Michael Graczyk (born 1950) is an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He was formerly based in the

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

bureau of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

. Graczyk officially retired from the AP at the end of July 2018, but continues covering executions and other news stories for the agency as a freelancer. During his career, Graczyk reported on a wide range of topics. However, he is most notable as the AP's designated representative to witness

executions Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. Since 1984, Graczyk has witnessed more than 429 executions, considered a

macabre In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natur ...

record for an American.

References

External links

News reports by Michael Graczyk
via The Free Library 1950 births Living people Capital punishment in Texas Journalists from Houston Associated Press reporters 20th-century American journalists American male journalists {{Texas-bio-stub