The Confession

At 5:40pm, the US Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, refuses to hear the defense’s mental illness petition. When he gets the call, Flak tells Donté that he will never stop fighting to prove Donté’s innocence: “I believed you from the beginning and I believe you even more today. It’s been an honor being your lawyer” (327).

Schroeder hesitates to join the other witnesses in the death chamber itself, but Flak ruefully tells him, “Come on, Rev. Come watch a little democracy in action” (328). At 5:59pm, the governor denies a reprieve, saying, “The judicial system of Texas cannot be hijacked by some criminal looking for attention and a desperate lawyer who will say anything” (332).

Calmly, Donté enters the execution chamber and is strapped down to the gurney. Tubes are inserted into his arms. The curtains open, and Donté sees two rows of witnesses, including his mother. Schroeder is stunned by the “coldness, the ruthless efficiency, the sanitized neatness” (333) of the preparation. In his last words, Donté again affirms his innocence and names Detective Kerber, DA Paul Koffee, Judge Grale, the governor, and the all-white jury as complicit in his murder. He nods goodbye to his mother. The execution proceeds. Donté is declared dead at 6:21pm.

News of the execution reaches Boyette in Slone. Flak’s defense team dismisses his last-minute confession as too little, too late. Police and National Guard troops prepare for a long night. Less than an hour after the news, two pickup trucks parked at the local “Bubba bar” (344) are firebombed. Bar patrons rush to their trucks and grab their guns, “ready for war” (350).

Donté’s body is taken to a funeral home in Huntsville; by 7:00pm, it is on the way home to Slone.

Nicole’s mother, playing to the cameras, declares that Donté died “way too easy” (344). When she is shown Boyette’s taped confession by one of the reporters, Reeva grows confused and abruptly ends the interview.

Retired Detective Kerber phones DA Koffee: If Boyette is telling the truth, could Kerber face charges? Koffee assures Kerber that he controls the grand jury and that no charges would ever be filed: “We are the system” (353). As long as Donté’s confession was by the book, Kerber should have no problem.

Flak and Schroeder arrive back in Slone. Black protestors in the park have begun to throw rocks at police cars. The confrontation quickly escalates, as the police decide to break up the protest with tear gas. Protesters scatter, but just as the park calms down, reports come in that the press box at the high school football field has been vandalized and set on fire.

Donté’s body arrives at the Slone funeral home as his family hears sirens in the distance. Donté’s mother, left alone in the preparation room, views the body of “her beautiful boy” (367). She takes out scissors from her purse and carefully cuts off the prison uniform. Tears run down her cheeks as she hums one of her favorite hymns, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” When her son is completely naked, “leaving the same way he came in” (368), she bathes him and then carefully dresses him in the new suit her family picked out. When she finishes, she cradles her son’s body in her arms and gently kisses his forehead.