The Confession

The morning of the execution dawns in Slone. The Black football players have gone through with their promise to boycott football practice; they also refuse to play the game the next evening. White residents fume over the cancelled game and about the Baptist church being torched. Just as school begins, a shoving match breaks out between Black and white students. The principal closes the school at 8:30am.

Donté’s family arrives at Longview Prison before Donté is transferred the 50 miles to Huntsville for the execution. Donté tries to console his mother, but tells her not to hope for a reprieve. “I’m sorry,” he tells her. “I’m gonna die angry” (239). He again begs his mother not to attend the execution, but Roberta is adamant she will be there.

Meanwhile, the Court of Criminal Appeals rejects Joey Gamble’s recantation because taping the conversation without his knowledge was illegal. With hope dwindling, Flak makes a desperate call to Schroeder and tells him again to hurry.

Around mid-morning, Black residents of Slone march through town, chanting. The procession heads to the courthouse. The police station receives a call that one of the town’s Black churches has been set on fire, no doubt in retaliation for the white Baptist church.

An exhausted Schroeder finally arrives in Slone. By this time, Flak and his team have assembled a file on Boyette and are ready to tape his confession. The execution is just six hours away. But when Boyette arrives at the office, he balks at taping the confession until he receives $200,000, the money Nicole’s father offered years earlier for information that would lead to his daughter. Flak is incredulous.

At noon, Donté is transferred by van to Huntsville, where the execution will take place. Vans from the prison run into a roadblock: cars and trucks filled with college students intent on disrupting the execution. But prison security, anticipating such a move, arranged to transfer Donté to a waiting helicopter. Donté flies over the clogged highway.

Meanwhile, Boyette, now fed and caffeinated, drops the demand for money. Flak assures him that when he confesses, nothing will happen to him legally for a long time: By arresting Boyette, Texas would have to admit they were wrong about Donté. But a confession should at least delay the execution. The taping begins. Looking squarely into the camera, Boyette tells what happened the night he killed Nicole. “Watching Boyette’s eyes and face as he talked about his crimes left no doubt that [they] were in the presence of a ruthless killer” (269). When Boyette finishes the 15-minute-long confession, he collapses.

The defense team only has until 5:00pm to get to the courthouse with Boyette’s tape and his signed affidavit. They must secure a delay to have time to recover Nicole’s body and exonerate Donté.

After the quick helicopter ride, Donté rehearses his last words in his head. He is fingerprinted into Huntsville’s death row. He declines the offer to meet with the chaplain.

Meanwhile, back in Flak’s office, Boyette regains consciousness. The team tries to figure out how to use Boyette’s confession, which is useless without Nicole’s body. Flak wants to go to the media—generating outrage might compel the governor to act. But the threat of an all-out race war in the streets of Slone makes Flak cautious. The team receives word in at noon that a long-closed cotton processing factory outside Slone had been set on fire.

Around 3:00pm, the governor’s office in Austin receives the petition along with Boyette’s signed confession and the video tape. His secretary watches the tape, and decides that Boyette’s confession lacks credibility. The staff agrees. Knowing that the only way to protect the governor politically is to ensure he never sees the confession, they do not show him the package. They are certain that even if the governor believes Boyette’s story, he would never grant a reprieve in a death penalty case.

The governor and his advisors sip expensive bourbon in his office and watch the tape of Donté’s confession. Despite the frequent interruptions by Detective Kerber “correcting” the boy’s account, the governor announces as much to the press waiting outside his office that the right man will be executed: “He is a monster. He is a guilty man” (297).

Just before Flak heads out to Huntsville, Joey Gamble calls from Houston and agrees to sign an affidavit saying he lied under oath. They direct him to a law firm that gets the affidavit and faxes it to Slone. The defense team, along with Schroeder, head to the airport for the flight to Huntsville. As he flies over Slone, Schroeder prays to God to guide him.

Donté waits for his last meal—pizza. Word reaches Flak on the plane of the governor’s denial. At 4:30pm, the Court of Criminal Appeals decides that without a body, Boyette’s confession has “serious credibility issues” (301), and denies the motion for a delay.

Flak and his team arrive at Huntsville at 4:45pm. There is little hope to offer Donté. Flak is “bitter” at the system, “angry” over its incompetence and corruption (307).

At 4:49pm, the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court is eager to get to the country club for a round of tennis. Despite being alerted about the materials being delivered by Flak’s team, the judge tells his secretary to make sure the doors are locked. The team arrives at 5:07pm and finds the office closed. Later, country club records will reveal that the judge signed in to the tennis courts at 5:00pm sharp—meaning, he closed the office before the official time.