The first time I saw Rick Laude, it was 2019. He’s alone in a field outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. In contrast to the maybe four dozen or more vigil attendees in the “against” side during Donnie Johnson’s execution, Laude has his hands on his hips on the other side of the fence — by himself — supporting the execution.

But even in a crowd, he’d be hard to miss.

Laude is tall. He wears jeans, a long mustache, cowboy boots and, in cold weather, he adds a trench coat. Any time of year, you’re likely to see him in a cowboy hat with a rattlesnake wrapped around it — fangs dripping venom.

Across the fences and fields that separate the “for” and “against” camps the only thing I heard from him after Johnson’s execution was a shouted “thank you Governor Lee!”

At Byron Black’s ex

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