Miranda is angry at her brother. She is angry that her brother is counseling a man who so deserves his fate. The death penalty makes sense to Miranda. For years she followed this case through appeal after appeal, the hard evidence, the soft evidence, the final admission of guilt. Everyone followed the Prisoner’s story. It was compelling news. Terrifying. Gut-wrenching. The Prisoner was the man little children thought was hiding in their closets, behind their doors, under their beds. Why, Miranda thinks, does this man deserve sympathy and an open ear?
“Why would you ever want to listen to what he says?” she said at dinner. “I can’t get over it. Why does he get a chaplain in the last hours? What about his victims? They don’t get a chaplain now, do they?”
In a sense, Miranda is right. The C
