Destination by James Ellroy

2003)
    Said court issues a stay of execution pending two Supreme Court decisions.
    7/3/89: The Supreme Court vacates the Fifth Circuit’s judgment. It remands Graham’s case to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
    3/7/90: The Fifth Circuit vacates Graham’s death sentence.
    1/3/92: The Fifth Circuit reverses the previous decision. It affirms the denial of Habeas relief. The Supreme Court affirms the judgment—1/25/93.
    4/20/93: Graham refiles State Habeas.
    4/27/93: The Court of Criminal Appeals denies relief.
    4/28/93: Governor Richards grants a stay of execution. The State District Court resets the date: 6/2/93.
    4/28/93: Graham’s lawyers file a Writ of Certiorari.
    5/24/93: The Supreme Court denies said writ.
    6/2/93: The Court of Criminal Appeals stays Graham’s execution pending a Supreme Court decision.
    Said decision goes down. The Trial Court sets a new date: 8/17/93.
    7/21/93: Graham files a civil suit. The suit requests a Board of Pardons hearing. The hearing is scheduled for 8/10/93.
    The hearing occurs. The Board of Pardons files an appeal notice. Graham’s execution is stayed.
    4/20/94: The Court of Criminal Appeals voids said stay.
    The process continued. The process attenuated.
    Graham got new lawyers. They filed new writs.
    They stressed the alleged incompetence of Graham’s trial counsel. They stressed the sole eyewit. They stressed the contradicting eyewits. They stressed the alibi wits.
    Briefs/writs/motions/hearings/appeals.
    Lethal injections scheduled and postponed.
    Publicity. Graham—pro and con. The Lambert snuff as justice cause célèbre.
    Defense committees. Hollywood endorsements. Amnesty International. A twenty-minute agitprop film.
    A schmaltzy soundtrack. Gary Graham—Nelson Mandela West.
    The process dragged. Graham stayed on death row. Graham changed his name to Shaka Sankofa.
    The process dragged into 2000.
    3.
    Houston was the shits.
    I caught it coming in. I caught it off a high freeway.
    Some strip malls were new. Some strip malls were old. Future strip malls stood half-completed.
    The floor plan jarred. The color scheme clashed.
    Jerry-rigged suburbs. Southwest pastels. Too much white on beige.
    It was humid. It was hot in November.
    I flew in with my friend Rick Jackson. We brought our paperwork. Graham’s appellate lawyer supplied it.
    Rick was a PI. He was ex-LAPD. He worked murders in Hollywood. He worked major crimes at Robbery-Homicide. He sandwiched in a USC master’s.
    Rick loved crime. Rick loved crime past his vocation. Rick loved the riddle of motive and lives in duress. Rick loved crime as social history. Rick loved crime with the guilelessness of a kid discovering sex.
    Rick cosigned the death penalty. Rick sent two men to death row. One man fried. One man killed himself.
    I cosigned the death penalty. I dismissed the inherent inequities based on class and race. I believed in punishment and the ultimate censure of vicious and wanton acts. I knew the death penalty did not deter murder. I believed that the death penalty unified and set a tone of intolerance for murder. I countered all rebuttals steeped in mitigation. Poverty did not move me. The cumulative effect of historical racism did not move me. I weighed systemic injustices against the necessity for judiciously applied vengeance and viewed the abrogation of individual rights as a palatable trade. My bottom line—thoroughly reasoned and in no way disingenuous:
    If you have to know why we need the death penalty, you’re never going to know.
    One counterthought torqued me. One quasi-rebuttal lurked.
    I dismissed most mercy pleas based on mitigation. I dismissed the unequal levy of death decrees against people of color. I could not condone the execution of innocent men and women.
    Hence Gary Graham.
    I read the paperwork. Rick read it. We discussed it.
    The details played ambiguous. The details contradicted and counterweighted. The details lacked the cohesive logic