Billy (38 page)

"Them girls come. They beats me up. Theys
bigger." "Why
did they beat you up?"

"Ah
don'ts know. Me and Gumpy be in the pond. The
ys
come and git us."

"Did you try and run from the girls, Billy?"

"Ah runs, but theys catch me. That girl,
she
bigger than me. She gits me down."

"Billy,
what happen
when
they let you up? Did
you
try
and
run again?"

"Ah gits up. She comes and
gits
me agins." "Did she hi t you again?"

"Ah stuck her. Ah make her leave me be." "Billy, what happen to her?"

"Ah
don't know. They says she deads.
"

"Billy, did you want to hurt her? Did
you want
to make her die?"

"Ah ain't makes her deads. She
comes gits
me agi ns.
A h stuck
her. Ah makes her leave me be."

Red Pasko clenches his teeth.

Ely Hampton does not wait for Wilbur Braxton to ta ke hi
s
seat before he is up
shouting, "Billy
Lee. Billy Lee,
ya ever
see this knife before?"

172 I Albert Frencli

Billy puts his head down.

Ely Hampton holds the knife up
and shouts,
"Billy Lee.

Look up here. This
your
knife, boy?"

Billy
lo
oks
up, nods his head
yes,
and looks back down.
"Ya say ya stuck
her with this knife? How many times you

stick
her?"

Billy is
silent.

"How
many times
ya
stick her, Billy Lee Turner? Ya stuck her pretty hard, didn't ya? Just wasn't a poke, was it? Ya lashed out at her. Ya
slashed
her arm first,
so
ya
could
plunge that knife up in her. Get
it
in there deep, didn't ya, boy?"

Billy utters, "She beats me up."

Ely Hampton walks away, goes back to his prosecuting ta ble, then comes back to Billy carrying a bag in his hands. He reaches into the bag and pulls out Lori's blood-stained shirt.

Ginger Pasko's gasp
cannot
muffle her
scream.

Ely Hampton holds Lori's shirt up in
one
hand and Billy's knife in the other and
shouts,
"Look up here, Billy Lee, look up here."

Slowly Billy looks up.

"This
is
your
knife, Billy Lee, isn't it? This is the
shirt
Lori had
on
when
ya
plunged
your
knife into her. Isn't it?
Answer
me, Billy Lee Turner."

Big Jake puts his
head
down.

Katey utters a desperate
whisper,
"
He
ain't
means it,
Lord."

Bil ly
sees
the blood-stained
shirt.

November's first day
'
s sun
was
going down.
Its
soft yellow
rays gently lay across
the
broken Patch Road. Cinder
wa
lk
ed slowly.
When
she
would
stop and
just
stand and
quiver, Big

B I L L Y /
173

Jake
was
near. Gently he
would
reach for her,
bring
her
to
him so she could lean some of the way.

Katey followed; she
was
tired of the road and where it
went
and where it came from. Reverend
Sims walked
by her
side,
clutching his slavin Bible, but
grasping
for the faith he left behind.

Cinder's screams
still
filled the
courthouse;
the echoe
s
wouldn't
die. Ginger Pasko had heard the
cries,
but she did not turn around to
see, she
knew who the woman would be
.
Wilbur Braxton was
still
telling hisself that he had done his best. He had told the jury,
"I stand before you
respect fully and humbly. Respectfully as
you
are men, humbl
y
a
s
I am merely a man. We
share
a heavy burden today; we ha
ve
that
child's
life in our hands. My God, that
child
is no killer.
"
He had paced back and
forth
before the twelv
e
faces,
h
e
had tried to tell them,
"What
happened at that pond
was a
tragedy. Children in fear and anger and a knife at hand.
A

tragedy in our days. Storms, high waters
,
winds
in the night that blow down homes and shatter lives.
We
know our trag
e
dies." Ginger Pasko had heard him
say, "There
is
an empty
supper
seat,
Lori's
seat;
a
cup of
joy is bare and dry. But there is a mightier force than man that lowers the high water
s
of the
storm,
brings flowers to bear
where
there was
only
scorn." Twelve silent faces heard him
whisper
his final plea
:
"Please
don't kill Billy too."

