You should be thankful. Your mother-and father-inlaw don’t believe in the death penalty any more than I do. They think if you’re convicted and sentenced to death, your blood will somehow be on their hands.

They’re the ones who talked the district attorney into making this offer.”

”They’re hypocritical fools,” Johnny Wayne said.

I wanted to backhand him. James and Rita Miller, the parents of his murdered, beautiful, innocent young wife, were two of the nicest people I’d ever met. I interviewed them as I was preparing for the trial. One of the questions I asked was how Laura had ever become involved with Johnny Wayne.

James Miller told me Laura met Johnny Wayne while she was attending college at Carson-Newman, a small school in Jefferson City, only sixty miles away.

Johnny Wayne, who lived in Jefferson City and was a part-time student, had made himself a fixture at the Baptist Student Union, a gathering place for students of the Baptist faith. It was there that he ran his con on Laura, convincing her that he held deep convictions about Christianity. James and Rita said they had concerns, but they trusted Laura’s judgment. Johnny Wayne seemed intelligent and acted as though he loved Laura. They never imagined a monster lurked beneath the careful grooming and easy smile. But the marriage began to show serious cracks soon after the wedding and steadily broke down. Not long after their third anniversary, Johnny Wayne left Laura for another woman and moved to North Carolina. He was in Charlotte at a bar with his newly pregnant girlfriend the night Laura was murdered.

I looked at Johnny Wayne and envisioned my knuckles cracking into his teeth. It was an image I found soothing.

”What’s it going to be?” I said. ”I need an answer.

We’re supposed to be in court in two hours.”

”I need more time to consider it.”

”No, you don’t. It’s a gift. Take it or leave it.”