I don't wanna fight nobody!
In America we all have certain inalienable rights,
Iike the right to bear arms and the right to remain silent.
But the state has the ultimate right.
It can kill us.
Due to popular demand,
Governor James Devlin revived capital punishment.
And he decided that Jefferson Keane,
a man he doesn't know, a man he will never even meet,
should be put to death.
Should be put down like a rabid dog.
The mood in this country has changed.
People are sick of crime, sick of being afraid.
They need a sign that something is being done.
Even, governor, if it's been proven that executions have no effect
on the increase or decrease in crime whatsoever?
Especially if it has no effect. These days murders are random, senseless.
Maybe the punishment should be too.
Jefferson Keane will be the first person executed by this state in 34 years.
He's the first because he snapped the neck of another inmate.
He's the first because he deserves to die.
Jefferson Keane is the first because he's black and he's young.
The public is not gonna feel safe if we execute a 70-year-old white guy.
- You gonna turn this into a racial thing? - Oh, please.
Anybody thought about all the protestors we're gonna have outside,
marching around, yelling slogans?
And the counter-protestors yelling at them?
Yeah, and we'll have even less parking spaces.
The protestors aren't gonna be a problem.
I want you to know that when those protestors come,
I'm standing with them.
I can't have an employee of mine out there at a vigil,
- holding a candle in front of a camera. - The last time I looked,
we had freedom of speech and freedom of assembly in this country.
- Or did you eliminate those rights too? - The governor's been biting my ass,
saying he's gonna make more budget cuts.
And he means it, up to, and including, your job.
Is this a threat?
I've got a job, Leo. I've got a permanent vocation.
I can go teach fifth-grade kids at Cathedral School.
I can go be a missionary in Pago Pago.
Well, that's fine.
I'll send you a postcard from Pago Pago.
Hey, Markstrom, man, what if Keane didn't kill MartineZ, huh?
Look, what if they got the wrong man?
- He did it, Kenny. - Look, I know he did it.
I'm saying what if he didn't do it?
- I don't understand. - All I'm saying, Nino, is,
makes you wonder what the guy's doing,
what the guy's thinking, sitting on death row knowing he's gonna die.
The only difference between you and him, Joey,
is he knows the exact date he'll die.
So the state's gonna let Keane choose which way he wants to go out.
Me, I'd take hanging.
- What about lethal injection? - That's for pussies.
They say lethal injection causes no pain.
How do they know?
Did someone come back from the dead and say they didn't feel anything?
Did you hear? Sister Peter Marie got fired.
Yeah, I know. I was her assistant.
She got fired because she's against the death penalty.
- So am l. - Me too.
Were you around when the last person in the state was executed?
I was the last person in this state executed.
So you're saying your life was saved by the '65 blackout?
All the electricity in five states gone.
To this day they don't know whether the shortage kept me alive
or if I caused the power to go:
- And you had no after-effects? - Sure.
That's when I first met God.
He shook my hand, smiled and said, "Bob, play the oboe."
- The oboe? - The oboe.
- And do you? - What?
- Play the oboe. - No.
I don't have the lips for it.
Gonna share?
Hey, lawboy.
I thought Schillinger said you couldn't get high anymore.
Yeah. Fuck him.
You go over my appeal?
Ryan, I told you, I was in litigation, not criminal law.
I got no chance, huh?
Considering the number of eyewitnesses?
- No. - Yeah. Fuck it.
Least I'm not getting the juice like that scumfuck Keane.
He should've just let the Latinos take him out.
That's the reason why they were there.
What do you mean?
The Latinos were in the gym to kill Keane?
- Never mind. - Are you saying he was set up?
- Never mind, Beecher. - No, no, no, if it was self-defence,
- he shouldn't be executed. - Fuck that.
Don't make trouble or you'll be next.
Excuse me.
I'd like to get a fax copy of the transcript from the Jefferson Keane trial.
Beecher.
Get your ass over here.
- Yes, sir? - My laundry's not gonna wash itself.
Sir, have you heard anything about Jefferson Keane being set up?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, the hacks made him a gladiator.
Even got the whole thing on videotape.
- Wouldn't you love to see that? - Yeah.
If we can get ahold of that videotape, he wouldn't be executed.
What are you talking about?
