Hearing a noise, he looked up. The table they were seated at faced a window
that looked into the hallway. He noticed
three men pass by in grey uniforms and baseball caps pushing along a stretcher/ The stretcher carried a long black bag: a
body bag. One of the men saw Micah
watching them and gave him a little wave.
Micah just looked at him in response.
They must be the body clean-up crew.
“Hey Sean,” Micah called out pausing in his work. John and Sean both looked up. They were standing near the metal
cabinets. “Yeah?” answered John. Micah ignored the miscommunication realizing
it was futile to point out their mistake and continued with his question.
“How often do you guys get someone to opt for the Mercy
Rule?” he asked. John shrugged and
looked at Sean.
“Maybe ten a month, or so,” Sean answered. “Not that many, and even less are
successful.”
“So you give an inmate a gun to shoot himself or herself,”
Penny piped up in her soft mouse-like voice.
“What makes you guys sure that he won’t use it to shoot the guards and
everyone around him?” she asked. Even
Noah looked up at this question.
“Safety controlled-timers,” Sean answered beginning one of
his long-winded answers. “Once an inmate
opts for the Mercy Rule, they are locked in one of the self-execution rooms for
as long as they need to complete the deed.”
He gave a small giggle at the unintentional rhyme but continued. “There are two cameras in each room, behind
the bullet-proof material. Additionally,
placed on the inmate are sensors that monitor the inmate’s body
functions.”
“Unsuccessful suicides are given an additional shot right
here,” John said tapping the back of his head.
Sean nodded and continued.
“And those that fail to even pull the trigger are notified
via intercom that the gun’s safety will be activated and that they will be
sedated and scheduled an execution date.
Sometimes that does the trick and motivates them to pull the trigger,”
Sean said with a disturbingly casual note in his voice.
“But you can’t leave them in there forever,” Noah said, his
voice cracking from lack of use. “Even
if they are declaring they want to kill themselves, they can’t be left in a
small room for too long or it’d be cruel and unusual punishment, right?” he asked
looking through strands of his long stringy dark hair.
Sean gave a smile and pointed at Noah. “Very good,” he said. “Yes, after forty-eight hours, the inmate is
sedated, and then assigned an execution date.
All death row inmates gotta die somehow...their method...or our
choice...doesn’t make much of a difference,” he said trailing off. John and Sean turned back to the cabinet and
continued to file papers.
“I don’t want to
die. I’m innocent.”
Micah looked at the paper he had just place on top of his
growing pile and reread the words. Innocent. He read the words, but it didn’t register
until just now. It wasn’t the first time
Micah saw that a death row inmate professed innocence, but the simplicity of
the plea caught his attention. Innocent. There were no excuses made, no pleading for
mercy or declarations of injustice, just the phrase, “I’m innocent.” Micah could
almost hear the desperation in the inmate’s voice in the few words on the
page. It was Inmate No. 1867.
Micah tried to decipher the signature at the bottom, most
likely signed due to the advice of counsel after being informed of all his
rights. Not signing the transcript under
575 of the Penal Code is equal to an affirmative response anyways. In fact, the majority of the death row
inmates refuse to sign the transcripts, as if it were signing their own death
warrants, and the signing is generally optional. However, those who choose the Mercy Rule are
required to sign the transcripts.
This transcript was unusual in that it was signed, affirming
the unchosen result of state sponsored execution. Or was the signature an affirmation of his
innocence? Micah thought. Micah squinted at the lettering. Kai?
He thought. Kay? Kai Bingham?
Bellingham? Micah couldn’t
read the handwriting. It looked as if
the hand writer was male, but he couldn’t be sure. He made a note to look up the name later
online to learn more about the crimes and the trial. It
really doesn’t matter, though, Micah thought noting the date was about five
years ago. The inmate probably has already been executed. Still, Micah wrote down the name and the
possible variations of it, folded it, and placed it in his pocket for reference
later. He sighed and moving on, he
picked up another transcript.
After a few weeks, the shocking jolt of Mondays soon became
routine. Lilia’s scope focused was
continuously on a target, and she never once hesitated before pulling the
trigger. Micah sat in the sterile, yet
disturbingly damp and cold basement reading through files of people professing
their innocence, or finally admitting to their guilt taking their destiny into
their own hands.
The Saturday after Micah filed away Kai Bellingham’s signed
form in the dusty metal file cabinet in the basement of the school, he went to
the library to look up Kai’s criminal history.
It was a warm Saturday morning, the first warm morning in nearly a
week. It was as if Mother Nature hadn’t
quite made up her mind about changing seasons yet. The library was already a bit uncomfortably warm,
with morning sunlight streaming in through the ceiling windows. The
air smelled of polished wood and the worn pages of books that had been read too
often by too many people.
Micah settled in with the Official Inmate database on his
eTablet, and a large open book of Executed Criminals from the past five years
until the present date. The volumes of
Executed Criminals kept official records of criminals that had Penal Code 575
and 576 applied to them, and used the official summary of the criminal and his
or her crimes that were generally provided on the voting ballot to list the
Criminal. The summary supposedly took an
objective look at the crime, the verdict, and let the voter decide whether or
not the crime was heinous enough to warrant a death sentence. After double checking Kai’s name with his
inmate number, Micah decided to start there.
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