"He's got a meeting with his lawyer tomorrow." "Make a human being out of him." "Can you see me?" "Stand up and move towards the sound of my voice." "Get up and move towards the sound of my voice." "OK." "Get up." "We're going to the showers now." "Put your right hand through these bars." "Stick your other hand through." "Step out to the left." "Face the wall." "OK." "To your left." "Let's go." "Move." "Go on." "Step out towards me." "To your right." "Face the wall." "This way." "Turn and face the wall." "Need a towel, medium jumpsuit... size nine shoes." "This way." "Hey, man, you know how to put your shoes on." "I helped you with your jumpsuit." "I'll be damned if I'm putting your shoes on for you." "Go on." "Put your foot in." "Stand up." "Turn to your left." "Let's go." "Finish this?" "I'm Officer Whitmore." "Gonna have to take you back to your cell." "Face the fence." "All right." "Let's go." "Face that wall right there." "You're jerking him right into shape, Fred." "He giving you any trouble?" "No, Lieutenant." "Why don't you come over for dinner one of these nights?" "Bring the family." "Just give me a date." "Right." "I'll talk to my wife." "Thank you." "That way." "He's an old friend of yours?" "Yeah." "Everybody knows Denver." "We do things my way on this tier." "Some of our clientele just don't get it." "Have to protect my people." "Yeah, well, he seems harmless enough." "Is that right?" "Last year, he killed one of my officers." "Face the wall." "You been down to L.J.'s yet?" "No." "What's that?" "Bar?" "Yeah." "Old correctional officer owns it." "Show him your I.D., he'll give you a free beer." "Face your cell." "Open 107!" "Gonna play your juice card tomorrow, Denver?" "Tell your lawyer I let you off the row... let you see the sights for a couple weeks?" "Move." "Inside the cell." "Close 107!" "Don't even think about dropping a note on me." "You do, and I'll slap a 10-13 on you so fast... you'll be eating prison scrip for dinner." "You got that?" "They never got nothing to say when you're strong with 'em." "Fuck you." "Come on, Fred." "Darrel, couldn't you have opened that door... about five seconds earlier?" "Boy, I swear you got no sense of timing." "This is heavy, mom." "Heh." "Well, they had us work through lunch hour today." "Well, I got some time and a half." "Darrel." "Honey, what's this?" "I was goalie today, got hit by the ball." "Darrel, were you fighting again?" "No." "I was just blocking a shot." " Darrel." " It's the truth, mom." "Dad's home." "Dad's home." "Hi, dad." "How you doing, Darrel?" "Jerry Coombs called me out today." "Oh, yeah?" "I kicked his butt." "He only landed one shot." "Yeah." "Well, you gotta learn to... dodge them punches, son." "Let's go." "Mom inside?" "Yeah." "I said we're ready to eat." "How'd it go today?" "All right." "You sure?" "Yeah." "Lieutenant's pleased with my work." "I'm doing OK." "Great." "Darrel, I'm not telling you one more time." "Darrel, I'm not telling you one more time." "Go to sleep." "Still working on that thing?" "Oh, yeah." "Yeah." "Heh." "Carburetor in your car's nothing like this one." "It's got a computer chip in it... so you gotta be working on this." "Runs like it's got a potato chip in it." "You know, we got time to make plans, Fred." "Yeah, I know." "I know that." "Well, then, what is it?" "Tell me." "You know, I got a look today at a guy... wasn't a man no more." "What do you mean?" "I pulled him out of this place they call the hole." "They stripped him naked." "They put him in a four-by-ten cell." "They closed an iron door over the bars... so that it was pitch-black." "And they left him there for five weeks." "Five weeks." "Nothing inside except for him... and a hole in the center of the floor." "It was like a... a giant toilet." "So when I pulled him out... he smelled like death warmed over... smelled like shit, looked like shit... couldn't even talk." "Ah, the son of a bitch has earned everything they give him." "He's a fucking killer, and he fucking deserves to die." "Something else yesterday, huh?" "Yes, sir." "I bet you never saw anything like that... on the police force." "Draw the gate!" "Like it here, Fred?" "I appreciate you taking me on, Lieutenant." "Considering what you went through... it's the least I can do." "When I think about your department... not backing you up, it makes me sick." "Coming through." "Once you get used to the peculiarities... death row's the best duty in the joint... them being locked up twenty-three hours and all." "No, on the yard, only peace we ever got... was when we racked the cells at night." "Hey, cutie." "Come on." "So I know you probably had your baton training before... but, uh, a little trick you should know in here... always keep it next to your thigh." "You don't want it slapping around... hitting one of these inmates." "They start whining... fill out a complaint against you, ruin your whole day." "Just keep it all nice and close, like that." "Thanks, Jerry." "Guy was testing you yesterday, Fred." "Coming through!" "That Denver's one hundred miles of bad road." "Just when I think I got him smoothed out... he's back rocking and rolling." "But you got his number." "I never seen a rookie take charge like that." "You do that with all your prisoners... you're not gonna have a problem." "Want you to do a favor for me." "Keep an eye on Denver." "I wanna know if he cries to his lawyer." "Heh." "I can't do that." "He'll just call for the watch commander." "Ah." "There's an intercom outside the visiting room, Fred." "You're doing good." "I think you're gonna work out here." "Get back to work." "Open 107!" "Your lawyer's here." "Face the back wall." "You're OK now?" "Yeah, man." "I wanted to thank