Another nigger's going down.
I'm glad.
- But-- - But, but what?
Nothing, sir.
Don't forget, a little starch.
So I'll go to McManus, tell him what might have happened in the gym,
- get him to investigate. - You can't.
- Why not? - You say anything, they'll kill you.
- They who? - Exactly.
Hey, Beecher. Sorry I got a little testy before.
That's okay.
You wanna get high?
No, thanks, man. Not right now. Kind of trying to keep my head clean.
Later.
What I should do is represent Keane and appeal his murder conviction.
You?
- I'm a lawyer. - The state disbarred you.
The state can't take away what I do, who I am. I can help the man.
He killed MartineZ in self-defence. He shouldn't die.
You need to talk to Keane himself, find out what really went on that day.
Yeah, I know,
but getting into death row isn't easy.
I have a way.
- I'm in fear for my life. - From who?
I can't say.
You know I can't say. I need you to put me in protective custody.
You can't be going in and out of protective custody whenever you want.
It's to be used only in extreme cases.
- Well, this is. - Next time you ask for protection,
- I may say no. - I'll take that risk.
Keane?
Keane.
- Who wants me? - Beecher.
Tobias Beecher.
I need to talk to you about your trial. I read your transcript.
You weren't cooperative with your attorneys.
I killed MartineZ.
Why didn't you tell the lawyers that you were set up?
Look,
Johnny Post killed Dino Ortolani because I told him to.
Now, the Wiseguys know that.
Now they want me dead.
If they kill me, one of my Homeboys gonna kill them.
And then they gonna kill another one of my boys.
And on and on and on.
- My death can put an end to that. - Not necessarily.
Look, if I die,
I feel like I might go to heaven now.
If I go back to Em City,
I might go back to my old ways.
I may lose my faith, my soul.
I'm at peace right now, Beecher.
Please don't take that from me.
Look, I'm not responsible for your soul,
but as a lawyer, I am responsible for justice.
I don't need your cooperation to file an appeal on your behalf.
Beecher, please, don't.
It's something I have to do.
We gotta get ahold of that tape.
It's got the fight between Keane and the Latinos.
What are the chances of one of the hacks giving it up?
The video would implicate them in the murder.
Yeah, well,
- do what you can, Bob. - Sure.
There you are.
Oh, yeah, hey.
Why did you go into PC?
You know, I just needed some time alone.
- What are you doing here? - Working on Ryan O'Reily's appeal.
Really?
- Thought you said that was useless. - Well...
Yeah, you know, but he asked me to take another stab at it,
so I figured I would.
You wouldn't be bullshitting me, would you?
You wanna take a break?
- You wouldn't be up to something else? - No, sir.
"Argent v. the state of Texas--" This is about a stay of execution.
Since when is O'Reily being executed?
- Eat it. - What?
- Eat the page. - No.
Do not fuck with me, prag. Eat it.
Another one?
- Rebadow? - Yes?
I understand you've been asking questions about a certain videotape.
- Well...? - Said videotape does not exist.
- Oh, really? - You don't believe me?
No. Why should l?
Maybe a couple of days in the hole will help clarify reality for you.
Heard you talked to Keane even though I said don't.
Yeah.
That took some balls.
Starting to grow some balls, Beecher?
I had balls...
...a long, long time ago.
And I thought I could get them back again by saving Jefferson Keane.
But the lawyer in me...
...got stretched out on the rack and hung by the neck until dead.
You got any dope?
What you need, pal, is an upgrade.
What you need is some heroin.
Go ahead.
You swat a fly, step on an ant, squash a cockroach,
you don't think much of it.
In fact, killing the bug gives you a sense of accomplishment.
Fucking ant was ruining your picnic.
Cockroach was crawling through your kitchen cabinet.
You put an end to their disgusting, miserable little lives
and make a better world for everyone.
Only for every one you kill, more appear.
Bigger, uglier, meaner than before.
As a man of colour, I am outraged by that verdict.
As a Muslim, I have to be concerned with TiZi OuZou's soul.
- TiZi OuZou? - Since the conversion,
that's the name that Jefferson Keane chose for himself.
And so you wanna serve as his minister?
As his imam, yes.
- You have any objection? - No.
Okay, then. Here's the deal.
