Notes on an Execution

Ansel arrives at the Walls Unit. Officers search him and find Blue’s letter, which includes her agreement to witness Ansel’s execution. They tauntingly read it out loud before tearing it up. As they drag him to his holding cell, he glimpses the execution room and realizes with finality that he will not escape death.

Ansel internally rages at Shawna, imagining that her life will be hollow without him. He reflects on the cruelty of the death penalty and recalls an inmate called Big Bear. Big Bear was a Black man who was executed for shooting a police officer who unlawfully burst into his apartment. Ansel remembers how Big Bear sobbed as he was transferred to the Walls Unit. He asked Shawna how she could live with herself while participating in this system, but she replied that she was just doing her job.

Tina Nakamura visits the Walls Unit to tell Ansel that his appeal won’t be considered by the court. Ansel throws the phone at her and is violently thrown back in his holding cell. He remembers meeting Jenny at NVU. By the time they met, he had already killed the three girls. When he saw Jenny in the quad, he felt “not love at first sight, but some kind of unhaunting” (184).