you." "For what?" "Move towards me." "For not beating the shit out of me when I was born." "Born?" "Born, man." "Pulled out of the hole." "So why didn't you do me like the others?" "They don't pay me for that." "Of course they do." "Shit, if I was you..." "I would've taken a couple of shots... kicked a little ass." "What's wrong, man?" "You chickenshit?" "Move." "Don't get me wrong, man." "I appreciate what you done." "Closing 107!" "Yo, Raheed!" "Here's..." "You let him be, man... or I'll crush your windpipe so flat... you'll be breathing out of your ass." "You play games with me, Bayliss..." "I'll take you down." "You understand me?" "OI' Jimmy the J ain't really playing... with a full deck, is he?" "I mean he's either singing Unchained Melody... all fucking night long... or he's talking to his dead mama." "Stand against the wall." "You're one to talk." "Twenty-four hours ago, you were lying in your own shit." "Face the wall." "Naw, man." "Twenty-four hours ago, I was invisible." "Every time one of you fuckers tries and breaks me, man..." "I just disappear." "I got a place in my mind you can't even touch." "Turn around." "Let's go." "Coming through." "When they turn on those lights, man... it's like Lazarus rising from the dead." "Lazarus." "They never used the electric chair on Lazarus." "The only way you're gonna fucking kill me... is cut my head off and bury it where I can't find it." "Sit down." "Coming through." "Let's go." "I got all of Rothstein's files here." "You and I are gonna pore over each and every one of 'em." "I want to know everything there is to know... about you and your case, Mr. Bayliss." "Denver." "Denver." "That means you have to be completely candid with me... no lies, nothing withheld." "I don't front my counsel, man." "Good." "I want to check some facts here concerning your record." "Go ahead." "Says here you lived in three foster homes." "Five." "First offense?" "Shoplifting food." "Which landed you in juvenile hall." "That's right." "You killed a boy there." "Yeah." "How old were you?" "Sixteen." "Conviction was for second-degree murder." "Yeah." "Judge made an example of you... sentenced you to an adult maximum-security prison... where you killed your cellmate at seventeen." "That's right." "Life sentence." "Life." "Any good time?" "No." "Another murder of a fellow convict... and the murder of a correctional officer... for which you received a death sentence." "Well, since then, I've been a model prisoner." "Yeah, he's going over to "A" block." "Yeah." "I'll take him over to "A" block." "Sandoval goes at 3:00, OK?" "All right." "What's up, Denver?" "Die, you fuck." "Break your fuckin' neck, you hear me?" "Just fucking make me." "Prisoner targeted!" "Come on, man." "Fucking kill me." "Kill me." "Prisoner secure." "What's the procedure here?" "Quiet cell, file a two-thirteen... but I think Lieutenant's gonna slap his ass... back in the hole." "Let's try the quiet cell for now, all right?" " OK." " All right." "Hey, hey, hey." "To Freddy Whitmore's broken cherry." "Hey, Emmett." "Hey, Lionel." " How are you?" " Freddy here?" "Yeah, down at the end of the bar." "Heh." "There he is." "Lieutenant, how's it going?" "I buy you a drink?" "Hey, from what I hear..." "I should buy you one." "Did Denver land on you?" "Yeah." "I caught a few, at least." "Kicks like a mule." "Couple beers, draft." "Congratulations." "You hear anything today?" "Ahem." "Didn't say much till the end of the visit." "Uh, said he was in ad-seg, strip cell." "His lawyer didn't seem so concerned, though... said he'd look into it." "Yeah, well, probably won't make it past the paper-shuffling stage." "What's on your mind, Fred?" "Just thinking about when I dragged him out of that hole." "Bothers you, doesn't it?" "A little." "Yeah." "Well, that's the normal reaction." "Look, listen." "Let me tell you about the hole." "The hole is a place where we tell a guy..." ""This is it, son." ""Your shit stops here." You understand?" "The hole is a place where we try to teach a boy like Denver to listen." "And, hey, when I first started on this job..." "I was just like you." "I went in there." "I thought, "Hey, these guys..." ""they're not that much different from me."" "Then it gets hard." "See, you watch the way they live... way they treat each other, and... got so I couldn't even eat my dinner at night." "Time changes all that." "If you watch 'em long enough... you realize that they are not like you, not at all." "You thank God when you get to that place... because then you can just do the job." "You'll get there." "Come on." "You know everybody here?" "Nah." "No, I don't." "Aw, come on." "Let's go meet a few guys." "All right." "Wait." "What happened?" "Nothing happened." "Yeah." "Just like Darrel." "Nothing." "You got into it, didn't you?" "I never liked this idea." "Yeah, well, I had to do something, so..." "It's more dangerous than being a cop." "When you quit the force, what you 'posed to do... be a security guard or something?" "Oh, you could find something else, honey." "Have to retrain." "I don't got that kind of time... and we don't got that kind of money." "Remember when we had that apartment off 103rd... when Darrel was just a baby and we had him sleeping... in that dresser drawer pulled out... and then when we got short of cash... we'd just eat the avocados off our neighbor's tree?" "Yeah." "Miss Bodeen would be screaming and shaking." ""Shine your shoes..." ""and pack a change of underwear, Fred Whitmore..." ""'cause I'm gonna send you to your maker."" ""You's just an avocado."" ""You're just an avocado."" "I love you, Fred Whitmore." "Hey." "You taking me down?" "I'm taking you to the yard." "You listen to me." "Give me any