You can go see Keane in death row and talk to him,
but only about spiritual matters.
If I get wind of him or you, or any of the brothers stirring up shit,
I will give him a rabbi.
As the day of execution draws near, tension grows
both outside the walls at the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary,
and inside, where the debate on the death penalty is no less fierce.
I don't believe in murder. First degree, abortion, or by jury decree.
- It's all murder. - Lethal injection?
What's wrong with the good old electric chair?
Jefferson Keane will die tomorrow in this prison.
In light of the historic, moral and political nature of the event,
we might lose sight of the human factors involved.
We spoke today with Cornelius Keane, the inmate's father,
and Helen Martinez, mother of the murder victim.
You teach a boy right from wrong and then you just hope,
you just hope for the best.
I want him dead.
I want him in the ground,
dead.
Dead. Dead.
Jefferson Keane's sister's in kidney failure.
- They think she'll die. - Oh, this is just great.
Well, life just keeps getting better and better.
I fucked this up from the get-ready.
Ortolani's dead because of me, and now
Keane's gonna join him.
You think you're responsible for that bad boy being on death row?
Timmy, and I mean this in the nicest way possible,
you are one fucked-up guy.
Well...
...does that mean we're not going to the play tonight?
Doctor. We need you.
We should run some tests.
Hey, some say there are five stages of death.
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance.
The moment when you say to yourself:
"I'm gonna die and there ain't shit I can do about it."
Oh, yeah, in OZ we know all about that.
We know all about acceptance.
Look at your hair.
Come on, let me braid it for you.
Nah. It's all right.
Come on, I'll make your hair look so nice they won't wanna kill you.
- Come on, come on. - You're craZy.
If you really want to, chief.
- I saw Pop on TV yesterday. - Yeah?
Talking about you,
talking about our family.
Sorry I ain't who you want me to be.
I like being queer.
I love you, Billie.
Allah loves you.
But Dad don't.
Jefferson. I'm sorry, TiZi.
I've got some bad news.
Your sister Grace is in the hospital.
Kidney failure.
The doctors think that she'll probably die soon
unless she gets a transplant.
- But organs are scarce. - Well, just take one of mine.
Not like I'm gonna use them much longer.
- Make that happen, McManus. - I'll try.
No, you do more than try. Make it happen.
Make it happen!
You are sick people!
The governor says no. He won't grant a stay.
Even that little prick Devlin can't be that heartless.
Says Keane is too dangerous to be released to a hospital.
He's changed.
This conversion of his could be bullshit.
Talk to him, Leo. It's real.
- We gotta fight for this one. - How?
We go public, we stoke the protestors and piss Devlin off even more.
- Devlin thinks he's God. - Yeah.
Maybe it's time we got some help from the real one.
You want me to call the cardinal to intercede?
- Yes. - Tim,
Cardinal Abgott is more conservative
than Jesse Helms and Bill Buckley all rolled into one.
He once gave a speech where he justified the torture
of the Holy lnquisition.
That's fucked up. Even so, you gotta make the call.
- You make the call. - What, Ray? Are you afraid?
- No, of course I'm not. - Then?
Why do you think that I work here, huh, Tim?
I went to the Pontifical Gregorian University in the Vatican.
I was in the top of my class.
I was the cardinal's great yellow hope,
until I started working in his office and I just asked a few too many questions.
I had a few too many opinions.
I defied him, instead of deifying him.
So His Excellency decided to punish me by sending me to OZ,
to extinguish my career.
So Jefferson Keane's sister dies
because you and the cardinal had a tiff?
I didn't say I wouldn't make the call. I'll make the call.
I'm just warning you, it probably won't...
...do any good.
Sorry to disturb you.
You've come about the transplant.
Governor James Devlin, under pressure from religious leaders
including Sheik Zahir Farar and Francis Cardinal Abgott,
has granted a 30-day stay of execution to Jefferson Keane,
the man convicted of killing another inmate
at Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary.
Keane will donate a kidney to an ailing sister.
He is expected to go into surgery sometime today.
The governor was quick to point out that all medical costs
are being covered by the family's own insurance.
Clemency. That's a fancy word for mercy.
You see, the governor can commute a death sentence.
He has the power to just pick up the phone and say no.
But to me, the only time the governor shows clemency,
is when he don't make that call.
