The Confession

Robbie Flak, a defense attorney in Slone, Texas, prepares for another attempt to delay the execution of his client, Donté Drummer, a high school football player, for the rape and murder nine years earlier of Nicole Yarber, a cheerleader. Flak is running out of options. Over nine years, he and his team have spent much of Flak’s own savings and an enormous amount of time to free a man they are certain is innocent.

In the weeks after Nicole’s disappearance, the investigation team, headed by Detective Drew Kerber, a rogue cop with an earned reputation for “doing anything to get a conviction” (22), received an anonymous tip accusing Donté Drumm, a Black football player who had briefly dated Nicole. “Everything fit now—the teenage love affair, black on white, still very much taboo in East Texas” (23). Despite lacking the victim’s body, any forensic evidence, or witnesses, the police arrested Donté.

On the internet, Reverend Schroeder confirms the basics about Boyette, the murder, and Donté Drumm’s arrest and conviction. Nicole’s body has never been recovered (not a problem for criminal prosecutions in Texas). The anonymous tip, possibly made by Joey Gamble, another football player who also had a romantic interest in Nicole, was the only evidence against Drumm, aside from Donté’s confession, which, according to the website, was coerced. Although he has no background in forensics, Schroeder reasons that the first task, if Boyette is telling the truth, would be to get him to reveal where Nicole body is buried.

A private investigator on Flak’s defense team visits Joey Gamble, now a manager at an auto parts dealership near Houston. The investigator hopes to get Joey to recant his testimony, but Joey adamantly refuses to publicly admit he lied about seeing Donté’s van near the school. “Sign an affidavit telling the truth” (46), the investigator counsels, reminding Joey about the suffering of Donté and his family. Joey will not.

Reverend Schroeder visits the halfway house where Boyette is staying. A sluggish, medicated Boyette describes the details of the murder: While working on a construction site in Slone, he saw Nicole on the sidelines at football games he went to because he was bored. He admits, “I fell in love with her” (60). He kidnapped her and drove her to Joplin, Missouri, where he grew up. There, he raped and strangled her to death, burying her body in a remote area where he knew she would never be found in a large metal toolbox he stole from the construction site. To verify his story, Boyette shows Schroeder Nicole’s gold class ring, which he still wears around his neck.

Nine years ago, Slone’s District Attorney Paul Koffee understood the implications of the Drumm trial: no witness, no body, no motive, and flimsy testimony at best. Because the arrest had racial implications, the trial would need to be carefully handled to secure a guilty verdict. Koffee received a lot of help from Nicole’s family, who were eager to convict “that boy” (71).

Now with the execution just days away, Koffee drives out to visit Nicole’s family to arrange for them to witness the execution. Nicole’s mother Reeva, who has mastered working the media and is a fixture on the news, preps for a $50,000 exclusive interview with a national reporter known for sensationalizing crime stories. Despite Koffee’s pleas to keep a low-profile to avoid inciting protests, Reeva indicates she will do the interview.

Meanwhile, Flak goes to the Drumm home to review the protocols for the execution. He is struck by the quiet dignity of Donté’s family, particularly his mother Roberta, who, since the death of her husband five years earlier, has faced the approaching execution of her son with stoic grace. She knows her son, despite his reputation as a fierce and unyielding presence on the football field, was “really a pushover, a sensitive kid who would never harm an innocent person” (80). Despite Donté’s objections, Roberta plans to be at the execution: “I was there when he was born and I’ll be there when he dies” (82).