more shit..." "I'm gonna get myself reassigned." "You understand?" "You'll be hurting every day." "Lionel will probably replace me with Kurtz or with Durfee... maybe take this tier himself." "So you gonna be quiet when I walk you out of here... or do I get myself a new assignment right now?" "I'm cool." "Turn around." "Move back towards me." "Put your hands over your head and interlock your fingers." "Down on your knees." "Cross your right leg over your left." "Number two." "Can I bum a cigarette, man?" "Ever look at this razor wire?" "See the tiny, little Vs?" "Always remind me of birds trying to fly out of this place." "That crazy?" "I'd say so." "I guess if you stare at anything long enough... you're bound to see something." "All I see is the sky." "I haven't seen the sky except through these wires... for the last two years." "Yeah, well, I guess you shouldn't have murdered people." "Take a life, you take something that's precious... you step over the line." "You don't just walk away." "I don't expect to walk away, man." "Keep me in prison for the rest of my life." "I deserve that." "I just can't stand what the row does to you." "You ever see these supposed killers on store day, man?" "Get all excited about a cookie and a pack of cigarettes." "Imagine that, getting excited about a fucking cookie." "Makes me just sick to think about it." "Know what?" "I don't want to listen to your problems." "I ain't got no problems, man." "I got one problem, and that's the row." "I wanna be in main population." "I wanna be in the yard." "I wanna have a job." "I wanna be with the men who get laid." "Heh." "I wanna die." "Hey, Fred." "Not wearing at home anymore?" "Gotta go to my kid's school tonight, parent thing." "It's good for 'em to see the uniform, you know." "Prison supports this town... even though they don't like to admit it." "Fred..." "Denver's lawyer wants to see you tomorrow." "Now, we can get a union rep in there... or, uh, give you a lawyer if you'd like." "What does he want?" "Says it's personal." "But I don't trust him." "I think he wants to raise hell." "I'm sorry I got you involved in all this." "Yeah, well, I can handle it." "Don't need any backup." "Later." "I really want you..." "I wanna show you my painting." "All right." "Oh, this is so nice." "I think that's real imaginative, Darrel." "Let's ask the renowned art critic..." "Mr. Frederick of Hollywood... what he thinks of this masterpiece." "Mr. Fred?" "It's OK." "No, it... i-it's pretty good, Darrel." "Thank you." "Could you show a little enthusiasm, for God's sake?" "What you talking about?" "I told him it looked good." "You don't get it, do you?" "What you want me to do... jump up and down or something like that?" "Would you lower your voice, please?" "I'm outta here." "You know, when you were eighteen... and you were cruising down the boulevard... in that old '57 Chevy..." "I thought you were really something." "Strong and silent... was the sexiest thing on Earth to me." "But mysterious don't wash with ten-year-olds, Fred." "Who do you want me to be, Hope?" "Honey, just yourself." "I am what I am, and I love my son." "Then show it." "Show it?" "Yes." "I work a job I hate... so he can have new clothes and I could pay the rent." "I come home straight from work every night." "I take him to school every morning." "You know, maybe I should show it like Willy Fuller does... joking around, hugging, and kissing his kid... the one day a month he sees him." "Is that a threat, Fred?" "No." "When I threaten somebody, they know it." "Don't look at me that way." "What way?" "You got that crazy look in your eye... just like your old man." "Virgil was not crazy." "Oh, he wasn't?" "Oh, please." "You can't even call him daddy." "He was a good man." "Darrel!" "Come on." "It's time to go." "I move my king-rook pawn up one." "Bishop to pawn." "Check." "I move my king into the corner." "I move my bishop back one square." "Check." "Fucker." "I move my king out of check, over one." "I move my queen up one." "Check." "I move the king over to bishop five... only place I can go." "Queen to pawn." "Checkmate." "Fuck you!" "Fuck you." "Does that mean you don't wanna play again?" "Coming through." "Hey, Ray." "Afternoon, Officer Whitmore." "Afternoon." "Have a seat." "The yard seems empty." "Used to be swarming with inmates by this time... but that was before the days of administrative lockup." "Yeah, well, those writ writers... really brought it down on themselves, didn't they?" "Yeah." "I guess they did." "What can I do for you, Mr. Corbett?" "I want you to help me nail Lionel McMannis." "Heh." "What are you talking about?" "Man's got a strip cell going down in ad-seg." "Quiet cell is the most extreme form of segregation this state allows." "He's violating prison regulations." "You're full of shit, man." "Full of shit." "Officer Whitmore..." "Denver Bayliss was raised by the state... and the state did a pretty rotten job." "You know, he's never committed a violent crime... outside of prison." "How could he?" "They've been shuttling him in and out of foster homes... since he was six." "At fourteen, he was already in juvie." "By the time he graduated to this place... he was only sixteen years old." "Denver's not just a murderer." "Why do people like you make careers... out of making excuses for people like him?" "I had it bad as a kid, too." "I got beat up on by my old man... and I mean bad, but I never killed nobody." "Then why start killing people now?" "To show killers..." "That killing people is wrong?" "Yeah." "Thanks for your time, Officer Whitmore." "Coming through!" "Dinner." "What the fuck are you doing?" "I'm looking for cockroaches, spit." "I find it amazing... you haven't