Because life in prison without parole
is a shitload worse than death.
Death is parole.
Death is the real mercy.
- King me. - Oh, fuck.
- O'Reily. - Yeah?
- Come here. - Why?
- Because I say. - So?
- We got business. - Don't move any pieces.
- I got them memoriZed. - Would I do that?
What do you think of me?
Hey, Joey. I'm here.
- You bet Detroit in the game? - Yeah.
- You lost. - Fucking Thomas.
- You owe. - I know. I'm good for it.
- Says you. - Haven't I paid before?
- I want it now. - Why?
- Because you owe. - Why you busting my balls?
- I don't like your face. - Hey, take a look in the mirror.
- You wanna die? - Wanna try?
Problem, guys?
Yeah, the joint smells of too much...garlic.
- What you want? - D'Angelo, count to ten and walk away.
Fucking dago jiZZbag.
- You lose, white boy. - No, I never lose when it counts.
I'm telling you, Jefferson was set up.
- By who? - Come on,
you don't have to be John Thompson to figure out the game plan.
You know it was the Wiseguys that did it.
Schibetta sent Jefferson to the gladiator ring?
No, not Schibetta. I been asking around.
Looks like Joey D'Angelo was roguing.
Ever since Ortolani croaked, D'Angelo's been wanting to move up,
but the old man has been slow.
So D'Angelo took it on himself to off Jefferson
just to impress the old man.
That fucking mook, D'Angelo?
If D'Angelo got Jefferson the death penalty,
we gotta execute that mother--
Look, you fellas do what you gotta do,
but with all this shit that's been going on around here,
if you whack D'Angelo, Glynn's gonna lock us down for good.
- So, what are we supposed to do? - You two work in the kitchen, right?
D'Angelo works in the kitchen.
- Maybe he has a little accident. - Yeah.
- I like that. - Yeah, yeah.
Now, why are you so hot on justice for Jefferson, huh, white boy?
Because Jefferson took care of Ortolani for me. I owe him.
Good morning.
- I'm Colin Auerbach, - Who?
and, as you know, Sister Peter Marie is not around,
so the warden asked me to pitch in.
- We want Sister Pete. - She's not here.
- Today, we're gonna be-- - Shut the fuck up!
Thank you.
Today we're gonna talk about anger management.
Controlling the savage beast inside you.
You fuck.
Mr. Schibetta?
Can I come in?
I heard what happened to Joey.
Steam pipe bursts, knocks him backward, hits him in the head.
- Is he okay? - He's unconscious.
He'll be laid up for a while.
I don't mean to be reaching, but if you ever need an extra hand...
I mean, come on, I took care of Jefferson Keane for you.
He's gonna die and both our hands are clean.
One of my best buddies in the Army was Donnie O'Reily.
Irish guy.
From Howard Beach.
Tough little fucker, didn't take any bullshit from anybody,
including the sergeant.
He loved women. He loved boats.
He loved women on boats.
He loved vodka.
He loved women who drank vodka on boats.
Who knows,
maybe we can do some business.
Great.
Poor son of a bitch.
- Yo, Padre. - How you doing?
How's my baby?
He's not doing so good, Miguel.
- He's not getting any better. - Shit.
The doctors, they're thinking of taking him off the life support.
What you mean? Pull the plug?
- No. No. No. No. - MaritZa thinks it's the best thing too.
No, MaritZa's sweet, she gonna listen to anything anybody tells her to.
- I don't want them to kill my baby. - They're not killing the baby, Miguel.
The machines are keeping the baby alive. If they turn them off,
the baby can have a natural death.
I wanna speak to MaritZa. I wanna see my baby right now.
You can't see MaritZa, you can't see the baby.
They're not even gonna let you make a phone call.
They're gonna start a psychiatric evaluation of you.
- What, they don't think I'm a bug? - You cut yourself all up.
So? I did it for the baby.
What do you mean you did it for the baby?
You tell me I gave the baby life, right, that he's my responsibility.
Well, the baby being sick, you know, I don't know what to do.
I ain't a fucking doctor.
And slashing your face did what, huh?
That's between me and God.
Oh, Miguel, you tell the shrink that
and you're gonna be in here till you're 90 years old.
You gotta help me. You gotta get me out of here.
