Victor suddenly stood up so quickly that the chair bolted to the floor scraped loudly against the metal frame. Guards rushed toward him but he was not attacking anyone and he was not trying to escape. Instead he shouted louder than anyone had ever heard him shout during his five years in prison.
“I am innocent and I have always been innocent,” he cried. “Now I can prove it.”
The officers tried to pull Avery away but she held onto her father tightly and spoke clearly in a voice that sounded far too calm for a child.
“It is time everyone learned the truth,” she said. “It is time.”
Behind a glass observation window Warden Gaines felt a chill run down his spine. Thirty years of instinct told him something important had just happened. He lifted the phone and called the state attorney’s office.
“Stop the execution process,” he said. “We have a situation.”
Security cameras had recorded the entire meeting and Gaines watched the footage again and again in his office. Victor’s reaction was too powerful to ignore and the girl’s whisper had clearly changed everything.
“What exactly did she say,” the warden asked the guard who had been inside the room.