fucked with my food yet." "Not that I'm feeling sorry for myself or anything." "Nah, I bet you never felt sorry for nothin'." "What's that supposed to mean?" "Talkin' about the people you killed." "Two ways it happened, man... me and him." "Look, I got a letter for you." "Who's it from?" "Lillian Burke." "Throw it in the trash." "What the fuck are you doing?" "It's no big deal." "Staff reads your mail all the time." "Stop reading the fucking letter!" "It's from your sister." "Stop reading the fucking letter!" "What the fuck is your problem?" "!" "What the fuck is your problem?" "Why don't you tell me why a cop becomes a fucking bull?" "Who said I'm a cop?" "We got no secrets on the row, man." "So what'd you do to get buried in this fucking tomb, huh?" "What, you crooked?" "You kill Whitey?" "Ohh..." "I see a white boy's funeral in those eyes." "Never killed nobody." "You fucker." "My fucking dinner's cold." "Hey, Denver, man." "Denver." "Yo, Denver!" "What?" "Hey, listen, my woman she sent me this book..." "Bartlett's Quotations." "She's telling me, like, spice up my letters... you know, with romantic lines and shit." "Hey, why don't you just try to spice 'em up... with some lines she can read, eh?" "Hey, I don't listen to fools, now." "So, Denver, I..." "I been reading this book, you know... and I..." "I ain't gettin' nowhere." "L..." "I just wondered could you help me out a little bit?" "Yeah, all right." "Why don't you tell me about her." "Um, well, her name's Mary." "She's, uh... real pretty." "She's, uh... she's about 5'3"" "small, you know." "Kind of delicate." "Yeah." "Yeah, she's delicate." "And she got these real tiny hands, you know... like real delicate." "She's got long, black hair, like down to her hips, you know." "She got one of them waists, man... that you can, like, wrap your whole hands around." "And her skin is... really smooth, like glass... except it's warm." "Goddamn." "You know, I can almost feel it myself." "So what do I say?" "Hey, Denver, man, what do I put down here?" "Man's walking." "Do that again." "Thank you, father, for this food we are about to receive... for the nourishment of our bodies." "In Christ's name, we pray." "Amen." " Amen." " Amen." "Darrel, did you wash your hands?" "Yeah." "All right." "They just laid off the tool and die people." "Didn't even get lunch today." "You talk to the union?" "What union?" "How much longer you think you got, Hope?" "I figure I got maybe two or three months." "Heh." "Heh." "OK." "So we gotta make some plans, then." "You lose this job, Hope, we're gonna go belly up." "We got nothing to fall back on." "Nothing." "We'll be all right." "Fred." "Hey." "You still up?" "You think maybe that you could stay home sometime with Darrel... and I could go out for once?" "Sure." "Well, you think maybe we could go out together sometime?" "You know, married folks do do that." "Wanna go dancing?" "Tch." "Where?" "The Lighthouse." "They closed that joint down." "Some fool was selling crack in the men's room or something." "Starlight, then." "You think you still know how to dance?" "Get out of here." "L..." "I can cook, girl." "Are you... come here." "Let me see." "Let me show you my moves." "Get up, there." "Come to me." "OK, OK, OK." "OK, now give me your hand right here." "Move in close, like that." "I love when you sing to me." "Yes." "Oh, baby, this is it." "Oh, baby." "Fred." "Huh?" "Come to bed." "All right." "Ahem." "Maybe you should just ask for another assignment." "I see how this duty's torturing you." "Yard's the only alternative." "Get killed there a hell of a lot easier... then to get killed on death row." "There's gotta be a way out." "You remember that horse in the stables in the park... the one that you used to ride?" "What was that horse's name?" "Asphodel, like the flower." "Be nice to have a horse named Asphodel... growing in our backyard." "Nice." "Motherfuckers ain't gonna get me." "Fuckin' motherfuckers!" "You're not gonna get me!" " Fuckin'..." " Hey!" "Quiet!" "Hey, you tell me why I been wearin' these, motherfucker." "It..." "I'm wearin' it because I'm on suicide watch." "You been up all night?" "Get over there and lay down." "Get some sleep." "You tell 'em..." "I'm not wearin' those bastards anymore." "I'll tell them." "You better, motherfucker." "I will." "Just lie down and get some sleep." "Relax." "How you doing?" "Old Raheed kept me up all fucking night... crying about his first day in jail... how they taunted him and beat him." "Jesus Christ." "My first day in juvie, they asked me two questions... you got any enemies in here, and who's your next of kin?" "Then they shaved my head and threw me... in a fucking holding tank with a gang of Mexicans... who proceeded to beat the shit out of me." "I think I cried then." "I was only fourteen." "What happened?" "You and Jimmy go at it again?" "How... how the fuck's another inmate... gonna lay a baton across my face?" "What did you do?" "You don't have to do anything." "I didn't do anything, man." "They like to beat on me, just knock a couple teeth out... so they can see your fucking skull." "It doesn't matter." "Just do me a big favor." "Don't take too many days off, OK?" "Shit." "Is there a disturbance?" "Yeah." "Somebody tuned up Denver Bayliss." "Durfee, night watch." "He didn't throw on nobody?" "Not that I'm aware of." "Have you seen the prisoner, Lieutenant?" "Not yet." "Durfee used a baton on his head." "Right." "That's what I'm told." "Verbal abuse is not an excuse for hitting somebody..." "Don't you tell me about excuses." "You don't know that son of a bitch." "You don't know what he's capable of." "Bullshit!" "I'm not gonna let that happen to any prisoners on my tier." " Your tier?" "!" " You