, sodium pentotthal to relax him. Then pancuronium bromide to stop his breathing. And finally, potassium chloride to stop his heart.

As the injections took effect Filiaggi periodically spoke to the warden and the lone guard standing above him.

I wondered what he was saying. I watched his stomach to see when he would stop breathing. Within a few minutes his fingers turned purple. The room was silent.

A few moments more and I noticed his stomach wasn't moving. A curtain was drawn.

Two minutes later it reopened. The warden spoke. "Time of death, 11:23 a.m."

9:22 a.m.

Andrea Dean, the very pleasant spokeswoman here at the prison in Lucasville, told the reporters assembled before her, "have any of you ever witnessed an execution before?"

Two of my colleagues raised their hands. I didn't know whether to envy or pity them. If everything goes as planned in about a half hour I will accompany four other reporters on a short walk from the media center to the "death house" where we will witness the execution of James Filiaggi.

Andrea briefed us on what to expect. The room where the execution will take place is divided in two.

Three witnesses for Mr. Filiaggi will be on one side of the room and three witnesses for his wife Lisa, the victim, will be on the other side.

The media witnesses will be in the back of the room, but we are not permitted to sit. I wondered "if my knees might get weak." Andrea assured us that we will not see any traumatic physical reaction to the lethal injection given to Mr. Filiaggi, but "his fingers may turn purple," along with his mouth and forehead.

I realized then that traumatic experiences are in the eye of the beholder.