You gotta help me see my baby. You gotta tell them not to kill it.
You gotta-- You gotta let me see my baby.
You gotta tell them not to kill it.
I wanna see my baby!
You see, I got AlvareZ on the road to redemption.
I got him to start caring.
And I guess that's tearing him up inside.
The doctor at the neonatal unit, he says that keeping the baby alive
- is actually cruel at this point. - I'm trying to catch up here.
I've had one meeting with AlvareZ, he sort of just whined about his kid.
See, all I want is I just want a release so I can take him to the hospital
because I think that when he sees the condition the baby is in,
he will understand why they're gonna take the life support away.
- I need more time. - We don't have time.
They wanna turn the machines off tomorrow.
Tomorrow? Forget it.
Okay. I don't need his permission, you know.
You're gonna take this responsibility on yourself?
Absolutely.
I appreciate everything you've done for me,
especially, like, you know, with the baby and all.
I mean, I guess sometimes that's the way things go, you know.
Things just work out like that.
You're right.
I feel better about myself.
I mean, I never thought that I'd love a baby with all my heart.
And, you know, I never loved anything before in my life.
It's like it opened up a whole new me.
That's important, right?
Figuring out who you are, you know, and about yourself?
So, you know, I know now.
Well, I'm real glad.
Well, I owe it all to you.
Well, I gotta go.
Hey, Father.
Where was God when my son died?
Same place he was when his own son died.
- Well, it's looking pretty good. - I feel good.
Well, the remaining kidney's functioning fine.
The rest of you is pretty healthy.
So this afternoon I'll have you transferred back to--
Death row. You can say it, doctor.
Keane, you have a visitor.
Hey, Pop.
How's Grace?
Doctor says she recuperating faster than expected.
That's some rocking kidney you gave her.
So how you doing?
I'm still a little turned around by all this publicity, you know.
Having a microphone shoved in my face
every time I leave the house.
We've been getting lots of letters and cards, mostly nice.
One guy from lowa, he sent $1 00 cash.
Your Aunt Tillie said that I had to send it back.
- Did you? - No fucking way.
Dad...
...I need you to do something for me.
Anything, son. Come on, now, you know that.
I need for you to talk to Billie.
- He's turned into a fag. - You don't know what it's like in here.
You don't know the things they do to you, the loneliness.
Talk to him.
I raised you three all alone.
And your sister, she's gonna make something with her life,
especially with what you've done for her.
But when he leaves,
what's Billie ever gonna be?
Your son. My brother. Forever.
Okay, time's up.
It's rare when you say goodbye to someone
that you know it's the last time.
You can try to say whatever it is you should have said before
or you can just hold on tight.
Just hold on, hoping the moment will last you a lifetime.
You all right?
Jefferson was my oldest.
So he always had a special place.
A man...
...shouldn't live to see his own son die.
Hey, I brought you some tea.
You brought me some tea? Why?
Well, it's herbal.
- Maybe you don't want it. - Hey,
just so happens I'm out. Thanks.
- So. - So.
Why you here, McManus?
I mean, what do you want?
I don't know.
I just...
I just wanted to tell you...
...that I'm sorry you're gonna die.
And...
You'd like my forgiveness?
Well,
whatever you think you've done, I forgive you.
Did you get Kareem Said's test results?
That feels so good.
So far, everything's fine. I'm just waiting for the MRl results.
Well, good. You want to go to dinner tonight?
- I can't. - Why not?
I'm witnessing Keane's execution.
- What? - Yeah, I told you.
- What? You didn't tell me. Oh, man... - Yes, I did.
You didn't tell me. Gloria, this is not something I would forget, believe me.
- Christ! - Look, what is the big deal?
I'm only prescribing the drugs, declaring the death.
- It's not like I'm sticking the lV in. - Gloria. Gloria.
Gloria, doctors are supposed to be healers.
You're supposed to keep people alive.
- You're not supposed to kill them. - You really see this as a killing?
I don't want you doing this.
- You what? - I don't want you doing this.
Look, we've only been going out a couple of weeks.
Where do you get off telling me what I can and can't do?
- Wait, wait, wait. - Hey.
Don't grab me.
You better take some time off, Tim.
You been around this prison so much, you're starting to act like them.
Thanks.
Is the governor here yet?