A
silent
moment had lingered
over
the
court, perhaps
too long. Judge Harper cleared his throat and
se
nt his jury
away
to find its verdict. Banes folks went to
waiting,
but not to
o
long. Cinder had
sat with
Reverend
Sims;
he had told h
er,
"God
cans show blind mens to
see.
H
e'
ll
show em
the
rights
things ta do. Ya just
gots
ta beli
eves
."

1
7
4
I
Albert French

Word of
the jury's return
spread through
the
streets and
minds before ti me
could gather
its
composure and
pace itself
with
dign i ty. Quickly the
courtroom
filled, then
stilled
itself
as
the jury
entered
.
Now only
the
sound of
Matthew Brady's
footsteps can
be heard
as
he
carries
the
verdict to
Judge Harper. Patiently, the
silence
in the
courtroom
waited for
Judge
Harper to
speak,
then
it
ran into the
corner and stood with
Reverend Sims' God; and put its head down too.

Celebrants'
shouts
and
chatter
filled the
courtroom
until
Cinder's screams
trampled
every sound
.

12

Mississippi nights cooled, were sometimes
chilling,
coon dogs howl, and long roads stretch far into the night. Billy can
see
out the window from where he sits bouncing in the back
of
the State Prison
van.
The heavy leg irons and wrist
shack les
keep dragging on his thoughts, his thin bony body
sways
wi th the
veers
of the van, he
sees
the night
sky
following behind the dusty window.

Hattiesburg Prison's in Parks County, just on the other
side
of Greene County. It was built in the late
eighteen
hu ndreds and mostly holds Mississippi's
criminals
that are mentally in
sane
and Mississi ppi's
criminals
that are
waiti ng
their
execu
tions. Death row
sits
at the far northern
end
of the pri
so
n yard, a separate build ing with its own fence around i t. It
was simply
known as the Death House, i ts cel lblock was
1111111-

175

176 I Albert French

bered nine. A l the tail end of the cellblock and behind the big heavy steel door i
s
a corridor with white walls that look gray in the dim light. Twenty-five steps away, another door opens into an old storage area that has been converted into th
e
death
c
hamber's holding cell. The condemned were held there whil
e
final preparations were being attended to.

The electric chair itself sits back near the north wall of red bricks. It's bolted down into the cement floor, black rubber matting covers the floor around it.
It
is a big wooden
c
hair, dark wood, wood without color to one's eye
s
, with worn raw hide straps hanging from its arms and legs. At th
e
lop of its high straight back, hanging loosely, is th
e
gra
y
metal hea
d
piece. Far off to the
s
ide of the chair
, a co
rner of the room has been made into a closet-size area
co
ntaining the chair
's
electric generator, and enough space for the exe
c
utioner to do his work. Eight feet in front of th
e c
hair
,
a
s
mall handrail goes across the room
;
behind the handrail are four row
s
of seats, four seats to a ro
w
, for spectator
s a
n
d o
fficial witness
es
. Condemned men wer
e
brought into the room, led b
y
War den Casey Herman, a
s
hort man
o
f si
x
t
y
-four
ye
ars
o
f a
ge
. A chaplain, if request
e
d b
y
th
e con
d
e
mn
e
d
, wo
uld foll
o
w th
e
man's final steps and
c
hant pra
y
er
s
to hi
s
a
wa
itin
g
G
o
el. Som
e
m
e
n walked strong,
wo
uld not bow to d
eath
. Others
s
tag
ge
r
e
d
,
leaned on guard
s, cro
u
c
hed and
c
r
i
n
ged
awa
y
from the
ir
doom. All would b
e se
at
e
d, strapp
e
d
,
th
e
n th
e ce
remon
y
would b
e
gin. La
s
t words would b
e s
aid, l
as
t w
o
rd
s
w
o
uld b
e