understand?" "What the hell's the matter with you?" "That boy giving you the Oriental massage?" "I took a ride with you, Lieutenant, kept my mouth shut... but you don't do something about this, I will." "When's Durfee coming in?" "You gonna drop a note on one of my officers?" "I do what I gotta do." "You're suspended..." "four days, no pay." "What are you talking..." "I run this unit, not you." "You go home and you sit and try to imagine... what it's like to run a unit like this." "Can't believe I'm getting this shit from you." "You're suspended." "Get out of my face." "I don't wanna see you till next week." "Get me Durfee." "I wanna see him on the tier." "Lock down every fucking prisoner." "Start racking those cells now." "It's rebuilt." "Should get another 40,000 out of this." "Look." "Forest Plaza Mall is hiring security." "I circled it for you right there." "Commercial property." "The least I'll take is head of security." "I got twelve years police experience." "Yeah, and they asked you to leave." "Honey, I'm sorry." "Look, nobody's gonna make you the boss right off." "Y- you gotta work your way up." "Yeah, what, at 250 a week?" "I can work at a fast-food joint for that." "Look, I got full medical at the prison, OK?" "Yeah, until they put you on suspension." "Fuck!" "I got three more days, all right?" "I got three days, and I'm back at work, all right?" "So you just stay the fuck out of my face!" "Look, you're not meant for this kind of work, Fred." "Why don't you see that?" "What are you trying to say to me?" "You trying to tell me..." "I'm not man enough?" "Is that what you're trying to tell me?" "You trying to tell me I can't handle this?" "No." "No, you can't." "You can't, and you don't have the sense to get yourself out... of a bad situation." "Y- you're weak..." "No more of this!" "You promised me!" "I'm..." "I'm sorry, all right?" "What did you do to her?" "You go inside." "You talk to your mom." "You do it!" "Tell her you're sorry!" "She don't wanna talk to me right now, Darrel." "Then neither do I!" "Where's your mom at?" "Out." "She say she... where's she's going... when she'd be back?" "No." "Salt, pepper?" "Darrel..." "I saw your room." "You gonna beat me?" "No, but I want you to clean it up." "So why you do that?" "Why'd you hit mom?" "I shouldn't have done it." "I shouldn't have done it." "I'm just going through a lot of stuff right now." "What's that?" "It's a horse belonged to your uncle Tim." "You want it?" "Go clean up your room." "Go clean up your room." "I got this." "Go clean up your room." "Hello." "Hello." "L-is this Fred Whitmore?" "Yeah." "Who's this?" "This is Kathy Rubicek." "I'm from the appeals project." "What do you want?" "I'd like to talk to you about Denver Bayliss." "Look, I..." "I know that he was beaten... and I know that you're on suspension... for speaking up on his behalf." "Can we talk?" "I got nothing to say." "Mr. Whitmore, I" " I'm really not trying... to make any trouble for you here." "There is a pattern of abuse that's emerging... and I am concerned for the inmate's safety." "Will you meet me somewhere?" "Where?" "Uh, well, right now..." "I'm..." "I'm downtown at the..." "Too far." "No." "All right." "Then I'll come to you." "Name the place." "Meet me at L.J.'s Bar and Grill." "It's about, uh, fifteen minutes south of, uh, the prison." "Just take post road, OK?" "L.J.'s Bar and Grill." "Thirty minutes." "OK, great." "I'll see you there." "Here." "Fred Whitmore." "Kathy Rubicek." "Appeals project." "You wanna order some things?" "Uh, no." "But can I get... a cup of coffee with cream, please?" "I wanna thank you for coming down here to talk with me." "I really appreciate this." "What do you want from me?" "Well, we're concerned about Denver Bayliss... and other inmates on death row." "I mean..." "I don't have to tell you how they're being treated." "We'd like to use Bayliss as plaintiff in a test case... but the facts are pretty hard to document." "Unless you get a guard to testify." "Well, you've already taken a stand, Mr. Whitmore." "I didn't take a stand." "I made a big mistake." "Well, that's not how I see it." "Who gives a fuck how you see it?" "What the fuck you know about it?" "You ever been inside death row?" "I used to represent Denver Bayliss." "So why you quit?" "He quit me." "I bet you were really relieved." "I bet that." "Yes, I was." "Because he is a sick bastard." "Because..." "I started to care about him." "And that's not an easy thing to do." "H- how can you care about somebody like that?" " How could you?" " I don't." "Then why are you here?" "I wanted to say no to you." "Well, you could've done that on the telephone." "No, no." "I wanted to say no to you to your face." "See, Corbett, he figures he send a woman over here... soften me up." "I know when I'm getting played." "Mr. Whitmore, Mr. Whit... sit down." "Please, sit down." "You're right about Denver." "He is sick." "He just really got under my skin." "And when he saw that, he wanted to go deeper." "And he'd just kind of... divine whatever was bothering me... and... and just wanna go straight into it... like he wanted... a companion in his suffering." "That man drove me up the wall." "How's he doing?" "He's not so good." "Then help us, Mr. Whitmore." "What do you say?" "I don't..." "I don't know why... everybody's asking me for something, you know." "I got a lot of problems of my own." "You want me to tell him I saw you?" "No." ""I understand you're seeing another man."" "What comes next?" "Hey, Denver, what..." "what do I say to her?" "Tell her, "But understanding cannot relieve the pain"... and it's only thoughts of her... that get you through each day." "Oh, hey, God damn it, slow