No, I haven't seen him.
But a pro-death-penalty marcher just took a swing at Sister Pete.
Is she okay?
Good aim.
She just kicked him in the balls.
I take it you're not gonna watch the execution?
How about you?
No.
Can't stand watching flowers die, let alone another human being.
Closest I ever came was Bambi.
- Bambi? - Yeah.
My ex was a big hunter.
He was always going off with his buddies,
so I said to him one time, "Take me."
After some complaining, he did.
So I got out there in the forest with this
big hunky shotgun and I fired at a deer.
Hit it dead-on.
So I went over to this thing and I leaned down,
and this deer looked up at me with these eyes...
...these eyes like flashlights.
I knelt beside it and I held its head and I whispered, "I'm sorry."
Then, like batteries going bad, the light in his eyes
flickered a little bit and went out.
For the next two years we were married,
every time I walked into the den I had to stare at that deer's dead eyes.
I had to dust them.
When we got divorced, that's all I asked for, the deer's head.
Then I buried it.
That's how I feel tonight.
What do you mean?
Like my head's hanging on somebody's wall.
- Wanna have dinner? - Sure.
Hey.
Yeah?
- How you doing? - Okay. You?
Not bad, for a man about to die.
Yeah, you go tonight, huh?
Yeah. You?
Next Thursday.
But I'm on appeal.
Did you ever see that old movie with that old actress,
what's-her-name... Susan Hayward?
Which movie?
I don't know what it's called. She's Gotta Live or something like that.
She's on death row, waiting to be fried or gassed
or whatever they used to do back in the day.
The only thing, her attorney has applied for some reprieve,
so she just waits.
The clock keeps ticking. Waiting for that call from the governor.
Yeah, and at the last possible minute he calls, huh?
Well, you know, now that I think about it, I think she fries.
I need to ask some questions.
What do you want done with your property?
Give it to my dad.
And the money in your trust account?
To my brother and sister.
Will your family be claiming your body?
Yeah.
Who are your witnesses?
My dad and the Minister Said.
You sure you should see this?
Yeah.
TiZi and I have come on a long journey together.
I'm not gonna turn my back on him now.
Okay. Let's do it. Officer?
Death is the supreme moment of truth, my brother,
so sayeth the prophet.
- Praise be unto him. - And peace be unto you.
Minister, they took my kufi. I don't wanna die without my kufi.
You take mine.
Over 3, 000 men and women are sitting on death row right now.
Congress has denied state inmates access to federal courts.
Congress has also eliminated financing to law officers
for death row appeals.
The states themselves are shortening the appeals process.
In this country, there's now one execution every single week.
There were more executions this year than any time since the '50s.
And we all know how righteous the '50s were.
You can make any statements you'd like.
I want my family to know
that I love them.
And I believe that this punishes them more than it punishes me.
I'm so sorry for the three murders that I did...
...and I wish by killing me today,
you could bring them back.
My time on this Earth...
...has been far too short.
Maybe too short to get it all done right.
So...
...I'm ready to move on.
All praise to Allah.
All praise.
- Governor! - Justice has been served.
L'ltalien, the Supreme Court refused to hear your appeal.
Rehnquist is a fag.
Be that as it may, your execution is scheduled for tomorrow.
Prisoner number 97L64 1, Richard L'Italien.
Convicted April 3, '97.
Murder in the first degree.
Sentence: Death.
Tomorrow?
Well, my schedule's clear. Okay.
Hey, warden, there's something I wanna tell you.
Something I never told anybody.
I suffocated Jennifer Miller.
Yeah, I know.
That's why you're gonna die.
I also suffocated Dorothy Paine.
- Who? - Dorothy Paine.
She was a waitress up in Council Bluffs, lowa.
You confessing another murder?
I'll notify the proper authorities.
Wait!
I also suffocated Ethel Peterson and Gertrude Victor.
And Mary Rapp.
And Christina Trudell and Eleanor Hughes,
Linda LomaZ, Lisa Masters, and Lorraine McCarthy
and Betty Case and lrene Martin and Amelia Nugent,
EliZabeth Phelps and Lucille Upton and Esther Vaughan.
Well, I did.
Richard L'ltalien confessed to 39 murders, all young women.
He suffocated them all.