down, man." "Please?" "I mean, I ain't using no computer here." "All right, "Understanding cannot relieve the pain."" "Yeah." "What's after that?" "It sounds like drivel." "It's what?" "It's drivel!" "Drivel?" "What... what's drivel?" "It's drivel." "It's shit." "No." "No, it ain't, man." "This is... this is almost as good as any greeting card." "Hey, Denver, man, I got some pruno for you." "Yes, ma'am." "A little fruit of the vine..." "Denver Bayliss bound." "Yes, indeed." "Coming down." "Shit." "Working next watch?" " No." " No?" "All right." "Why don't you come down to L.J.'s?" "In two and a half hours, I'll buy you a beer." "I'll be ready." "Give it up, Denver." "I don't know what you're talking about." "Open up 107!" "Face the wall!" "I can smell that rancid shit on your breath, hmm." "Where's the fucking cup?" "!" "You spitting on me, punk?" "You spit on me?" "!" "Coming through!" "Lieutenant!" "Don't you ever fucking touch me again." "Put that prisoner back in his cell." "Stand back!" "Get back!" "You come back here, motherfucker!" "Close 107!" "What the fuck is wrong with you?" "First day back on the job, you read me a wolf ticket?" "You don't got the right to torture him." "He gave me that right when he drug Timmy Bailey into that cell... and cut his throat clear to the neck bone." "That boy was twenty-one years old!" "I can't..." "You go against me on this, Whitmore... you are going against every correctional officer... in this facility." "You understand me?" "!" "Coming through!" "You cannot beat me on this row!" "Can I help you, officer?" "Yes, sir." "I'd like to file a complaint." "Regarding?" "My lieutenant." "You should really talk to the captain of your housing unit first and..." "No." "There's no time for that." "We really need to take care of this right now, sir." "You have five minutes." "Bayliss, you got a visitor." "Who is it, man, my lawyer?" "No, woman." "Lillian Burke." "Tell her to go home." "OK." "What's going on?" "Hey, man, I never got a chance to thank you... for pulling that maniac off of me." "Thanks." "You got a visitor." "I said you got a visitor." "No, I don't." "Look... the return address is Elko, right?" "That's three hundred miles away." "She ain't gonna be back." "Why do you give a shit?" "I don't." "Well, neither do I." "Who else you got?" "Why don't you get your clothes." "Come on." "Coming through the door." "It's this way." "Let's go." "Come on." "Hi, Denny." "It's so good to see you." "They did let me bring some things in, like my book." "Oh." "I've got a surprise for you." "You wanna see?" "Look." "Who is it?" "They're my children." "I thought you only had one." "Well, I have been writing you twice a month since Sarah was born." "What are their names?" "Well, Sarah, of course." "She's six." "That's Mary." "She's four." "And this is Matthew Denver." "He's two." "Two." "Matthew Denver." "I know." "I was going to call him Denver, but it's not Biblical." "I was gonna change my name legally once." "You know that?" "To what?" "Fort Worth." "Where was mama's head when she gave you that name?" "Thank God it wasn't in Albuquerque." "Gosh, you always did tickle me, you know." "Yeah, but you were easy, Lil." "You laugh at everything." "Hey, do you remember wh... when Gillis was living with mama... and you placed that darning needle... under his beach chair?" "Stuck right in his ass." "Launched him right out of the chair." "No... we took him to the hospital." "Five stitches." "Stuck like a pig, he was." "And, oh, sitting on that ice bag." "I know." "That son of a bitch." "I should have fucking killed him." "You never asked me how Bill is." "How is Bill?" "Well, he's doing very well." "Now, he's still working the swing shift... but we're very, very happy that he's working... you know, the way they've been laying people off nowadays." "You ever tell your kids about me, Lil?" "You just tell 'em I'm away, huh?" "No." "I tell them the truth." "What's the truth?" "I tell them that you did wrong... and for that, you are being punished." "What else do you tell 'em?" "You don't give too many details... to a six-year-old." "Oh, honey... it's time." "For what?" "You've got to make your peace... with the Lord." "I do?" "Yes, and he'll forgive you." "All you have to do is open your heart and receive him." "And what if I don't?" "Then you will go to hell." "No." "No, you must pay attention to me." "It's not funny." "Don't laugh at me." "Please, listen." "Here." "Here it says..." ""If you deny the Christ before the sons of man..." ""then God will not receive you..." ""as his own before the hosts of heaven." ""Behold, the holy breath..." ""shall teach you in your hour of need."" "This is what I need." "Shit!" "Fuck!" "No!" "You don't move!" "You don't move!" "I'm sorry." "I didn't know..." "Go!" "Why did you do that to her?" "Why the fuck did you do that to her?" "!" "'Cause I felt like it!" "I protected you, Goddamn it." "I put my ass on the line... and you make a fool out of me!" "This isn't about you." "It's about me and her, you son of a bitch." "Come on, man." "Hit me again." "You're just a fucking pig." "You're just like him." "I am nothing like Virgil." "Who the fuck is Virgil, man?" "Move." "Who the fuck is Virgil, man?" "I was talking about Lionel." "Why you so hot for me to see my sister?" "What, you got family problems or something?" "Go to the gate." "I see you wearing that wedding ring, man... but I don't ever hear you talk about your wife." "I don't even know if you got a kid." "Shut up and face the wall." "Through the door and face the wall." "What you doing out there?" "What you doing?" "Just playing." "Your mom home?" "She called, said she's working overtime." "What you hiding behind your back?" "Nothing." "Don't lie to me." "What the hell is this?" "It's for Jerry Coombs." "You told me that you beat him straight up." "He keeps coming back." "And you're gonna use this on him?" "You never beat him." "He's been picking on you, hasn't he?" "Why don't you tell your teacher about this?" "I'm not a pussy." "Hey, you don't talk like that, you hear me?" "I could fight my own fights, just like you did." "I want you to tell your teacher about this." "You understand me?" "Yeah." "You understand me?" "Yeah." "Go inside." "Go inside." "Where's the Goddamn sun, man?" "Never get a tan on the row." "White guy in here turns so pale, looks like... they're slowly trying to erase him." "Why don't you save your sob stories for your fancy lawyer friends." "They get off on that shit." "Not me." "I wanna hear about Timmy Bailey... about how you took a twenty-one-year-old kid... and nearly cut his head off." "You whup me every day, man..." "I'm still coming out of that cell." "I get the last word." "You guys'll never own me." "It's the only freedom I got in here." "It's the only thing that keeps me going." "You're trying to tell me that this kid beat you down?" "No." "He was set up." "Oh, yeah?" "By who?" "By the other bulls." "Bullshit." "I don't believe you." "Go ahead, man." "Ask 'em." "They'll tell you." "They got a big laugh out of it... right up until the point I slit his fucking throat." "How'd they set him up?" "I had a broken cheekbone and my jaw." "Another inmate hit me with a piece of steel cable." "I'd been begging for a doctor for a week." "They finally gave in." "I got all excited in my cell." "I waited all day." "About 6:00, I look down the tier... and all I see is a fucking bull... coming down with a bottle of aspirin." "It was a big joke on both of us." "He didn't know about it?" "No, he didn't." "And you never gave him the chance, did you?" "You just wanted to watch somebody die." "I wanted to watch anybody die." "But he wasn't like them." "He... he was different." "But that didn't matter to you, did it?" "You just drove it in deeper, didn't you?" "Of course it mattered." "I did everything I could to stop it." "He was holding on to me like I could save him." "I put my hand over his throat to try and stop the bleeding." "I gave him mouth-to-mouth... to give him air." "You fucking liar!" "It's the truth!" "You don't think I got feelings?" "I got feelings, man." "If I could turn time back..." "I would let that boy just walk by... but I can't." "I see that boy's face every night... his eyes, the way he was looking up at me... holding on." "You got no idea, man." "No, I don't." "Don't kid yourself." "I know you're holding on to shit, too." "It's time to get you back to the cell." "Move over towards the gate." "Step out." "Move against the wall." "You guys from the outside... you know, you really make me fucking laugh." "You come in here." "You read my file and my jacket." "You know every crime I've ever committed, every sin... but you don't know me." "You don't know me at all." "Why don't you tell me why you're not a cop?" "Yeah, well, I wounded a guy in a shooting." "Unnecessary use of deadly force." "I had to quit the force." "That's it?" "That's it?" "I lost the job that I loved." "It's like losing a part of yourself." "No." "You're holding on to something else." "Stand against the wall." "You look great." "Thanks." "My sister's down from Alden, and we're gonna go out to dinner... you know, maybe a movie." "There's some cold cuts in the refrigerator... and you guys can make yourselves some sandwiches or something." "Can we talk later when you get back?" "What are we gonna talk about?" "How things are gonna change around here?" "Look, I know I used those words so much I broke 'em... but I'm telling you it's gonna get better, Hope." "It really is." "Hope!" "Look at you!" "Aren't you something?" "Girl, I'm just dressed up for once." "I'll see you later." "Yeah." "Hey, buddy." "What are you doing?" "Making some stew." "You talk to your teacher... about that boy who was messing with you?" "I'm just staying away from him." "I don't like cloves, dad." "There are cloves in there?" "Yeah." "Who put these cloves in here?" "Get out." "Back." "Exit." "Back to where you belong." "Real stupid move, Fred." "Did what I had to do, Lieutenant." "Invite you to my home." "Tried to be your friend." "You sure know how to burn bridges." "Administration won't let me can your ass... until this complaint has played through... but you should know I put a transfer in for you yesterday." "You're on the yard." "Get your papers tomorrow." "Unless you withdraw that complaint." "It's not gonna happen." "You were hung out to dry." "I gave you a job..." "I put food on your table, and you rolled me over." "Gotta go to work." "Hey!" "I got news for you." "Denver's gonna fry." "His petition was denied." "Inmate Julio Perez, 9-3-8." "Here's some food for you." "Hey, man." "I heard you dropped a note on Lionel." "Yeah." "Good for you, Fred." "Good for you." "It's OK if I call you Fred?" "Oh, yeah." "It's OK to call me Fred." "Did you hear about my date?" "Governor might grant you clemency." "Heh." "Yeah, my ass might sprout wings and fly." "I got something for you, man." "Where the fuck is it?" "Come on." "You know, I live in this small fucking place... and I keep losing everything." "I can't find half my papers, my good pens... where the fuck..." "Shit." "Thanks." "Yeah." "You think I'm gonna crack, don't you?" "Nah, man." "I think you'll be all right." "I'm gonna be OK." "Fuck." "Shit." "Uh, you need some help in there?" "No, man, I'm fine, OK?" "Just let me do it." "You sure you don't need some help?" "I'm fine, God damn it!" "Leave me the fuck