If the governor had his way, he would execute L'ltalien 39 times.
I have to get over there.
Ray, listen.
How can you go along with this?
You're as much against the death penalty as I am.
Of course I am, Pete. I don't know.
Maybe if anyone deserves to die, Richard L'ltalien deserves to die.
Maybe the world will breathe a little easier once he's gone.
My job is not to make judgments.
My job is to be by his side.
My place is with him...
...if he needs me.
Pray for him, Mary.
That's for him.
That's for all of them.
Have you ever had bull's balls, Father?
No, sir, I can't say that I have.
Well, they serve them every year at the Bohemian Grove.
What's that? That's a restaurant?
Oh, man, you never heard of the Bohemian Grove?
It's a retreat in San Francisco, you know.
For investment brokers, bankers, politicians, intellectuals.
I'm amaZed you're not hip to it.
Of course, I grew up in the Bay Area, so we knew when it was happening.
Even as a kid I always wanted to go, you know.
Wouldn't that be something?
Swim in the Russian River with some secretary of state,
piss on a redwood next to Donald Trump.
I mean, these guys are the elite, men of power.
Men.
Women were excluded,
but the Supreme fucking Court
forced the Bohemian to let the cooZes in.
Can you believe that shit?
Once they were in, I wanted nothing to do with it.
I was done.
But who knows the women you would have met?
Not the kind I'm gonna wanna fuck.
There's a big difference between wanting to fuck a woman
and wanting to kill her.
Is there?
Have you ever been laid, Father?
No.
Then what would you know about pussy?
And what would you know about anything?
All I know is that, once upon a time,
you wanted to walk in the woods with important people,
and now, instead...
...you're here.
I'm here because I love women.
I love every woman I see.
Tall ones, thin ones, fatties.
It's true.
You know, I once worked at a circus one summer,
and I fucked the dwarf while the fat lady watched us.
I fucked trailer-park trash in West Virginia,
I fucked rich girls up the ass in Aspen,
I fucked Ph. D.s, retards...
You know, once I fucked an amputee with both legs missing.
Fucking them isn't the same as loving them.
You sound just like a shrink I had once in juvie.
She tried to tell me that I hated women.
I showed her.
You fucked her?
And her daughter.
Then I snuffed them both.
If you love women so much,
why do you kill them?
Because when you love someone, they own you, they possess you.
I will not be possessed.
I'm here to give you absolution for your sins.
- Do you wish to be absolved? - Fuck, yes.
Shit.
You know, they told me I could order anything I wanted as my last meal.
I should have ordered bull's balls.
I'm really not ready for this.
Oh, man.
First, the inmate's given sodium pentothal,
the same anaesthetic used in hospitals for major surgery.
Then, a massive dose of pancuronium bromide
that paralyzes the diaphragm.
Then potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Don't try this at home, kids.
He's finished.
Hello.
Christ was executed, you know.
And if he hadn't been,
the world would be a very different place.
A better place?
I didn't say that.
I want my job back.
- Okay. - I don't have to beg?
If it'll make you feel better, beg.
I want you to know I still disagree with you on the death penalty.
Even for a cyst like L'ltalien?
Leo, thou shalt not kill. The Bible makes that pretty clear.
You cannot take a human life for any reason.
Yeah, but the Bible also says, "an eye for an eye."
Which says to me that if you kill, you die.
Seems to me God's talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Maybe he's just as confused about the death penalty as the rest of us.
All I know for sure is, no one's gonna claim L'ltalien's body,
so we're gonna stick him in a cheap pine box,
stamp an lD number on the lid,
and throw him in a hole at Potter's Field.
There he'll be...
...with no one to grieve for him.
I grieve for him.
Yeah, I know. That's why I love you.
That's why I'm glad you're back.
There's this brother on death row somewheres,
he checked in when he was 16.
He sat there another 16 years
while the courts and lawyers argued about this and that.
While he waited, he painted a mural on his wall.
For all those years he painted, not letting a soul see what he was up to.
Finally, when he was 32 and had spent more life on death row
than in his mama's house, all his appeals were exhausted.
He was about to die.
As he was about to be let out for the final time,
he finally unveiled his masterpiece.
All there was were six words.
"Death is certain, life is not."
The next day the hacks painted over it.
Peace out.