alone!" "Please." "All right." "All right." "Shit." "It's cool." "It's cool." "Oh, motherfucker." "Hi." "God, that feels good." "I heard on the news... that there's gonna be an execution." "Is it that guy?" "Yeah." "You won't have to be there, will you?" "Wanna be there." "Oh, Fred." "Why put yourself through that?" "Because he's got nobody else." "Because I..." "So where you been the last couple of weeks?" "I've been here, Fred." "Really?" "I just want you to know that..." "I do love you." "I love you, too." "But we're still left with these lives... with the things that we've said and done." "Some of them are pretty hard to forget." "I'm sorry for that." "What is it, Hope?" "What is it?" "What?" "I feel like the past has become this... living thing, like this... shadow person that's always standing there... always between us... messing with the things that we say... twisting our words, and I don't know... if "I'm sorry" is enough, Fred... not for either of us." "Your lawyer's here." "You tell me." "He should be the one to tell you." "That's not my job." "Come on." "Governor denied your application for clemency." "Tell him to go home." "You sure?" "He can't do me any good now." "He doesn't need to see me." "I'm doing him a favor." "OK." "Wait." "What time are you coming to get me?" "4:30." "Gonna take you to a cell in north block." "Heh." "Great." "So I can sleep right next to the chair." "When's my wake-up call?" "10:00 in the morning." "Man." "Have you got a cigarette?" "Need anything?" "You mean like a last wish?" "Yeah, I guess so." "I, uh..." "I need someone to hold, Fred." "If this complaint goes to the hearing committee..." "If this complaint goes to the hearing committee... you won't have the ruling... until after Denver Bayliss has been executed." "Are you sure you still wanna file?" "Yes, sir." "Then I'll have to honor... your commanding officer's request for your transfer." "We can't have personal conflict in our housing unit... the job of custody is difficult enough." "So I'm the one who's gotta go?" "We're not talking dismissal here... just a transfer to, uh... to the yard." "Mr. Adams, could you delay my transfer until after the Bayliss execution?" "I promise I'll stay out of the Lieutenant's way." "If you're worried about Bayliss' well-being, don't." "I just think that things will go... a lot more smoothly if I'm still around." "All right." "I'll hold the paperwork." "That way, you can finish the job." "Thank you." "Darrel, I won't be coming home tonight." "I gotta stay at the prison." "Why, dad?" "'Cause... state's gonna execute a guy tomorrow morning... and somebody's gotta be there... to keep him company." "Because he's scared?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Maybe he'll try to kill himself tonight." "Yeah." "That's why I gotta be there." "If they're gonna kill him the next day... why do they care if he kills himself?" "I don't know." "I guess they wanna show they got the power." "You care about this guy, don't you, dad?" "Yeah." "I care about him." "If anybody finds out about it..." "I had nothing to do with it." "Denver Bayliss ate his last meal at 6:00 this evening." "It consisted of Salisbury steak, potatoes, and peas." "We believe he's resigned himself to the sentence." "There were no visitors." "He did not request a prison chaplain." "The execution is to proceed as scheduled." "Everything is going smoothly... and we have no further comment at this time." "Aw, man, I gotta get some more coffee." " Want a refill?" " No." "You don't mind if I take a break, do you?" " No." "Go ahead." " All right." "Thanks." "What time is it, Fred?" "It's almost 3:00." "You all right?" " Yeah." " OK." "You can tell me that thing you've been wanting to tell me." " You know." " What thing?" "Whatever's been weighing on you." "Who's Virgil?" "He was my father." "What'd he do?" "Did he hurt you?" "He used to beat up on people... whoever got in his way... which... mostly us." "Who's "us"?" "Me... my mother, my little brother Tim." "He loved us." "He did." "What happened?" "I used to watch him beat up my little brother Tim." "He always got the worst... 'cause he talked so much, you know?" "Even when I was bigger..." "I'd just watch him beat on Tim... didn't do a Goddamn thing about it." "I was too scared." "I was scared, too." "When I got older... me and Virgil sort of became friends." "I mean, he wasn't a badass no more." "He was just a... a tired old man... just tinkering around... with this old heap of junk he had jacked up... on cinder blocks in his front yard." "But after my mom left..." "That old car was all he had." "I felt sorry for him." "What happened?" "Went over to his place to borrow some tools." "He gave 'em to me... along with some shit... about how I better take care of 'em." "I mean, petty, petty shit." "L..." "I just couldn't take it." "So what'd you do?" "You tuned him up?" "I started smashing in his car window... with the toolbox." "He came at me... and I hit him in the face." "And I couldn't stop." "And I..." "I knocked what few teeth he had... right... right down his throat." "He recovered in a couple of days." "Two weeks later, he was... dead... from a heart attack." "Fred." "What?" "I wanna thank you." "For what?" "For being my friend." "Good-bye." "Good-bye." "Denver Bayliss..." ""Having been tried and convicted of first-degree murder..." ""and the jury having returned a sentence of death..." ""and this judgment having been affirmed..." ""by the state Supreme Court pursuant to the judgment..." ""of death entered by the Superior Court..." ""is hereby ordered to be executed at this place..." ""by means of electrocution on the tenth day of November."" "Stand up." "I can do it, huh."